[SPOILERS] The crew of the Orpheus are in deep shit, in more ways than one. "Into The Belly Of The Beast" (an amusingly provocative title for such dull content) was an apathetic hour containing a few flashes of promise that were flushed away by dismal dialogue, specious storytelling, and listless characterisation. It all gave me a sinking feeling...The Orpheus has been snared by a giant underwater craft resembling an aquatic Zeppelin, and Lem (James Nesbitt) has detained Raymond (Tobias Menzies) on suspicion of murdering teenager Maddy (Antonia Thomas), although Raymond is protesting his innocence. Trapped in a lower part of the sub with diminishing air, Frances (Minnie Driver) and Samson (Goran Visnjic) decide to leave Orpheus by squeezing into the one-man LURCH submersible and head to the their captor ship. Once aboard, they realize the mysterious vessel is of Russian origin and find bodies of people who died bleeding from their orifices (matching Maddy's appearance), which could mean there's been a catastrophic radiation leak. That said, a few Russkie submariners are very much alive and unhappy there are interlopers in their midst...
It all sounds intriguing enough, and at times director Jim O'Hanlon did a decent job building atmosphere as its video-game mystery unfolded. It's not hard to feel curiosity about discovering answers to questions about an inexplicable submarine full of dead Russians, and The Deep's shoestring BioShock ambience of creaking hulls and clanking pipes was intermittently effective.
But that's about the only positive to take away from episode 2, which was otherwise hindered by more of the same problems from last week. The script is frequently abysmal, with characters explaining things for the benefit of the stupidest couch potato -- giving the impression The Deep is targeted at a demographic who rarely bother with sci-fi but tuned in because it's on primetime BBC1 and the nice man from Cold Feet's in it.
Still, there's disparaging fun in collecting the gems or silliness each episode delivers: if most people aboard the Russian ship are dead and the survivors weren't aware of the Orpheus crew, who snared the Orpheus to save it from destruction on the seabed?
Why doesn't the Orpheus have doors that can be opened manually? I'm no expert, but I don't believe real submarines rely on electricity to open and close doors -- they have those manual wheels you have to spin, right?
How was Vincent able to perform an autopsy on a human subject, when he admitted himself his only training has been dissecting rabbits in school? Simply having your character mention the ludicrousness isn't enough to make me forgive it. Additionally, how did he remove someone's brain without taking their skull off?
Why are Frances and Samson forced to communicate with the Orpheus by writing on notepads and showing it to a camera? Don't they have walkie-talkies as backups in these submersibles?
Maybe a few of those nitpicks can be explained, or will be explained in future episodes, but the fact audiences are able to stop and criticize to that extent proves the story and characters don't have everyone's full attention and minds are wandering. I'd happily forgive a lot of idiocy in a drama of this type, if the main plot and characters were compelling and kept me on the edge of my seat... but they're not. The disappearance of Clem's wife and the Frances/Samson romance just isn't doing it for me. And as for the central storyline? My early theory is the Russians have found a source of renewable energy in the hydrothermal vent field that this ship's been constructed to mine, but it ran into problems with disastrous results, and Clem's wife has some knowledge that's particularly valuable to their operation. Is it worth sticking around to see if I'm right, that's the real question.
Overall, "Into The Belly Of The Beast" is exactly the kind of British telefantasy I'd hoped was behind us post-Life On Mars. It's straight-to-DVD material told at a snail's pace, making me think the five-hour storyline is actually just a two-hour special unwisely stretched over five weeks. And while the cast seem committed to the ropey material, most are outshone by talented child actor Molly Jones in her brief bookending scenes. Vera Filatova is proving to be particularly terrible as the heavy-fringed Russian cutie -- who's only there because, fortunately, she can communicate with the Russian villains.
"This is bad," she says while snooping around the creaking ghost ship. Well, at least she's perceptive.
WRITER: Simon Donald
DIRECTOR: Jim O'Hanlon
GUEST CAST: Tom Wlaschiha, Molly Jones, Simon Donald, Dan Li, Nigel Whitmey, Nick Nevern & Ron Donachie
TRANSMISSION: 10 August 2010 - BBC1/HD, 9PM
