It's funny to think that for over forty years, after the Sex Pistols' debut album that tried to kick every conceivable convention, it was America’s corporate representative who created a series about the wild bunch. The capitalist Disney is trying to create a series about the rise and fall of the wildest bunch known to British punk, those who tried to come out against the fake conservatism and eventually disbanded after one album and a few years.
Malcolm McLaren the Jew gathered a bunch of poor, wild suburban boys led by Stevie Jones and made them a one-off band without talent. They were dirty, rude and did not listen to the accepted conventions. Six episodes, trying to reflect and recreate one of the wildest eras rock histories has ever known in the 20th century.
The acting is the best point of the pistols. The lustful, best describe the vulnerability alongside the savagery of the main characters. Jones is the wild and treacherous boy in every woman he has met, who has tremendous ambition but no musical talent and up to Sid Vicious a legendary character who died of an overdose and never managed to grow up.
Despite the huge potential, the Pistons succumb to Danny Boyle, the director who loves clips and filmed footage, who does not let himself enjoy the acting performances and the emotional aspects of the main characters. The period restoration is spectacular, all down to the smallest details, including the attire language and even the slang. But the script is banal and not touching enough, there is no character who manages to penetrate the heart and really connect with the sensitive young people who have created a real revolution.
And perhaps the main problem, that over the years the pistols seem too old-fashioned and wild for a period that sanctifies political correctness and individual behavior. At a time when everything is trying to go and look according to the norm, that every provocation encounters such great resistance it seems that the gang from London is from another period, a kind of aliens whose story is no longer relevant to our world. Even the endless gallery of characters does not add to the fun, which creates a miss of a great story.
