Mangetepopo gorge tragedy TV1 tonight

They may make the films for schadenfreude value.

i think the producers wanted to be respectful. but i think they underestimated the difficulty of portraying the event the way they wanted to. its hard not to look exploitative. if you're making a tv drama show you are compromising, you have to have actors portraying things that they wouldnt necessarily portray in real life. you have to act out what they are thinking when in real life they wouldnt necessarily have been acting out in that way

Obviously I'm not a writer but I've been trying to think how a drama film could have been done in a way that wouldn't annoy me so much. Maybe the best way would be not at all, but if that's not an option then I think it's have worked better if the film just went straight into the event. Get it out of the way instead of all the annoying counting down to it. Then focus on the investigation. Interviews with people involved, flashbacks, childhood memories, emotional breakdowns, people getting mad at each other, whatever. Just get it correct, don't limit trying to explain every factor contributing to such a complex event to within the 24 hours window of time leading into that event, and if the film's going to blame Jodi then at least give her the credit of not showing her as such a shallow characterisation. They tried to force so much drama and explanation into a relatively boring time immediately before it all happened, which in turn meant padding the film with lots of nothing happening. The real drama was probably much more in figuring it out afterwards.

I think you guys are getting your nickers in a twist. It's not a documentary. It's a drama. Drama being the key word. The majority of people are watching because they want to watch a New Zealand drama. Not New Zealand documentary. It's just Shortland street taking itself seriously.

It has been delivered to the general public for the sensationalism that such shows of this nature are renowned for. Actors working on supposition and hearsay because they have few facts from the actual people involved. And the directors and producers ignoring the real facts because that's considered to be too boring for the general public to consume. I reckon Gaiters hit the nail right on the head.

the director has ultimate control on how the actors portray their parts, i wouldnt be too hard on the actors...

Yes, @gaiters, you're right and to be honest I really don't care too much. But it was still a bad film, imho. For as long as it's the topic of the thread it's had me thinking.