Bodies a hard-to-follow series

I reckon it was a rule that I formulated around the time everyone and their dog was reading that book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

I figured there had to be something in it, so I gave it a crack. Twice.

Both times I had to give up because I found the first 30 or so pages were so very clunky and dull.

"Oh, yeah," people told me. "They are dull. But just stick with it. It gets really good."

No.

It's not my job to push through bad writing in the hope that somewhere along the way "it gets really good". It's the writer's job to make it good right from the start.

Look at it this way. If you were in the market for a TV set and the sales person said "Yes, you have to press the 'on' button multiple times before this TV will start. But once it does, man, it's good", there is absolutely no way you're buying that TV set.

The same should go for books. And movies. And TV shows. And any other form of creative art you care to name.

It's up to them to work right from the start, to hit the ground running immediately.

I'm a busy person, and there are a lot of other things out there to watch, read or listen to. If you can't hook me right off the bat, then you're toast.

So I am at a loss to explain what's going on with the Netflix series Bodies.

I mean both in terms of literally what is happening - because the plot is so convoluted and confusing - and what is going on with me.

Because you see, despite it being convoluted and confusing, I'm six episodes into the eight-episode series.

And it was only in the last episode I watched that I figured out what the hell was going on. Or at least I think I figured it out; there's every chance I could be totally wrong.

I had given up on watching the show with my wife because she is understandably confused so she asks a lot of questions.

While I think I've worked out the plot, it's still hard to explain how all the narrative strands link up. At least not without dragging out a whiteboard and black marker and scrawling on it like a conspiracy theorist.

Really, I should have ditched the show ages ago - the rule I explained earlier in this article said I should have. It would have been far, far easier, and given me space to watch something more immediately fulfilling.

And yet, there I am at episode six - and I can't for the life of me explain why.

It's not because of the acting, which is okay some of the time, subpar in others. And it's certainly not because of the plot, which is just so confusing.

It's just such a frustrating show and yet I know I'm going to see it out right to the end. And I know I'm going to be disappointed by the ending.

I know it's not going to be the pay-off I need to justify spending so much time watching the series. I know it's going to leave me with a whole lot of questions ("Hang on, if that's what was happening, then why did this guy do something else?").

To give you some idea of why the show is so confusing, it's centred around the appearance of a dead body in Longharvest Lane, London, in four different years - 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053.

It's the same body each time, by the way.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious that time travel is integral to the plot. If I'd realised that earlier I definitely would have given up because the plot in time travel shows never, ever holds up.

I'm left feeling that Bodies is more interested in coming off as quite clever rather than entertaining.

And also wishing that I could just give up on it.