Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Sophie Rundle, Matt Stokoe, Jonas Armstrong, Lorraine Ashbourne, Philip Glenister, Daniel Betts, Arthur McBain, Tripti Tripuraneni, Jaqueline Boatswain, James Quinn, Heider Ali, Maui Connock, Anita Adam Gabey, Nicholas Gleaves, Steve Cooper, Jeanette Percival, George Bukhari, Ray Castleton, Sara Beasley, Jake Whitehurst.
The build-up in tension that comes from a promise of a modern-day disaster requires to always be delivered. Failure to underline and provide the ending to which many have expected, replacing it with a noting more than a wishy-washy explanation is detrimental to the time and care placed before the viewer, and leaves a taste in the mouth that is overall, unforgiveable.
It is a shame that the six-part series After The Flood decided to leave the viewers who had invested time with such an ending, one that had been obviously working up to it as Sophie Rundle’s police officer Joanna Marshall finally unearthed the reason for the tragic death of the unknown man who had been found at the start, and whose web included a scale of police corruption that many suspect happens in the U.K. every day.
Unfortunately the ending of the drama series takes away from the quality and measure of the acting that drives the mystery, the aforementioned Sophie Rundle once more showing her dramatic chops with a subtle ease, and when placed against the magnificent Jonas Armstrong, Lorraine Ashbourne, Nicholas Gleaves, and Philip Glenister, in what promised to be bordering upon the epic, especially with the pace and fiercely exciting premise and criticism of the lack of civil defence procedures against the overwhelming floods that hit Britain time and time again, then it is offering little to the fine actors who come off badly because of the limp and unforgiveable finale.
After The Flood deserved more, it had the opportunity to delve deeper, to be constructive in the light of events that threaten the eco system, and placing the resolution of the murder into a far more perilous place that would have deviated the finale away from what should be considered almost inert.
Water under the bridge perhaps, but the viewer will find it hard to look back upon the series with any sense of loyalty to it.
Ian D. Hall