One Lane Bridge (TV Series) Escape (2020) User Reviews

I was hoping this was where it was going to get better

[jenbie · 6/10 · 5 May 2020]

Too many New Zealand cliche's. Not enough character development. The gay farmhand getting beaten by the four rural homophobes - one of whom is the restaurant owner? Why him? Still don't know what makes anyone tick. Dialogue is minimalist to the point of being laughable. It's such a shame as it looks great and could have been really good. The characters don't seem fully formed. It doesn't matter how beautiful the cinematography is if the script writing is below average. Also Joel Tobeck just does not work in this role - but once again I think this also could be blamed on poor scriptwriting. Example 'You choose sides if you live in this town'. Really? This just falls flat and is unintentionally funny and there's no exposition to reveal who the sides even are or why we should care about them. The supernatural slant seems forced and doesn't add anything. The actor playing the teenage daughter is a stand out. I will keep watching it as I want to support New Zealand's industry but come on... Can you give some other script writers a chance?

After two interesting episodes, the plot drives off this one-lane bridge

[Emberweave · 3/10 · 12 July 2023]

The first two episodes were interesting and appeared to set up an intriguing mystery, but the this episode made a sharp turn and drove right off that one-lane bridge. Nothing happens to advance the story. There is no plot development. There is no character development. There is no investigation into the murder. There is a lot of random stupidity and viewer confusion, though. We start off with the wife-in-the-wheelchair asking Ariki if he's all right because she heard him screaming last night fit to wake the dead. Why didn't she or her husband get out of their bed and find out what was going on? He's the chief of police. But that's right. He never does any actual police work. Ariki refuses to play rugby because he doesn't want to injure himself, then sees a ghost, goes and plays rugby...and injures himself. He then gets drunk with some dude, proceeds to ask where he can score cocaine, behaves like creepy man at a bar, then has sex in an alleyway with a possible murder suspect. What the actual....? Viewer confusion: Small town that gossips, so naturally a new cop asks about buying drugs and naturally the bartender tells him. Oh, there is gay bashing and a pathetic drunk wandering around screaming obscenities. And speaking of this drunken widow: Was it meant to be as laugh out loud funny as it was when she tells her daughter she's going to stop drinking? Because I did, in fact, laugh out loud at the absurdity of the scene. And the green lizard makes me think it's a cameo by Harry the Lizard from Death in Paradise. Having found a plot synopsis online to find out the ending, I can say with absolute certainty that stopping here will save the viewer time and aggravation. There are a lot of good actors in this program (Joel Tobeck, Sara Wiseman) so it's a real shame they're not given better material. If you've made it this far and think you should stop, you're not alone.