steven-222 Review of Amber

Amber (2014)

Sometimes in life you never get an answer. Wow, how deep is that?

[1/10 · 3 July 2014]

Started watching, not knowing how many episodes there would be. First episode very promising, with a hide-the-plot structure that lets us know that SOMETHING happened on day one, and we will get teasing flashbacks slowing filling this in as the story progresses. By episode three it becomes clear that this series could go on indefinitely, showing how various people far and wide were affected by the girl's disappearance. Hmmm, I think, I hope this is not one of those 10-episode series, because this could become rather repetitive, just getting teased with a tiny new detail each week while the story rambles near and far. Then comes episode four, which appeared to be the last one. Hmmm, after setting up a recurring story machine, now they are cutting it short. Ah well, at least we'll see what happened to Amber. But no, the story simply ends, with no resolution at all. Now I realize this is how things often go in life--we get no answer--but this is a story, and stories have a beginning, middle, and end. (Please read your Aristotle, script-writers.) So while Amber pretends to imitate life, it does so with all the trappings of a certain genre of storytelling, and disappoints either as philosophical discourse (it's way too shallow for that) and as TV thriller (it's a total bust). Once again, I have let the Beeb waste 4 hours of my life. I'm just thankful the series was not longer.