Bodyguard

So I'm only getting to Bodyguard now because while it looked interesting when it first came out, I heard some pretty mediocre reviews of it. With Netflix its kind of a waiting game for me to determine if a series is really worth checking out or just something to waste time on a weekend. Bodyguard honestly is somewhere in between. 

Bodyguard follows the story of David Budd (played by Richard Madden), a Sergeant in the London

Police Protective Services and a war veteran. After an act of heroism, he is assigned on the protective detail (think secret service) of Great Britain's Home Secretary Julia Montague (played by Keeley Hawes).

The relationship between the two begins tense and is only exacerbated by Montague's hard line on counter-terrorism and borderline surveilance state policies becoming very personal to David's personal troubles coping with his military experience. On face value, the premise is an interesting look at the dichotomy between David's professional committments versus is own personal opinions of Montague's policies. But like most of these Homeland/24/Jack Ryan-like shows, the plot unravels a huge conspiracy with leaks, terrorists, and political intrigue. 

Right off the bat, there was something a little weird about Bodyguard. I was interested on how you make a character like David Budd, the attractive strong jawed white male government agent action hero, interesting as he's been done a million times before. Bodyguard really emphasises the fact that he's clearly got PTSD and he's not all there, but the reality is, he doesn't have much of a personality right off the bat. 

To give some credit to the show's first episode, the first 15 minutes are pretty great as David finds a

suicide bomber on a train he's on with his kids. He's able to build rapport with the bomber, talk her out of it, and save everyone on board. It's intense, but it's also contrary to the typical national security storylines where everything is dealt with gun play. The exchange in the start of the show made me think there was something deeper to this character and I'll give all the credit to Richard Madden for nailing this first segment. 

The problems come later when he's actually doing his protective detail job and beyond because all that personality and charm goes out the window when he's supposed to be this stoic almost robotic figure. Seriously when he's on the job, I akin him to Arnold Schwartzenegger in the Terminator movies. He's very professional, he's looking for these potential threats and all you have to do is add a red tinted robot view scanning for threats to complete the package. But then this is also offset by moments where he's supposed to come off as unhinged and dealing with his PTSD. 

Again, there was something you could have done with this where you really leverage this professional who's really good at his job with the unhinged war torn Veteran trying to come to grips with his lacking faith in his country. But the show didn't do that. It wanted to keep the likeable duty bound action hero in tact for future seasons and you can do two of the three, but not all three. 

My difficult relationship with this show is made more difficult by how the show largely is two in one with the first half examining that character study of a war torn veteran divided by his duty and his personal beliefs in the first half then a conspiracy in the second half. All of that comes down to Keeley Hawes as Julia Montague. 

Thinking about it now, Hawes is definitely the best part of the show. While David Budd could have been a complex character, Julia Montague is incredibly complex and you're never really sure where she stands and if she's using people for her own political benefit or if she's sincere. 

The first half of the season mainly focuses on dichotomy between Budd and Montague, and while I wish that could have been fleshed out more throughout the entire season, I do think it is good. 

My issues comes more in the second half of the season where they start to dive more into the conspiracy going on behind the scenes. This is where the show starts to feel a little bit more like a typical 24/Jack Ryan type show with terrorists, criminal elements, government plots, etc, all coming to a finale that is fine, but nothing that hasn't been done before. Any kind of question of David Budd's mental state or loyalty goes out the window and it just becomes action hero versus the bad guys. Again, not bad, it just didn't fit with the rest of the narrative that was provided prior. 

And again, it's just kind of weird. Maybe it's a British thing, but the style of the show feels too artsy for what it ended up accomplishing. The show at the end of the day doesn't feel like its saying much but it does have random artistic choices that don't feel consistent. If they wanted to do a straight up British version of Jack Ryan, okay, do that. But don't throw in these artsy angles and try to cram deep ideas into it. Accept what you are, or try to be what you want to be.

The show is only 6 episodes and I don't think it allowed plot points to really marinate very much. The last two episodes feel very bloated and while it's interesting, it feels overly convoluted in a way to get to a suspenseful conclusion and again, all the complex ideas presented in the first half go out the window. 

At the end of the day, I can sort of see what Bodyguard might have been trying to accomplish. The characters are performed well even though they're not written to the conclusions they set up. The plot starts off as complex but ultimately reverts back to the same old same old. And the style, while unique, doesn't fit with the end, somewhat shallow, result. At the end of the day you end up with another suspenseful action drama that you might get with a 24 or Jack Ryan, just British. Which is fine. If you're like me and need an injection of action in your life, Bodyguard might be for you. There's some intense scenes, ridiculous conspiracies, and fun intrigue, but you're not gonna get much beyond that. 

It's not particularly deep or saying anything of note. I have heard that it's been confirmed for a second season and I am pretty apathetic to that idea. I don't see myself watching it immediately after it releases and it'll probably end up being the same situation I did with the first season, it'll be something I check out when the hype is over. It wasn't a complete waste, just nothing more than something to fill up a weekend. 

But those are my thoughts on Bodyguard? What did you think? Do you think they can up the ante with the second season? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

Thanks for reading!