Bodyguard - Season 1 - Blu-ray

Content: When war veteran David Budd (Richard Madden), a bodyguard for a special London police unit, is able to prevent a suicide bombing on a packed train, he is promoted to the position of personal bodyguard to controversial Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). Despite the career advancement, it's not a dream job for Budd, as he despises the policies of the Home Secretary, whom he also blames for the traumatic events he and his chambermates endured during wartime deployment. Nevertheless, his sense of duty prevails and he succeeds in saving the Home Secretary during a bloody assassination attempt. But Budd has no idea what dangers lie in wait for the politician and her bodyguard.

The series, penned by Jed Mercurio, was the most-watched BBC drama series of all time in the UK. The final episode alone was watched by over 10 million Brits when it first aired. The reason is easy to pinpoint: "Bodyguard" is excellently written and flawlessly crafted thriller entertainment. It's a TV series at its best that not only delivers a gripping story with many truly unexpected twists and turns, but also features very interesting characters. In the center is Budd, with whom you as a viewer for a long time do not know where you really are with him. Although the story is more or less told from his perspective, this character remains rather ambivalent due to the staging and the good acting of Richard Madden ("Game of Thrones").

Similarly for Julia Montague. She could easily have been made into a very obviously manipulative beast of the particularly icy variety. But the makers give the politician a lot more nuance, allowing viewers to bond with the character even if they completely dislike her politics and methods. You still care about her fate, which contributes significantly to the series having such an intense impact.

Series creator Jed Mercurio and his team have found a good mix of drama and thriller, of action and quieter character moments. Here, the individual set pieces were put together so coherently that even plot elements that actually seem arguably contrived work really well. So there is a twist at the end, about which you probably would have shaken your head in any other series. Here, however, this literally insane revelation works very coherently and provides a real goosebumps. Great!

When "Bodyguard" will continue is still up in the air. But that doesn't really matter because of the well-rounded conclusion, as long as the creators take their time to present a second season that is at least on the level of these first episodes in terms of quality. And that's a hell of a challenge. If you want to see really good thriller entertainment about the particularly dirty side of politics, where there are always really successful surprise moments until the end, you should not miss this series. Absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: The picture of the Blu-ray pleases with a high image sharpness, which is deliberately suspended in some moments to visualize Budd's state of mind. The color scheme looks very authentic, with a somewhat undercooked look used in some scenes that captures the atmosphere of the story very well. The PCM 2.0 sound provides the audio in good TV quality, with dialogue in particular coming across as very powerfully mixed. In some scenes, however, sound effects such as gunfire or explosions provide a pleasant spatiality. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, there is a short making of (about 6:23 min.) on the second disc, which shows footage from the shooting, clips from the series and interviews. Interviews with series creator Jed Mercurio (approx. 3:42 min.), Richard Madden (approx. 3:15 min.), and Keeley Hawes (approx. 2:58 min.) follow. In addition to the trailer, three short Behind the Scenes features about the series (approx. 2:42 min.), the filming of a key sequence from the last episode (approx. 3:20 min., WARNING - spoiler danger!!) and about the costumes (approx. 2:20 min.) round out the additional offerings. The features are not uninteresting, but altogether too short. In addition, there are also repeats every now and then, so that the information content is nowhere near as high as it could be. Nevertheless: Who liked this first season, which can look into the commendably with German subtitles provided extras gladly quite pure!

Conclusion: "Bodyguard" is thriller entertainment of the extra class! The many accolades and awards this series has garnered since its enormously successful initial airing are absolutely justified. The whole thing is a gripping drama with superbly drawn characters and a multi-layered, ever-surprising plot in which the suspense screw is very skilfully tightened further and further. The Blu-ray offers the excellent series in good picture and sound quality and there are also a few nice extras. All good reasons to get this double-disc in any case!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp