Impact Earth (2015)

Impact Earth: Directed by Rex Piano. With Bernard Curry, Brooke Langton, Caitlin Carver, Lew Temple. A former NASA asteroid tracker discovers a looming asteroid collision that could send it on a collision-course with Earth. Because he made a wrong call ten years earlier that cost him his career, nobody at NASA will listen to him when he starts raising the waning flags. Desperate to alert the public, and now certain of a collision, he and his student assistant publish a video telling the world about this looming danger. He gathers his family and his student assistant and they begin a journey towards a fall-out shelter owned by his old mentor over 100 miles away. When meteors tear up the highway they’re driving on and nearly get them killed, they have to take the rest of the journey by foot through a dark forest filled with unexpected dangers. The journey will bring this family closer than ever as they try to get to safety before it’s too late.

“Detailing one of those cases where the police are pressured from the top (arenu0026#39;t they always) into getting a quick result in the case of a woman murdered in broad daylight in a public park while her 2 year old is left to fend for himself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNiamh Algar plays Lizzie James, the undercover name the real detective used to befriend Colin Stagg in order to get him to confess to the brutal murder of Rachel Nickell.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDeceit is, for the most part, a two-hander between Algaru0026#39;s Lizzie and Sion Daniel Youngu0026#39;s Stagg. Both are naturally nervous as they draw closer to each other: Lizzie doesnu0026#39;t want to blow the case and be ridiculed by her male colleagues, sheu0026#39;s bright and desperately wants to do well; Stagg is a loner, uncomfortable in his own skin, shy with women, and completely overwhelmed by the attention when Lizzie piles on the charm.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlgar and Young are great, Young in particular wrings every last drop of confusion out of his Kafkaesque situation. Algar shines in her quieter moments when doubt sows conflict within. Her eyes are enough to do much of the heavy lifting, but there are moments when the acting shows through. Not as much as with Harry Treadaway, who feels utterly wrong for his part and is hard to take seriously.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWeu0026#39;ve all been here before, seen far too many plots involving police abandoning due process and careful consideration of all known facts in order to make a suspect fit the crime.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe difference here is the introduction of Eddie Marsan playing Paul Britton, the criminal psychologist whose vague and generalised profile led to the targeting of Colin Stagg not just by the police but eventually by the press. When a psychologist falls prey to their own confirmation bias it never ends well for anyone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd thatu0026#39;s pretty much the weakness of the series, even if you donu0026#39;t know the true story you can probably fill it out without straining too much.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are some very odd choices too in terms of styling which are annoying, particularly the use of vibrant colours and odd lighting which really distract from key moments, they just donu0026#39;t sit well with the look of the rest of the series which, for the most part, is distinctively gritty.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlmost great.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf they ever bring back Prime Suspect, Algar must be a shoe-in for Jane Tennison.”