Part Breaking Bad, part Inbetweeners: this British series is a wild ride

The Age

5 days ago

Stags ★★½
For those of us who have never undergone that strange ritual known as the 'stag do', the excesses of such an affair can seem a trifle baffling. This is especially so when, as depicted in more than one British TV show, a stag do doesn't just involve a night out on the tiles, but a full-blown overseas getaway with the boys – a debauched celebration that must surely cost a bucketload.
In any case, in six-part British comedy-drama Stags, the really wild stuff doesn't happen at the stag do, but in the dreadful aftermath.
The do is nuts enough: groom-to-be Stu takes his friends on a trip to an unnamed South American country, where they drink and take drugs and puke and generally behave like the very worst stereotypes of English lad culture. Weary and hungover, they then embark on the trip home, looking forward to a fairytale wedding. Unfortunately at the airport one of their numbers, Greg, collapses and is found to have a stomach filled with balloons of cocaine. Cue loud and violent police, and the stags are whisked away to a remote prison with no idea of where they are or what they can do to get out of there.
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But the plot is even thicker than this. For the prison is no ordinary prison. Surrounded not by walls, but by a minefield, not everyone in there is a prisoner at all. There are children, and even a school. The doctor wields a gun. The governor dials in remotely on a laptop screen. And the whole establishment, it turns out, is actually overseen by two siblings, Selma and Branco: crime kingpins who are at war with one another and to whom the terrified Englishmen quickly find themselves indebted to. Stu and his mates will need to pick a side in the war, it seems, if they are to survive and find their way out.
It is a great setup, and what Stags has going for it, above all, is plot. The story snakes and twists and keeps surprises – at times quite shocking ones – coming thick and fast. The confusion of the lads, thrown without explanation into a frightening ordeal, is palpable and mirrored by the mysteries that we as viewers are eager to unlock.
Unfortunately, not enough attention is paid to the other elements. The ostensible 'heroes' of the piece – the intrepid stags themselves – are introduced to us as boorish, obnoxious gits, and they continue to be. It's difficult to cheer for such unlikeable protagonists, and at times one is very much on the side of the guards and the gangsters, hoping the stupid pillocks get what they deserve.