Southcliffe

Sometimes, stuff just happens, and it's not always pretty. 'Southcliffe' fictionalises rare but real stories when a loner has flipped and gone out and shot up his not so loving local community; and as such, it's quite realistic. The problem is, there isn't any real narrative here (at least, nothing sufficiently meaty to justify the happenings); and although in part this is the entire point of the series, it's also a slightly self-defeating point to make in a drama. It's hard to feel too involved when there's no underlying cause to events: the story of a journalist caught up in events has a similar, believable but essentially arbitrary feel. I often like series that give us no easy answers; but in the absence even of any real questions, this one didn't do it for me.