Over the weekend I thought I’d give the new Richard Armitage mini series Red Eye a go. I recently tried a bit of Fool Me Once and Obession but both really couldn’t interest me, despite Richard being in it. Maybe one day I’ll find the patience for those but Harlen Coben adaptations really don’t do it for me and disastrous love triangles with no really likeable characters (from the little I saw) are not something I want to invest my time in. I felt a bit iffy about Red Eye going in as well but during the weekend I figured I’d take a first peek and I thankfully didn’t regret it.
A quick synopis: Red Eye is about London police officer DC Hana Li who is escorting Dr Matthew Nolan back to Beijing where he has been accused of a crime that he says he didn’t commit. Once they’re on the plane murders start happening and it’s a race against the clock to figure out what is going on.
After liking the first episode I needed to watch the next and the next and yes, I really enjoyed the whole series. Richard was good in this and oh my, I think I have discovered the actress Jing Lusi for myself, she was really good too! She and Richard have good chemistry together.
I liked the character Richard played. Dr. Matthew Nolan had some weird and over the top ways of reacting to some things, he’s somewhat flawed, but ultimately a very likeable character. DC Hana Li (Lusi) was great as the no nonsense police woman who thinks for herself and is very good at her job and taking charge. I liked how Matthew and Hana started to trust each other in time and became friendly and remained professional without there being this big romance trope between them. Some of these shows have these unnecessary love stories/affairs in them (The Man From Rome being one such example) and I was afraid this show would have that too (says I, a lover of romances) but it didn’t, not really.
I liked the way Matthew and Hana worked together to solve whatever was happening, I liked that we got some insight into Hana and her family background/history and I sure liked to look at a sympathetic and sometimes ambiguous Armitage character for a change…
There were some misses too. You never really get to know that much about Matthew, other than that he is a capable doctor who claims his innocence and sometimes speaks at conferences. I did occasionally catch myself wondering why he would (re-)act in a certain way, surely his past must have influenced some of his actions, but that was never touched upon. I understood Hana better, as more of her was revealed than of Matthew. In addition, some things in the unravelling of the plot seemed unlikely to me and I could predict two of the baddies ahead of time (although not how they would be bad) but somehow that didn’t spoil Red Eye for me and I still had a good time watching this.
It’s been so very, very long since I’ve enjoyed a Richard Armitage project (I think Uncle Vanya from four years ago may have been the last time), it almost felt like a relief to be able to sit back and enjoy watching him in something again that doesn’t annoy the hell out of me.
And here, to end this post, some beautiful pictures of Richard and Jing at the BAFTA’s a little over a month ago.
I certainly wouldn’t mind another Richard Armitage and Jing Lusi project together and I hope this is the beginning of a new uptick in Richard’s career with better projects ahead.
The Book of Esther 