I watched it because Poliakoff is 'important' and I (therefore?) hated the first half hour or more, but decided to persist (cf my determination to persist with novels). In the end it did pay off.
Much of Poliakoff's drama I think is like a middle class person who has led a sheltered life, imagining what exciting experiences would be like. At the start it met all my low expectations - unrealistic events, stilted dialogue, self-conscious acting.
As it continued it was simplistic, low brow, over-stylised. But it did make me think of events over my life - in some ways it mirrored them. Mirrored the life of anyone who moved through the eighties and nineties with their eyes open. It threw up ideas which I turn to a lot: how access to material goodies makes people over-estimate their own abilities and intelligence, how bad judgement is institutionalised, and intuition treated as hostile action.
An interesting question to me - did anyone ever think the dot com boom was real? I never met anyone at the time who did. Either the people with money are so dense they can barely walk and breathe, or they all thought they personally could profit from it if they never admitted it was going wrong. I ask myself the same question about WMD.
(My conclusion BTW is that people at the heads of corporatations and institutions are genuinely not very bright. That's why there is always that aggressive defensive gleam in their eyes.)
So despite its faults, I am glad I watched it.
