https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p05pkszd/mcmafia-series-1-episode-1

Pound shop Godfather rip off.

The quality of acting is horrendous, yet it’s strangely engrossing.

Anyone else desperately hoping that Vadim ends up on top?  🙂

It’s Bawz.

I like it and I don’t really like anything on telly.

Privately educated English softy decides to take on the Russian mafia and is then shocked to discover that they’re not happy about it, and start getting a bit murdery?

Every plot turn is flagged up about 3 miles in advance but it is strangely watchable, if only to tick off all the cliche’s

First episode was decent, the rest of it tedious and predictable.

James Norton is the problem.  The rest of it is great – but he just sucks the life out of any scene he’s in.

BInners, what you’re seeing is a soft public school boy who was vaguely aware of his family’s Russian gangster roots….but never thought it would bother him….unfortunately events have conspired against him and his family and he’s now faced with going into hiding or discovering his inner violence and taking on those who killed his uncle in front of him and exacting revenge….I like it, I want him to become properly unhinged in the last few episodes and wreak havoc amongst his enemies across Eastern Europe.

What worries me is that defence secretary Gavin Williamson has watched it and clearly thought it was a documentary 😉

It’s ok. We watch it as there is nothing else on a Sunday evening. As above the quality deteriorates each week.

Got bored after the second episode.

We like it but then we don’t over think it…just tv with a glass of wine (See also Lucifer, Walking Dead, GoT, Orange is the New Black etc etc)

James Norton is the problem. The rest of it is great – but he just sucks the life out of any scene he’s in.

Sorry, it’s not just him (though he is the worst)… whoever plays his father runs a close second for worst actor.

I wonder how much the travel budget was for this. I bet the cast and crew racked up some airmiles…

^ yeah fair enough, he is terrible also, but he’s only in a few scenes each episode – compared to Mr Norton, the human sponge.

In fact, it would be easier to list who is good in it.  It’s a short list:

it’s so mind numbingly dull.  We watched a few episodes but it actually feels a relief to have decided to give up on it.

Much like the night manager it has very high production values but seems to lack any jeopardy.  It’s a thriller with no thrills.

Sicario was on TV last week.  Looking forward to seeing that again – the first time I watched it I realised after 45minutes that I’d been clenching my jaw since the start.  The scene in the traffic jam to the border crossing was insane.

It’s easy to see why it’s taken Blue Planet’s slot in the schedule:

Edward Norton – wet sponge
His lady friend – wet sponge
Vadim – menacing shark with unexpectedly soft attitude towards their offspring

This week’s episode had a bit more pace. Not sure why we need to follow the trafficked girl, perhaps she fits in with a bigger plot later?

Also I predict that woman bodyguard days are numbered.

Started off OK

Got stupid very quick

I mean – why bother with the whole white slavery? Why not just employ someone to go to parties and get pissed? I mean we get that he is evil and all that, but it jsut seams like a waste

AND let me tell you Tel Aviv is nowhere near as interesting as that. Nowhere.

And – why go to the bother of renting a flat, renting a baby, setting up some trap, leaving incriminating evidence all along the way, when you could have just walked up behind her an shot her in the head?

James Norton is soooo badly miscast. What a drip of a programme. And WHY MCMafia? There’s no Scottish people! or burgers!

Uh!Uh! Just reminded me! New series of Gamorrah starts tomorrah!

Proper gangster telly.

For what it is,  it is enjoyable .We find it better to switch off before the “coming up next week” bit at the end of each episode.

The tropes and clichés are still there,  but it at least adds a bit of excitement in trying to predict them without having seen a summary of the whole plot of the next episode in advance .

I really like it.

One thing that I didn’t follow was at the end of Episode 5 when Vadim came up to Alex Godman in Tel Aviv airport and they both seemed to have met before, but I can’t ever remember them meeting anywhere or at any time up to that point.  Anyone enlighten me?  Maybe it was during one of my microsleeps that seem to afflict Sunday evenings

I feel like I should like it, but I don’t.

Myopic,   Alex went to one of Vadim’s parties after his uncle had been killed, to check if his family were safe and off the hit list IIRC

Godman went out to see Vadim in a earlier episode. Told him some porkies about not being a threat.

I watched the first episode but thought it was mince so didn’t pay much attention (more than myopic it seems!😂). My wife persisted so it was on in the background and I actually found myself drawn back in last week as it seemed to have improved. Watched this weeks and thought it was reasonable so will watch to the end now.

It’s brain out stuff, nothing more and Norton is better as a baddie like in happy valley. It’s better than the night manager though, that was woefull.

Uh!Uh! Just reminded me! New series of Gamorrah starts tomorrah!

I did not know that. I love you DezB, some decent telly at last.

why go to the bother of renting a flat, renting a baby, setting up some trap, leaving incriminating evidence all along the way, when you could have just walked up behind her an shot her in the head?

It’s television, they spin it out for entertainment, it is not real life!!

FWIW I find it quite enjoyable for an evenings viewing……..

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>Sicario was on TV last week.  Looking forward to seeing that again – the first time I watched it I realised after 45minutes that I’d been clenching my jaw since the start.  The scene in the traffic jam to the border crossing was insane.</span>

I’ve watched Sicario twice now and beyond the good bit with the border crossing to get the guy from Mexican prison, I have no idea why what happens happens….

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>Sicario was on TV last week.  Looking forward to seeing that again – the first time I watched it I realised after 45minutes that I’d been clenching my jaw since the start.  The scene in the traffic jam to the border crossing was insane.</span>

I’ve watched Sicario twice now and beyond the good bit with the border crossing to get the guy from Mexican prison, I have no idea why what happens happens….

a<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>nd WHY MCMafia? There’s no Scottish people! or burgers!

</span>

that’s explained in the 1st episode… have you actually watched it?

… have you actually watched it?

Sort of. I was a bit bored until the fella’s throat got slit. Then I got bored again.

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;”> </span>I love you DezB, some decent telly at last.

Indeed! I shall do a general PSA thread tomorrow and get some more love (hopefully)

I’ll be watching it to the end now I’ve started, but yeah, it’s not great. The only characters I actually care about are the Russian trafficked girl and the driver, Vadim can shoot, poison or concrete welly his way through the rest of the arseholes at will.

Uh!Uh! Just reminded me! New series of Gamorrah starts tomorrah!

Excellent! I just checked the Now TV box to see if that had stared only the other night. I’ll get Britannia finished and then get stuck in.

WHY MCMafia? There’s no Scottish people! or burgers! – that’s explained in the 1st episode… have you actually watched it?

You’ll have to explain it to me too – passed me by.

Me too.

that’s explained in the 1st episode… have you actually watched it?

I watched the first episode but still failed to connect to the name.

When they were driving to the uncles house after he’d been killed my mind was still going “no way was that drive long enough to get to Scotland from London.  when does the action get scottish,  Why has no-one got an accent”

Apparently the mafia are like Mackie D’s – they’re everywhere and everyone smells of stale fat.  or something.

Oh, it appears I owe robgclarkson an apology, ‘cos that was incredibly obvious. 🙄

Er – what just happened – my reply disappeared and now we’re up to 24 pages!

Thanks canny1 and chestrockwell for the reminder about the party.  I have a hazy recollection of it now you mention it 🙂

I quite like Alex, and I want to see Vadim get what he deserves, but in true series style the makers will milk it with them both bloodied but still standing at the end of this series, ready to pick up the gloves again in the next one, should they decide to go that route.

It’s called McMafia as Chechen vagabonds were impressed with McDonalds franchise model. They decided to take the franchise model and mirror it with their business model. The miscreants demanded that all their satellite organisations replicated the exact same method of operating as their operation in Chechnya and Russia, including the extreme violence. It was a very successful business model for McDonalds and the Chechens.

Watchable but frustrating. The baddies look as threatening as a kid on a knitting pattern brochure.

Going to be a bit peeved if they don’t have some sort of conclusion at the end.
The last TV drama series we watched, obviously forgettable as MrsDT’s and I can’t remember what it was, left us high and dry with no answers. Just so they can eek another 12 week series out of the cast and writers.

Episode 1 was too slow for me.

[Quote]<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 16px;”>Much like the night manager it has very high production values but seems to lack any jeopardy.  It’s a thriller with no thrills.[/quote]</span>

Sums it up perfectly.