[SPOILERS] The last gasp, more like. After five soporific weeks, The Deep drew to a conclusion that was as preposterously dumb as we've come to expect, which makes a balanced review difficult to write. It's far easier to just catalogue the floatsam and jetsam...This was a finale that gave us: Clem (James Nesbitt) implausibly surviving certain-death and making it back aboard the Volos (without even depressurizing!), only to choke-out a Russian who might actually have helped him; the irradiated Vincent (Sacha Dhawan) finding renewed strength whenever the script demanded it, before stupidly calling attention to Clem so that Raymond (Tobias Menzes) could shoot his friend in the belly (making you wonder why they bothered bringing Clem back just to kill him in a less interesting way); and Captain Zubov (Goran Kostic) blindly shooting the Volos' weapon/transmitter without being sure it was even aimed properly, thus killing more the crew -- again.
By the time we'd reached scenes where an unconscious Frances (Minnie Driver) was being told by the "ghost" of Maddy (Antonia Thomas) about how to restore air flow to the damaged Orpheus, it was clear writer Simon Donald was clutching at straws. There was mild intrigue top-side in the Arctic Ice Station, with mild-mannered geek Hatsuto (Dan Li) revealed as the real threat to his bearded colleague, whom he killed just before an American ship arrived to stage a cover-up, but little else worked to justify the five week commitment to this miniseries.
The final act was especially idiotic and annoying; with Frances and Samon (Goran Visnjic) in bed together on their way home, celebrating the fact they've smuggled out some lava bug DNA to scupper the American-Russian cover-up, followed by Catherine (Orla Brady) arriving home to break the news to her daughter (Molly Jones) than she's effectively regained her "dead" mummy but lost her daddy. And while I think Jones is a wonderful young actress with a maturity beyond her years, giving a little girl adult lines while comfort her mother transformed those beach scenes from emotional to downright creepy.
I've skirted a lot in this review -- like the Orpheus escaping from under the sea by following Baluga whales to their ice hole, or the confusing end for Svetlana (Vera Filatova) dying in a Russian mini-sub. How did she get in there? If she was going to just die, why not save budget and just have her remain on the Volos as it exploded? Speaking of which, is nobody concerned that a nuclear explosion just took place under the sea?
Overall, I've heard it mentioned by The Deep's supporters that at least it's not another drama involving cops or doctors, but something more creative. That's true (to an extent), but productions like this are generally more expensive to make, so failure can have a lasting effect on the whole genre -- in a way other, cheaper genres don't have to worry about. If a cop show fails, another will be along soon enough. For me, I can't be blindly grateful that the BBC bothered to make an underwater adventure miniseries, there needed to be a level of quality to ensure it wasn't a wasted effort. Sadly, quality wasn't part of the deal with The Deep, which felt improvised using first draft scripts most of the time. There was so much expositional dialogue it became instantly laughable, but the real disappointment for me was how The Deep's sense of mystery evaporated too quickly. It was possible a great storyline and potent atmosphere could have masked the dialogue and performances, to a degree, but the tale of Russians sneakily drilling for oil and trying to hide an amazing new source of bio fuel just wasn't very exciting.
I'm unsurprised this show sank without trace.
WRITER: Simon Donald
DIRECTOR: Colm McCarthy
GUEST CAST: Orla Brady, Tom Wlaschiha, Nick Nevern, Goran Kostic, Nigel Whitmey, Dan Li, Molly Jones, Ron Donachie, Richard Brake & Antonia Thomas
TRANSMISSION: 31 August 2010 - BBC1/HD, 9PM
