Reviews

Sadly this is incredibly disappointing because the two lead actors just don't gel. Not a great sign in a romantic drama. There is no sense of spark or romance between them on screen and this leads to an unconvincing and slow storyline dragging out, and subsequently we don't really care about either character.

Leo Woodall does well as Dexter and his screen charisma and charm are evident, fitting the character exactly as in the novel. However Ambika Mod is very far from what Emma should be and this perhaps lies in a huge miscasting of the part. If the viewer doesn't believe that these characters even care about each other, what's the point? It simply becomes dull and dreary.

The first couple of episodes were bumpy to say the least but this series improved as it went along. It has a weird East European vibe to it, not only the mix of accents but also there's a odd unfinished or amateurish feel to it.

It lacks subtlety and balance, and there are some glaring plot holes and clunky plot devices, however it does have a certain charm which slightly reminds me of the original Star Trek.

The good news is that it steadily improved all the way through to episode twelve, and looks as though it has been renewed for a further series.

The only change I would make is to cast a different actor in the role of Doctor Kabir. The current actress is dreadful in the role and completely spoils the dramatic illusion with her lack of acting skills.

Am looking forward to great things in season two.

I expected so much more from this, but unfortunately it's little better than a soap opera gone wrong. So incredibly cliched, and particularly annoying is the rewriting of social history to suit today's woke agenda. According to this drama only the Australians were racist, and the working class English were oh so enlightened in the 1950s. Yeah right!

And talking of colour, Michelle Keegan appeared at Australian immigration wearing so much OTT fake tan that I feared she was going to fall foul of the 'no non-whites' entry policy of the time.

Too many convoluted and implausible storylines crammed in, stereotypes galore, poor acting, especially by M Keegan, hardly recognisable these days with her ever changing face - it all adds up to a huge disappointment.

The opening scenes were shockingly heavy handed and an insult to audiences: the UK scenes played out behind dark grey filters to signal how miserable England was. Really? Even soaps don't attempt this sort of blatant audience manipulation any more. Did the producers fail to realise that viewers are screen literate now?

Overbearing mother tries to understand why her teenage daughter's behaviour has recently changed.

There is no denying that there are strong performances here from the two leads, however it feels extremely improvised and consequently slow and lacking in pace. The whole thing could easily have been condensed into an hour without losing any dramatic impact.

By the end it was difficult to empathise with the mother or the daughter as they were both self indulgent and annoying characters. A good script editor could have tidied this up and sharpened the dialogue. 7 stars out of ten is being generous.

Really I am beginning to think that all that's gushing 10/10!reviews are either fake or written by the two lead actors' friends. No one could have seriously watched this mess of a a show and enjoyed it to that extent.

Both the male and the female lead are wooden, they have no chemistry with each other, which is pretty bad as this is supposed to be a love story. The woman comes over as aggressive and permanently angry, the man lacklustre and creepy. The script and direction must take some of the blame of course, unliveable characters are rarely a good idea, but surely someone must have spotted this major issue at casting stage.

Having read the book and watched the Eric Bana film, both of which were enjoyable, I did look forward to this but it has proved itself a major disappointment.

Six episodes are far too many, stringing out the story to a very boring degree, and possibly with an eye on further seasons. Let's hope not! We have already suffered enough.

Much as I admire Kathy Burke for her plain speaking and down to earth point of view, this two hour long documentary stretched my patience. Hardly more than an extended rant, and lacking any sort of depth or proper analysis, this felt like lazy half-hearted effort from someone who confessed herself she was only doing it for the money.

It became especially wearing when she fell into the easy trap of blaming the Tory government for the existence of poor people - presumably the fact that poor people existed under a Labour government, and indeed under every government, didn't occur to her. No doubt she was paid extremely well for making this documentary, and perhaps next time, instead of pushing her own personal political agenda, she might want to delve a little deeper into her subject and this level of superficiality and lightweight content really does her no favours.

Is this really meant to be a comedy? The first series was amusing but if this first episode of season two is anything to go by, the programme makers have lost the plot.

Ridiculously and annoyingly sweary - and no, swearing repeatedly at your children really isn't funny, in fact it verges on abusive. And I felt so sorry for the children being bullied and suffocated by the aggressive parents. Sometimes comedy walks a fine line taste-wise but in this case the line has been well and truly overstepped. Not enjoyable at all.

Really wanted to like this film but had huge problems trying to work out who was who and what exactly was going on. I watched the first half twice but, apart from a general gist of the plot, didn't feel any engagement with the characters or the story, despite the overall plot sounding very interesting. It was all too jumbled - such a pity.

What a pity that we are unable to leave separate review scores for each season. My score for season 2 would have been a 7, with the first three episodes only scoring a 5/6 each, as they were slow, boring and generally incomprehensible. Thankfully the pace and storytelling picked up from episode 4 onwards, however this second season is sadly lacking when compared to season one. I was initially pleased to see Tom Hughes appearing, but alas his character is woefully underwritten and ultimately quite silly and implausible. Loved him in Victoria and here he plays in identical character with an identical voice and even haircut. Am hoping he's better than than this, so will put this down to script issues. James Purefoy's performance is impressive and lifts the whole thing out of the doldrums at mid-point so let's give a cheer for him. I would love to know what went so wrong with this production, particularly in the early episodes, as it was hugely promising at the end of the first season. Suddenly we got cartoon caricatures of villains, implausible and ridiculous storylines and poor quality CGI of Elizabethan England. The pacing went totally to pot as well - new writers? Script editors? Anyway, by the end of series two it had picked up and is more or less back on course albeit with far less credibility than before. The whole s2 is available to download on Sky in the Uk. Interesting that it seemed to attract only review scores of 9/10 before it became available to view. Cast and crew perhaps?

When all the main characters are so irritating and unlikeable, it takes a mammoth effort to continue watching. Yes there is some beautiful scenery in European capitals, but despite that, this dull tale of middle class angst fails miserably to engage emotionally or otherwise. Tom Hollander bravely does his best with a lame script, Saskia Reeves is miscast- too old for the part and wearing a very strange and distracting wig. The spoilt teenage son and the 'zany' busker they pick up along the way are simply boring stereotypes. I only managed to plod through the first two tedious episodes. Perhaps it gets better but if you can't hold an audience's interest for the first two hours it's doubtful the second two hours will be any improvement. Such a disappointment.

This incredible series of documentaries shows what really happened before, during and after the Iraqi war. Through archive footage and interviews with journalists, ex-soldiers and Iraqi people it lays bare the truth of the war, stripped of the allied media and political propaganda of the time. It's a tragic story, though very illuminating to see so many people admit and explain all the stupid mistakes made by the American and allies. Heartbreaking too to see the impact of this war on ordinary Iraqi families and individuals. There is no doubt that misplaced invasion and interference of the West into Middle-Eastern politics and culture sowed the seeds of the terrorist threat we all live with today. Should be required viewing for politicians and all leaders worldwide. Perhaps they could learn something from their predecessors' ugly mistakes.

This long documentary, voiced by his colleagues, fans and ex-wife presents a highly sanitised heroic version of the man. Which is a pity, because his humanity and vulnerability were as important as his talent. Brushing his womanising and many other excesses under the carpet does him no favours These aspects were a huge part of his personality and his appeal. A more honest and three dimensional approach, presenting the truth, would have much improved this film and would have in no way diminished the memory of this much loved performer.

Season three is such a mess, what a disappointment after a brilliant season one and pretty good season two. Can't believe they are thinking of commissioning a fourth season after letting down their fans so badly.

I still don't understand what happened. Storylines were confusing and almost impossible to follow, Sandra Oh was overacting and unconvincing, all the minor characters were wasted and led nowhere. How could it all have gone so badly wrong? Poor editing, script and direction. You name it, they messed it up!

Wonderful fresh series with some great dialogue and superb acting, particularly from Eliot (Sope Dirisu) who is a real star in the making. Unfortunately the actor who played the lead, Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) just wasn't up to the job and let the whole ensemble cast down. Who on earth cast this guy in such an important role? He couldn't carry the part, has no presence or acting skills, his whole 'range' consists of narrowing his eyes and scowling, and why did he put on a weird posh accent, completely incongruous and different from his siblings? If Joe Cole hadn't been in this, it would have been a 9 or 10 rating. Yes it's violent but beautifully choreographed and filmed with plenty of dramatic tension throughout. The final episode was a little disappointing compared to the others, but served as a set up for another - well deserved - series in the future.

Where to start with this whole mess of a drama? What a missed opportunity! The lead actor Marc Warren is wooden and woefully miscast, the script is laughable it's so cliched, and the overall politically correct set of characters really are an insult to our intelligence. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with this lamentable offering. Location obviously filmed in Amsterdam, but the streets are devoid of people and traffic. The so-called Dutch police are so British it's laughable and they can't even pronounce the Dutch names properly. Either have proper Dutch actors, or at least a majority of Dutch actors, or set the thing in the uk. Van der valk as ladykiller? A drunk and vomiting coroner? A new young whizz kid (ethnic of course)? A lesbian detective? It's all so wrong on so many levels, perhaps would work as a parody.

Season two is as dramatic and compelling as season one. Same characters, well drawn, with a couple of additions. Jason Flemyng is wonderful in an underwritten part, and both young girls (Grace and Jody) put in powerful performances. This is a great drama however it does bug me in the extreme that the final episodes of both series offered nothing but set ups for future subsequent series. Please offer your audience some kind of resolution, or extend the number of episodes to do the same. This trickery is very off-putting and disappointing.

People are excusing this shockingly bad comedy by saying it's British humour. Wrong! It's not British humour it's a dreadful amalgamation of British and American humour which pleases no one and falls flat on both sides of the Atlantic. Even good, experienced writers can get it badly wrong sometimes and in this case Armando Iannucci has well and truly lost the plot. Ridiculously stereotyped and unlikeable characters throughout - why should we like them or care about them? We don't. Poor Hugh Laurie, a talented actor humiliated in a programme of such a low standard. Time to admit you got it wrong on this one Armando, do the decent thing and put it out of its misery.

This drama started well and had a reasonably original premise. Alas by episode four it was bogged down in ridiculousness and multiple minor plot fillers. And talking of fillers, the lip filler and frozen face of the main female detective was mesmerising and off-putting throughout. Callum Turner put in a fine performance as the soldier but his acting couldn't save this overlong series. It would have worked better at three episodes rather than six, let's just hope that they are not considering another series. (Unless they get better writers)

This heavy handed and unsophisticated political drama could have been so much better if only the director and writer had spent some time developing their characters and storyline instead of relentlessly ramming their one tone message down the viewers' throats. The only redeeming feature of this film is the strong performances by its cast, especially given the lack of three dimensional characters and character development throughout.

Must admit I'm not usually a fan of Shane Meadows but nobody can deny this was a first class drama. The first episode didn't really draw me in as it all felt very improvised and all over the place dialogue-wise but the series slowly built to an emotional, dramatic and satisfying conclusion. The final episode in particular was brilliant. Amazing performances by all the actors. For gritty realism stands head and shoulders above most tv dramas.

Ok I get it that people are disappointed because it didn't end the way they'd hoped, and yes it's true that this whole last series has felt very rushed, agree with that ... to give this last episode 1 out of 10, as many have done, is just crazy.

Even with its issues, this tv series is miles ahead of most in terms of production values alone. Give the hard-working crew, special effects team, cast and whole production some well earned credit! Even if we didn't agree with the script decisions made, we were treated to a spectacular episode with many poignant, touching and memorable moments. It's easy to criticise everything, how about appreciating everything for a change? Games of Thrones still stands head and shoulders above most television drama, admit it and accept that imperfection is human.

Trying to work exactly where this drama went wrong, as it certainly did go wrong. Lack of dramatic tension, yes, oh so slow pacing, ridiculously blatant exposition in dialogue, it felt like a badly done amdram production of an early Agatha Christie whodunnit. Such a pity as the performances were good enough, production values fine, but this was one of the worst television dramas to hit our screens in a very long time. The script, I fear, is the culprit. Cliche ridden dialogue almost laughable at times, no proper structure, predictable and utterly lame. I'd challenge anyone to get through four hours of this lamentable excuse for a thriller.

The best thing about this dud of an Australian mini series is the acting. But how the actors got through this ridiculous script is a mystery. Implausible from start to finish - what boat is unable to send a distress call these days? Mind numbingly politically correct and yet lacking any sympathetic characters or authenticity this 'thriller' fails to thrill on any level.

Wow, this drama reveals everything about the human condition. Pathos, joy, love, death, comedy, tragedy, the totality of all the rights and wrongs that abound in human nature. Jim Carrey's performance is masterful, as is the of the supporting cast, particularly Catherine Keener. The script is sharp, the production is near perfect. Original, absorbing, entertaining and, perhaps most of all, memorable. This series will stay with you and hopefully life lessons will be learnt. Amazing!