So, someone decided to throw out everything we know about police work, how victims of abductions are treated, the law and the media in high profile cases.Then they wrote Thirteen.Sure, its riveting if you can ignore all the inaccuracies. But there's a problem - there are far too many to ignore.A victim wouldn't be brought in for questioning without a lawyer present. A victim wouldn't be subjected to dozens of interviews where she was blamed for her abduction. The media would leak every aspect of her case, everyday. Someone would eventually agree to sue the police on her behalf. No real policeman would suggest that a victim go to meet her abductor alone. No real policeman would set up a meeting at a mall, and not cover the service entrances. No victim would get through this many police interviews without falling apart on day 3. No police chief would back up a theory that victims of stockholm syndrome should be arrested to force their cooperation in a case they have failed at consistently for thirteen years.Here's the thing. Thirteen isn't just fiction. It's terrible fiction. It just happens to feature enough good acting to keep you watching. But somewhere a little girl is wondering if this is the treatment she's in store for if she ever becomes a victim and unfortunately, she may believe this is how it's going to play out.

This was a good enough watch with some great points of dramatic tension,but it all got a little stretched out, with the interweaving characters' stories getting a bit over-played. If this had been done by the CSI stable I reckon they'd have got the right balance of believable action and cliffhanger episode endings. It's an imaginative take on a tragic real-life theme and the lead actor carries the victim role well. But on the flip side, this actor is reduced to constant baffled gurning. Yes, we got it,emotional turmoil....a hard gig to sustain, and it's creaking by the end. On a personal note I found the indulged daftness of the victim's middle-class family by turns irrititating and alienating. If being very picky you could criticise the police ineptness in the last episode as being totally unrealistic but sadly it isn't. But being of a fire-fighter's family, I found the circumstances of the final escape were just more than could be believed and actually let down the rest of the series.

If you agree with victim blaming, this series is for you. Let me say that Jodie Comer is hugely talented in the role of Ivy. That makes watching Thirteen even more difficult watch. The police in this drama are horrifying, their attitudes are like law enforcement from the 1950s; though I'm not sure that even detectives from that decade would act this horribly. A 13-year-old is kidnapped and held captive in a basement for thirteen years yet the police try harder to implicate the child than the abductor through most of the series. It is completely unbelievable that the police would treat a sexual assault survivor in this manner. I really only kept watching because of the performance by Comer and several other actors, specifically her family members. I'm sorry that they drew me in because this series angered me more than anything. Don't waste your time

Initially I thought this was going to be a fictional reenactment of an actual event; not so, but a compilation of many abduction and imprisonment crimes with added writer's embellishment for entertainment. For the most part a well written "Stockholm Syndrome" kidnapping tale. Acting by the abductee was exaggeratedly well done, but the parents, sister, friends, school administration and detectives were a little too made-for-TV dramatic to be believable. Romance & conflict between our detectives also not believable nor added anything to the seriousness of the kidnappings. The ending was the weakest - predictable, not believable and especially that the fugitive should roam so freely with so many resources. Missing, for the most part, were any scenes of her captivity. Finally, the brief CCTV footage shown would not have been kept that long.