Rant Ultimate Force

Dukat

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I used to like this program.

I thought the first series was pretty much spot on. Both Jamie and Henno's characters were moderately believable and interesting, the stories were half believable and interesting too: it was a new recruit into the SAS and the missions were similar to what you imagine the SAS doing - storming buildings, fighting the IRA, etc. It had a degree of realism and included a few things that supposedly go on in the regiment. Added to the inevitable storylines that any TV programme has and it was pretty interesting.

Then, after the first and second series it went down hill, and for some inexplicable reason the third season goes crazy. And I dont just mean "ross kemp in a good mood" crazy, oh no, I mean totally noodle doodle "ross kemp in a good mood, smiling, in a dress, giving out flowers, at a hippie festival" completely batshit crazy.

All realism goes flying out of the window, the team turn into supermen knights of the round table who never do anything even remotely questionable and are completely unkillable, despite really embarrasing flaws in thier tactics. The dreaded clique moments abound, as do the 'wtf are they doing?!?"!' moments, but admittedly it does settle down at about "die hard added to lethal weapon" levels of absurdity/action for the most part.

Then we come to season four. All levels of craziness, even the parts with ross kemp smiling in a dress, pale in comparison to the complete shite that appears on the screen in these episodes. Words cannot express the sheer amounts of tosh involved, even Tosh from The Bill himself would be ashamed if he saw this, he would shake his head and tut.... and then attack the TV screen with the nearest blunt object, probably foaming at the mouth a little bit too!

If the directors had merely been high on a lethal combination of class A drugs while they wrote these episodes, they might have come over as more believable and just generally less shite overall than they actually do appear.

Its not realistic, its not really entertaining after you get past the 'omfg ross kemp with a gun' factor, and it certainly isnt big or clever either.

The whole thing culminates in what I watched just now on TV - an act that makes the teletubbies look real. I warn you, the episode spoiler below will shock you but I'm not actually lying when I say THEY AIRED THIS ON TV IN AN SAS PROGRAM THAT USED TO BE GOOD OMFG :mad:

Ross Kemp defusing a nuclear bomb whilst hanging upside down from a crane in greater london. :eek7:

:touch:


:eek6:


:eek2:


:puke:

How did this ever happen? The program that started good, fun and mildly believable ends up airing in this state? HOW?! WHY?! :mad: Surely the fact that Chris Ryan left the show can only contribute to this so far? I mean, my mum would make a better SAS program than what I've seen in the last couple of episodes. Ross Kemp trained with the army and went to afghanistan, surely he should know that this is tripe? It just makes my mind melt :(

There is no reason for such a good show to turn into this kind of crap, no reason at all :(


/rant off
 

Raven

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I agree, I used to like it. latest ones were rubbish though, cheese on a stick.
 

Golena

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It almost certainly suffered from what happens to all TV series.

In the first season you can introduce the characters, learn about them, provide an interesting plot line for them to explore.
The second season you can take the same characters and put them into a different situation that twists what you think you know about them.

By the fourth season you've used up all the obvious plot lines and people arn't content watching the same characters storming a similar looking building, so your left with 2 options.. Either the situations you put them in have to be more and more absurd, or the relationships between the characters have to become more and more outragous.

Soaps sort of get away with it by simply recycling the same plot lines every 2 years. You don't really accept that from a TV series. If series 3 is exactly the same as series 1, people turn off.
 

CorNokZ

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Never seen it, don't know it.. But if it has upset the Bacon Lion, I'm mad as hell aswell! :eek:
 

Helme

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I agree, stopped watch after the first 2 episodes completly in season3.

Only 'replacement' I've found so far is The Unit, where yeah - they sometimes press the boundaries of reality but never near what UF did in S3. The only annoying part is that sometimes the army wives gets more screentime than the soldiers.
 

cHodAX

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They 'sexed' it up for international TV sales.

As for 'The Unit', great little show that but it is suffering from the lack of a decent budget. They do a great job with what they have and it looks as good as anything else on TV but with a little more cash they could deliver alot more bang.
 

Helme

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Yeah, thankfully though they seem to save up some extra cash for every season for some spectacular episodes :)

Hopefully next season it will get a bigger budget as they are moving it to a different time in the US, it used to compete with House for viewers before...
 

ileks

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lol i quite liked it :(

I remember me and a mate stayed up all night watching the entire box set with about 5 Pizza's between us. I don't really think you are supposed to anaylize the strategies or whatever, just have a laugh :p A bit like Rambo if you see what i mean - pure cheese. :)

Oh and my dads mate was an extra in the Zimbabwe episode, was well funny seeing him get shot :)
 

Helme

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I doubt many people mind it being silly or over the top, what people get winded up over is how they portray it as THIS IS HOW IT REALLY IS - which I think the first 2 seasons did a decent enough job off showing but then it just went batshit insane.
 

ileks

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what people get winded up over is how they portray it as THIS IS HOW IT REALLY IS - which I think the first 2 seasons did a decent enough job off showing but then it just went batshit insane.

I can't really remember season 1 or 2 tbh, in fact i don't have a clue which of the seasons i've seen.

I always thought it was just tongue in cheek bad acting with big explosions :) Quite liked it for that.
 

Mey

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They also use really shite CGI for everything now! It's shockingly bad. The nuclear bomb last night had a friggin bike light on it!
 

Marc

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Ultimate force has always been a bag of shit. 50 minutes of boring bullshit, 3 minute fire fight, 2 minutes of back slapping and random jokes then it ends.
 

Calaen

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I watched it for the first time last night, I thought it was horrible.
 

Marc

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It could have and should have been a lot better imo.
 

Ezteq

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yeah the first series was great, second one wasnt bad but after that it turned in to the "Im ross kemp lookit how 'ard i am" show.

why do people insist on dragging something along like this, just let it rest in peace.
 

cHodAX

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Soldier, Solider was better. Even if it did have those bumboys Robson and Jerome in it.
 

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