It's very well made and the performances are uniformly good but you can't escape the fact that it's a dramatisation of events showing how people coped in the orbit of an evil, vile and contemptuous imbecile who happened to be able to give birth repeatedly. People wanted to believe the best of Karen Matthews, a disgusting and manipulative person who did something absolutely appalling and, for a short period of time, got people feeling sympathy for her because thinking otherwise would have made them feel dirty. This is not a bad show but it could have been better. Good TV shows have characters people can empathise with and Kare Matthews is a truly vile person.