SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Great Film overall

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

An extraordinary thriller with serial killings that always work in fair half a dozen or more victims in short periods of time. But that's far from enough to describe this series, in fact a collection of five titles each one in two episodes in four cases and three episodes in one case.The main characteristic is first of all the personality of the main police inspector or detective or chief detective or chief inspector. He is rough and in a way a visionary person; he has to see beyond the surface of things and he can only do that with inspiration, in fact quasi religious inspiration, hence the title of the collection; He gets a revelation about the killer, always in the last five minutes or so. The fifth title has a different chief inspector but he has the same personality, except slightly younger and nimbler and with a directly religious past history in Israel. In other words in this fifth episode the chief inspector is connected with the Jewish state of Israel and the war going on there. Before the chief inspector was a Christian, probably Anglican.The second characteristic is that the serial killing is always something like an inside job. The first two titles deal with an infiltrated person inside the police team. In the first one the killer is trying to kill the twelve apostles, or rather twelve people wearing the names of the twelve apostles who have to be killed the way the apostles actually died in true history. So it means only eleven deaths since one apostle died of natural death. In the second the killer is killing all those who are connected with the wrong incarceration of his or her father for a crime he did not commit though he covered the real perpetrator out of love, which the avenger did not know. The third story concerns a member of the outside hospital team who decides he has to protect one member of the police team he believes he or she is related to. The fourth one is the absolutely crooked reasoning of a member of the medical team of the police in front of the suicide of his or her daughter. The final title is quite different since it deals with Jewish fundamentalism and this time a defence lawyer is concerned.This characteristic is essential because it enables the murderer to always be ahead of the police since they have inside information from the police themselves.The next characteristic is the heavily religious inspiration of three stories. The first one is to recreate the death of the twelve apostles. That has been a dream of many though it generally remained artistic, hence a representation of these deaths in a way or another. Here the criminal wants real bodies re-enacting the real circumstances. The fourth episode is based on the Inferno from the Divine Comedy by Dante and the nine circles going down into the pit. The last one is even more cryptic since we are dealing with the seven signs of Armageddon as seen in Abraham's story. The new Chief Inspector is a Jew who knows some ancient Hebrew though he has lost contact with it and has to get reacquainted. The symbolic centre of it is the name of God YHWH (Yahweh), the tetragrammaton, the four letters of the name of God.The two exception are first a vengeance case which is misdirected since the man sentenced for life willingly endorsed the responsibility of a crime he did not commit to cover the real culprit. It deals with gay rights or absence of rights in Great Britain just twenty years ago. Second it is the misguided and wrongly inspired promise a man made to a sister of his to protect her and he becomes criminal when he identifies this sister as being a member of the police team, which she is not.The main shortcoming is in fact something true and false at the same time. In that line of business inspiration is essential but it should be based on profiling and in the English tradition it is not. The inspiration that leads to the criminal comes from the re-arranging and re-interpreting of facts, which is limited in scope and efficiency. That's probably why the criminals nearly always go to the very end of their projects, or half a step away from the very end.A must for audiences thrilled by thrillers and thrilling experiences.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I have to say when it comes to Book to Movie Adaptations the BBC rarely lets me down. Now regarding this mini-series. I love the Starling Novel, it's by far the best murder/mystery I've ever read. The Mini-series, it definitely made my day when I saw it. The primary story was kept near perfectly intact. The characters match the ones to the novel very well, the personalities and mannerisms were spot on for Red and Jez. I thought Duncan was done very well as was Kate, Eric came off as too much of a simplistic character, he had a little more depth in the book, but they also altered his sub-story so that may have had to deal with it. Of course there are changes, but most are cosmetic, but some I found disappointment in, the sub-story with Eric murder charge was changed and that changed the whole dynamic between Red and Eric for the movie, and they cut out the Triathalon training Jez was doing. Some of the other events in the book are changed to be viewer friendly. Over all if you liked the book, you will like this, if you like the mini-series, then you'll love the book. I must say, this is the most accurate Book to Movie adaptation I've seen.

Having read the other comment about this superb piece of TV drama I felt compelled to balance things a little. If you like you murders, to be signature and serial, and your cops to be British, and shout a lot, and the gore to be bloody and have a religious slant then this hits every button. Not quite enough 'gov'ing to put the shouting into the Sweeney's rarefied heights, but otherwise highly rated. Ken Stott is excellent as the 'cop on the edge' and the guest stars are also well cast, including Edward Woodward and Art Malik. Recommended. (In response to the earlier comments, although I accept that 'Red' would not 'normally' drive away from a hit and run, he had just witnessed his brother arrested for murder, and I am fairly sure he does not see the boy move.)

I saw MESSIAH 2 a few months ago and didn`t get to see the original teleplay untill a few days ago and this is far superior to the sequel . Okay it`s not a million miles away from the plot of SEVEN but it`s still compelling . Much of my praise has to do with Ken Stott`s performance as DCI Red Metcalfe a policeman who seems to have led a very unlucky life and someone who has a terrible secret . It`d be easy for Stott to go over the top but he plays the role in a fairly subtle way . Likewise the murders are very shocking but - unlike the sequel where the murders are carried out onscreen in a rather OTT manner - there`s actually little violence shown .My only criticisms are that the red herring was too obviously a red herring which meant I wasn`t taken in by the shock twist ( And you would probably see the shock twist coming so I won`t bother with a spoiler alert ) and that when the real murderer was revealed it seemed both slightly far fetched and caused a few plot holes to appear in the story . If I remember correctly the sequel had similar problems once the murderer was revealed so maybe it`d be a good idea not to make MESSIAH 3