Somewhere Boy

Somewhere Boy?

Where, exactly?

In a rambling, daft old tale, that's where.

With such a silly storyline that meanders so much it loses its way into a ditch, one cannot forgive the half baked script and sheer dullness of the entire proceedings. And yet professional (paid!) TV critics loved this. Intriguing... Don't forget, they were paid. By the show's production company, perhaps??

Yes, the plot is mildly intriguing if totally asinine. Yes, the acting is decent, but no better than your standard drama school student couldn't knock out after an afternoons rehearsal. This show is simply too dull overall to maintain a steady interest, particularly over 8 episodes. The writer should have taken the best parts of his script and combined them into 4 episodes and ramped up the tension in the areas where it was needed.

No spoilers for you because, really, whatever plotlines l give away really wouldn't spoil anything. Go outside and kick a football around; you'd enjoy it more, even if you don't like football.

When Danny's mother dies, his father Steve decides to hide him away from a world of monsters and evil, when Steve dies, Danny is forced to confront the world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish, a thought provoking, captivating, fascinating watch, it's a rollercoaster ride, Danny's journey is amusing and heart breaking at the same time. It's almost as if Danny has arrived on Earth from another planet.

It is never dull or flat, there isn't a single lull in quality, it's well paced, and very well made.

Lewis Gribben and Samuel Bottomley are both superb in their respective roles, genuinely acting that will have you captivated, it's the relationship between these two characters that's the most interesting element.

A great watch, 9/10.

Some wonderful acting here, without a weak link, but let down by two big failings. First, it was totally incredible that an intelligent young man wouldn't have questioned this isolated upbringing. Apart from anything else, where were the house's electricity and TV transmissions coming from? And secondly, at over three hours it was far too long. A two-hour span, comprising four half hour episodes, would have made for a tighter, more coherent drama. I thought this was a great shame, because as a coming of age drama, focusing on the three young people brought together by these painful events of the past, it would have been excellent viewing. Loved the old songs, a technique borrowed from Dennis Potter but no worse for that.

Fiction is fiction and it would be too easy to pick holes in the believability or logic of this scenario - so let's not bother. But as a study of alienation within and outside of family structures this series finds its mark. Are there monsters? Yes, of course there are. Can we always recognise them? No. Should we fear them? Well, ideally we should not be living in fear, and if we have fears we should be able to talk about them, and there is the point, amply expressed in the family scenes and in the role of Danny's cousin, Aaron.

In the role of Danny, Lewis Gribben is astonishing. As he explores his new world, his fascination, confusion, horror and joy are palpable, and the scene in which he falls in love for the first time broke me - like 'Heartstopper' but for grown-ups.

My only criticisms are of the 'Night of the Hunter' sequence which forms a somewhat cliched climax, and the final resolution which seemed dubious. After all, when you've escaped one prison, and you've started to discover yourself, surely the last thing you need is another incarceration. But maybe I'm just cynical about families.

This is a highly stylised and unusual drama from the makers of C4's 'The End of the ****ing World' which it resembles in tone. If you enjoyed that series as I did then 'Somewhere Boy' is probably going to be for you or vice-versa.

The series follows a teenage boy who has never been out of his house as he learns to become part of a society he's never known and is forced to reappraise his upbringing by his Father and what he taught him.

With each episode about thirty minutes or less it feels pacey and it intrigued me. Production values were good generally and it was well cast, the lead Lewis Gribben was just perfect in the role.

If you're looking for something a bit different give it a whirl, writer Pete Jackson has created a dark and interesting world to explore. Lovely period music too, which reminded me of writer Dennis Potter's works, like 'The Singing Detective'.