User reviews

Found the series quite good and I have seen virtually all British murder series there is. I don't know why this series got so many bad reviews, usually I agree, and it sort of ruined it for me, watching the series. Was really intrigued with who committed the murder and if it was a murder. The plot was really good I believe.

The live of sisters Theresa and Helen, and their families are turned upside down when a young boy, Alex is found dead.

It's a slow burner it's fair to say, it improves as it goes on, and ends with a cracking episode, unfortunately episode one is a real clunker. You wouldn't be blamed for switching it off after fifteen minutes, the opener is painful.

It's very well made, smart looking, and features some wonderful acting, Anna Maxwell Martin and Rachel Stirling give amazing performances, particularly in Part four.

It's a clever murder mystery, a whodunnit, you'll guess and wonder, I'm not sure you'll get it, I certainly didn't.

This would have been better over two nights. It's a slow burner, but ultimately rewarding in the end.

Overall, pretty good, 7/10.

For those who don't appreciate this drama or give it a chance, look up Brecht or 'verfremdungseffekt'. It is slow moving and the characters are unlikeable - set against a stepford housewives backdrop - but I think this is deliberate. You are supposed to be forming a moral judgement about the characters, their behaviours and role in the story. It is a snapshot of modern middle-class living from the writer/ director - presenting their viewpoint/ opinion.

Many of the poor reviews here, were posted before the final episode aired.

That frequently makes for an unreliable review.

I recorded all 4 episodes and watched them over two evenings. (It's easier to follow the characters that way). I normally make a decision as to whether to continue viewing a 4-5 episode show by mid episode 2. In this case I chose to stick with it to the end ..... and I'm glad I did!

It has an unpredictable outcome that on reflection, I should have seen coming. Watch carefully - there are clues as well as red herrings.

Seems unfairly reviewed so far. If your expecting superheroes and capes you wont find them in Hollington Drive. Its a UK drama. I've seen far worse examples of the genre. Watchable.

I enjoyed this little series. I liked how bland and cold it all was. The houses, the schools, the streets, the people, shops, atmosphere. It all had an empty and cold feeling to it, which I believe was the intention. It looked beautiful and had a dark and good story, I just think it was executed poorly.

This is absolutely terrible. It's like some A Level media studies students somehow got Anna Maxwell Martin to perform in one of their school dramas. This is amateur, badly acted and directed, box-ticking nonsense. I knew it was going to be awful within about 2 minutes of watching and gave up after 20. The UK TV industry is absolutely screwed if the next generation of writers and directors cannot come up with anything better than this absolute tosh.

I got 32 mins into the first episode and gave in . I could not suffer the pain of watching such garbage !

Possibly the worst thing I have seen in a long time .

Bad acting , Lousy script and what was that background in the bizarre driving scenes when looking for the missing child ... I mean com on !!

Rubbish I had to switch off , I'd rather just go to bed and stare at my wall .

Don't waste your time please !

I watched all four episodes of this series, twice now. Once on my own, the second with others.

The story is strong, the acting across the cast excellent and the programme well directed. I enjoyed watching it and I've watched a lot of these domestic crime dramas, as there's a lot of them on the telly these last few decades.

There's a couple of gaps in the plot. There's dozens of non-gaps, of solid and logical storytelling so that's a fairly normal ratio.

I don't get the many negative reviews here but not everyone likes the same stuff so that happens. The pacing and tension were great. The acting, with particular note to the child actors, was solid and top quality.

A good investment of three viewing hours.

From the writer of 'Blood' for C5, which was great, so was looking forward to this one.

Pros: the premise when it was eventually revealed at the end of episode one after a very slow start, is an intriguing one. There's also a fairly decent ensemble cast led by the excellent Anna Maxwell.

Negatives: the Protagonists family setup was very confusing - the Direction was weak - lots of pointless drone shots and static chat scenes and the tempo was way too slow. The Score was busy and intrusive with some of the dialogue inaudible. I agree with other reviewers that the parents of the missing child bizarrely didn't really seem that bothered..

For me it needed more sympathetic and interesting characters and more pace. I gave up on it.

I just finished watching the entire series and I don't understand the bad reviews over here.

The story is a slow burner, so of you are into high suspense like Line of duty, then this one is not for you.

The story really gets under your skin and you can almost litterally feel the sufficating tension in your gut and neck as the storyline progresses.

The acting, also by the young cast, really fits well with the storyline. The awkward and wooden "acting" by the two leading ladies fits stylisticly into the story. These are two top actresses, they and the director knew what they were doing, so the acting is top-notch.

Every single detail, the pristine styling of the wardrobe, hair and houses, screaming that there is something brewing under that calm surface is on point!!

The cinematography is beautiful and enhances the tension of the story very well.

I agree that there were some loose ends and strange plot twists, but all in all this one is worth to watch. Just get into relax mode and undergo the experience.

I was a bit turned off by the ending as I wasn't quite buying it. Until the final episode I would have rated this even higher.

Till then I enjoyed the realism of the confusing, agonizing time all the characters went through, adult and child, because of the situation they were in; their bad choices about how to handle it seemed believable and were interesting.

The child acting was better than in most dramas and the adult actors were very engaging.

I was considering the title and wryly remembering the old pop song, Harper Valley PTA, in which the foibles and hypocrisy in a small town are laid bare. That song's lyrics also mentioned Peyton Place, a US TV series. It's a pretty sure sign when a drama is named after a street or a location that we're usually going to get a dose of exposé about that place and the residents there, especially if it's a safe and pretty locale. That is case here, too.

How on earth do these programmes get past the planning stage ... same actors... same story..... dreadful script... predictable storyline...is this really the best all these so called talented people can come up with ?

This is prime time TV ? Hang your head in shame ITV ABSOLUTE DROSS.

Count me among those who found this series to have much to recommend it. I'm glad I didn't let the low ratings deter me from watching.

Although I may be the only viewer who truly enjoyed the Eddie character, he struck me as a real, believable person who obviously had enough warmth and compassion so that David reached out to him for friendship and understanding. The scene with these two wounded men was well acted and quite touching.

Relationships can prove complicated in the best of times; in the case of a missing child who is later found dead they must be unbearably strained. I think the actors brilliantly portrayed the various emotional and ethical struggles they were facing. The continuing lies and complicity among the protagonists created a tenseness, albeit a frustrating one, that carried the story along to its conclusion.

And, yes, as someone mentioned, four episodes was just enough to develop the action, lead us astray, and reveal the truth.

So this was not the best min-series out there but it was still watchable and interesting in its own way. I dont mind slow moving mysteries if the story telling is done well and/or if I like the actors.

It maintained the secret of "whodoneit" to the very end. I dont think the audience would have guessed. It was a little too unbelievable to fathom who could have done it.

As others have send, none of the characters were particularly likeable but that may be the intention. The sisters were certainly a train wreck with both relationships appearing to be stable on the surface.

Lots of secrets are slowly revealed. I would say if you are bored on a Sunday afternoon it would be worth a watch especially because it is only 4 episodes.

I really wanted to like this but the acting in the vast majority is wooden in the extreme. The only character I felt any sympathy for was Alex's mother, she was believable. The rest.... how on earth do they get the roles?

Naturally, of course, nobody can really afford to live this way, certainly not an inconsequential restaurateur and a primary-school principal, the two sisters in the story, whose menfolk don't look to have any means of earning an income at all. Just add up the costs of the mortgages, the brand-new cars, the high-fashion household goods (that stove in Theresa's kitchen costs at least three grand in USD, more than I make in the best of months...) and of course the latest model of phones for each and every person, and there is no way these people could ever even dream of being financially solvent someday.

And of course, that is the whole point of the nightmarish social-engineering project that is suburbia: keep the artificial 'middle class' so permanently mired in debt that there is no way out but to keep on acting the part and paying the bills. Which of course makes for an appallingly fallacious character type which by and large is the 'middle class' itself is and always has consisted of. The demand for everything to appear perfect at all times is so overwhelmingly consuming of everyone's energies that they become just like these people: passive-aggressive, duplicitous, adulterous and thoroughly dishonest. These are the kind of people for whom normal life is to uphold their polyester delusions by lying continually to themselves, each other, the children and the authorities in pretty much every situation.

And of course this nightmarish and thoroughly fantasist way of life produces on a steady basis the kind of cynical cruelty we see in the two children who are at the heart of the story. Never does it even occur to either of them that they are first cousins who will be in each other's lives for decades to come; at the first sign of trouble each one turns against the other and tries to shift all the consequences onto their own kinfolk just to stay out of trouble or have to admit to any wrongdoing of their own. And the 'adults' are even worse.

I manage to enjoy this kind of drama because it so vividly portrays the reasons I knew I had to escape suburbia forever and repudiate for a lifetime the addictions to debt, duplicity and the spendy whims of fashion such a life breeds. I bought my house and paid it off for less than what it takes one household here to have a change of clothing for one week. Every time I see people wallowing in the inevitable swamp of chaos and lies and bottomless despair such as these people get caught in just by trying to live this way, I think to myself, thank God I got out while I still could.

And this is the life people pay a million dollars of some bank's money for in places like Palo Alto, to live a life of ongoing lies and secrets that one cannot possibly afford or ever hope to have paid off? You can have it, if you're that lacking in self-respect. No, thank you.

I managed to watch all four episodes hoping it would get better but sadly it deteriorated with every episode. As the saying goes, this is time in my life I will never get back.

Apart from the nice scenery and houses that's all you will get that's pleasant. The acting at times is pretty bad and the plot which could have been played out much better ends up being hollow and weak.

Quite surprised by the poor (low score) reviews. Watched this on a local streaming service and whilst it started slow and was a bit woke in places actually got quite engrossing toward the last two episodes. I can understand that some may have wondered off during episode 1 as it did start a bit well slow and sort of soapy like. I think if you can watch it all at once as against over several night/weeks it would redeem itself to some of the lower score pundits.

Oh Dear ... I hate to say it ,but this is probably the worst drama that I have seen in a while , I can't believe how bad the plot was !

Who wrote this ? And how on earth did Rachael Stirling and Anna Maxwell Martin , who are excellent actors agree to this ? Their acting was stilted, forced and at times awkard .

There were scenes where I felt embarassed for both actors !

I really cannot say much more , only to repeat that it is very bad !

Rachael Striling is becoming her mother, Diana Rigg, and sometimes seeing her on screen is a little spooky. There where moments in this which took me nack to the wonderful "Mother Love" (please realease that on DVD!). However, I don't want to give anything away, and the story is nowhere as over the top as that particular mini series.

This is a well-crafter series with some brilliant performances. The acting is top notch and the mystery is cleverly woven into the script and the acting speaks to what has happened. Why there are so many on here slagging it off is beyond me. Myself and the Mrs watched this in one sitting. It had us completely hooked. Take no notice of the negative reviews, everybody thinks they are some kind of critic nowadays, for some odd reason. The Bricklayer got more points than this, which makes no sense at all considering the bad acting and awful, totally predictable script. This has everything you need if you are looking for a decent little mystery. Yes, a couple of times you want to shout "WTF!" at the screen, but parents can behave in very odd ways to protect their children. And if you have a narcissist in the family ... As I said, an excellent show!

Fairly clunky thriller about a missing child. Two sisters investigate the mysterious & perhaps sinister involvement of their own two children in the affair.

Really strong main cast and an enjoyable enough watch but the storyline doesn't always flow somehow. I think the behaviour of the characters is not always that believable.

However, a good ending and still worth a watch.

Desperately dull - don't waste your time! You'll enjoy it more if you nod off approximately 10 minutes after it starts! Series link cancelled!

Having watched a few dramas of late, I wasn't holding out much hope for this one and picked it because for the rarity value of a drama not having sheridan smith in it.

Echo some of the other reviews, episode one was a clunker, but the last episode was super. It was clinical and cold in its setting, which I suspect was purposeful given the subject matter.

All in all, a pretty good watch.