Why you need to watch the series "The Bodyguard"

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In the UK, it is already being called one of the best TV series of the decade.

What's happening?

The series "The Bodyguard" was released on the BBC in August - September 2018 and immediately produced the effect of an exploding bomb.

Perhaps such a pun is not very appropriate, given that a large part of the story is devoted to terrorism. But it's just not more accurate to put it. More than 10 million people watched the final of the six-episode project live alone. And taking into account streaming services, we can say that "Bodyguard" was watched by every fourth Briton. Netflix immediately bought out the international distribution rights.

On aggregating sites, the series has about 80–90% of positive reviews, and the IMDb rating is 8, 2. Nominations for awards were not long in coming. In early 2019, The Bodyguard will compete for the Golden Globes in the Best Drama and Best Actor categories.

Such popularity is well deserved. The authors were really able to create an exciting story that catches the viewer from the very beginning and does not let go until the last minutes of the finale.

What is the show about?

The series tells about the London police officer David Budd - played by Richard Madden, familiar to the audience for his role as Rob Stark in "Game of Thrones". He is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and suffers from PTSD. One day, Budd discovers a suicide bomber with explosives on the train in which he is traveling with his children.

David manages to prevent a catastrophe. In gratitude, he is appointed bodyguard for Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). She is pleasant to the hero as a person, but not as a politician: Julia stands for an active fight against terrorists, and David suffered in the war.

This appointment plunges the former soldier into a world of political intrigue, where everyone is watching everyone and no one can be trusted. But most importantly, he constantly has to choose not only between duty and his own feelings, but also between the orders of different bosses who want to spy on each other.

Does the description seem too detailed? Just watch just a couple of episodes, and it becomes clear that this is just the beginning of the story. Further, everything is only more complicated, and even the genre of the series itself changes regularly.

Why is the action catchy?

It's all about the twisted script and the ideal pace of the story itself. This is not to say that "Bodyguard" is a constant action game. But there is not a single moment where you can get bored. The entire first episode was filmed literally in one location, but even with minimal decorations, the authors create tension for an hour, forcing the viewer to almost hold their breath with the hero in the most dangerous moments.

Then the plot gradually expands, more and more new participants in the events are added. But as soon as it begins to seem that the action is developing too linearly and somewhat predictable, crazy twists change the whole picture, making you just wonder what will happen next.

It is difficult to talk about any details - any spoiler can ruin the picture. It was not for nothing that there was a whole scandal in Great Britain when the Radio Times newspaper, right on the cover, revealed the finale of the third episode the day after its release.

In addition, the series was filmed in several genres, each of which is well developed. And together they turn into a really explosive mixture.

Is this a political thriller?

Yes, and this is partly the reason for the popularity of "The Bodyguard" in the UK. The creators of the series managed to throw several relevant topics into the plot at once, adding recognizable characters to them.

It is quite obvious that the main character is written off from Theresa May, who limited herself to watching the first episode. Julia Montague is a right-wing conservative and is aiming for the post of prime minister. Without disdaining "dirty" methods, he advocates expanding the powers of the security forces in terms of viewing personal information and listening to conversations.

All this is happening against the backdrop of more frequent terrorist attacks, in which radical Muslims are suspected. Then many dilemmas arise. Which is more important: privacy or national security? Is it wrong to send soldiers to fight in other countries?

But, although the action is taken from British realities, these themes will seem no less familiar to the Russian viewer. It is enough to turn on any news channel - we have exactly the same discussions. And therefore the relevance of "The Bodyguard" is even frightening, especially since the plot is rather gloomy.

The authors, as it were, invite the viewer to answer all the questions himself. And as soon as the answer seems obvious, a new situation is thrown up, unsettling and forcing them to change their minds.

Is this a drama?

Yes, and sometimes melodrama, but only in the necessary doses. Unlike Jack Ryan, the authors of The Bodyguard do not flirt with global conspiracies, but place the personal experiences of the heroes at the center.

David Budd is a physically and morally crippled veteran. He is used to keeping everything in himself, but emotions regularly break out, forcing the hero to balance on the verge of collapse. And here everything rests on the acting performance of Madden, who can look both "a knight without fear and reproach", and an ordinary confused person.

The first scene on the train immediately captivates with its naturalness. Yes, this is a war hero, a policeman. But when he sees a man with a bomb, at first he is simply frightened almost to tears. He knows how to protect and behave according to the protocol, but does not know at all what to say to his wife and children. He can pounce from sleep on the one who woke him up. Budd is a living person.

And next to him is also a living person - Minister Julia Montagu. She is a confident politician and a real fighter. But sometimes she wants to feel like just a woman who is being protected not by the call of duty, but by the call of her heart. Having opened one day, she is lost and does not know how to behave.

Of course, passion flares up between the heroes. And let the skeptics look in this for hints of secret connections between conservatives and liberals. The rest will rather remember the film of the same name with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, where professional relationships grew into intimacy. But in the series, everything will not develop so romantically.

Is this a detective?

Again, yes. And exactly the kind that only the UK can do. The action resembles a puzzle. Each episode adds new data that gradually add up to the big picture. And there will be more than just political intrigue and terrorism. There are corrupt cops, crime bosses and secret services.

But if it seems that so many faces unnecessarily overload the action, this is not so. All information is provided exactly at the right time, and the characters do not look faceless.

Literally from the second or third episode, the lovers of riddles can already begin to build versions of who is behind the conspiracies and how everything will go on. But it is almost impossible to predict with precision what the outcome will be. Although in the finale it will become obvious that all the cards were revealed to the viewer, all that remained was to put the facts together.

What's the bottom line?

The Bodyguard is just a perfectly constructed series. If you disassemble the plot from the point of view of the script, then it is made as if according to a textbook: an emotional connection, acquaintance with the heroes, by the middle of the maximum intensity, and in the finale there is a cyclical repetition.

But that doesn't make the action clichéd or obvious. After all, standards have become standards: they work.

And to this it remains only to add excellent camera work: the action scenes were shot dynamically, but without excessive flickering, the blur of the frame reflects the state of David Budd, the color scheme changes depending on the mood. All this allows you to fully immerse yourself in the plot and relive the events together with the characters.

The BBC has already named The Bodyguard one of the best TV series of the decade. In the meantime, unconfirmed rumors about the second season caused a great stir, because, it would seem, the story is completely over.

Unfortunately, little was said about this series in Russia - it got lost behind louder premieres. But it is imperative to watch it, because rarely where you can see such a tense story, and even not stretched over several seasons, but packed in a six-hour format.