Critical Condition: White Dragon

White Dragon (aka Strangers) | SoHo2, 8.30 Wednesday

☆☆☆☆ “So many questions by the end of Strangers, chief among them being, am I really going to watch another seven episodes of this? It’s not that the premise is terrible or the cast bad — John Simm did a heroic job with dialogue that was sometimes good, sometimes banal. It’s just that to become invested in any thriller you must first be invested in at least some of the characters. But Megan Harris (Dervla Kirwan) was dead and even her husband of 20 years and her daughter seemed barely irked, so why should we care when we’ve got work in the morning and a wash to put on?” — The Times.

☆☆☆☆ “The opening episode sucked me straight in and ended with a twist that would make even Bodyguard writer Jed Mercurio jealous. Simm plays British professor Jonah whose life was plunged into chaos after his wife Megan (Dervla Kirwan) was killed in a car crash in Hong Kong shortly after leaving him a goodbye voicemail in which she confessed: ‘I’ve got myself into something’ … The minute Jonah landed in Hong Kong he unwittingly ended up right in the middle of it as well.” — The Mirror.

☆☆☆☆ “Bodyguard. Vanity Fair. Press. Black Earth Rising. There’s a lot of excellent, distinctive new drama around at the moment. This creates problems for resolutely three-star affairs such as Strangers (ITV), a conspiracy thriller which, for better or worse, feels like it could have been made any time in the last 20 years … It felt predictable and, at eight episodes, overlong.” — The Telegraph.

☆☆☆☆ “The fear was that it would go down the ‘stranger in a strange land’ cliche. But I found myself pleasantly surprised … At times, Strangers’ complex plot can get in the way. But hopefully it will continue to show more of the real Hong Kong in a daringly diverse way not seen in the region’s own conservative media.” — The Guardian.

☆☆☆☆  “A neon-lit slow burner with a refreshing cast … Simm and Emilia Fox are both among Britain’s best actors, so their solid performances are expected. But it does give the other characters – especially actors like Anthony Wong and Thomas Chaanhing who aren’t known in the UK – a lot to live up to.” — Metro.