Jeni W – Google

It’s bad. In three hours the writers so far have not managed to convince us to care about any of these people. The storyline is implausible. Even worse is it’s so dang slow. What happened episode 3? Spoiler alert: nothing. Nothing happened. I learned what Boris bikes are. People got stuck in traffic. They didn’t find a bullet. No one got shot. Someone almost got pistol whipped but plot twist — he didn’t. I watch a lot of Brit tv and I’m a big fan of this cast. I know they can act. Clearly the cast can’t believe in the plot either... If you gave me this cast I could write a hit for you. This ain’t it.

Season one had a decent narrative arc but season two was prosaic. I realize this is “junk food tv” based on romance novels but some of the acting was painful. The story dragged and dragged and never did we doubt the two leads, star-crossed though they be, would come together but holy repetitive obstacles Batman. Beats us over the head with the same plot points until I could care less what happened with those two. I did love Penelope — both actor and character. I have to say though—do the writers not understand that hens can make eggs without roosters? I laughed so hard at that line but then again maybe P doesn’t understand farm life, sure. The side plot with the painter brother was so unnecessary. Same with the bartender boxer. Did the writers keep them around because they wanted to use them in season 3? Bizarre waste of energy. Entire story could have been told in two episodes. Such a sad waste of time and money and beautiful filming locales. Look I wasn’t expecting much of anything from this show and I did in fact finish watching it but my IQ had to have dropped as a result. Please do better next season if you’re renewed. So much potential. Such terrible writing and acting. Kudos to the costumer: the gowns and estates kept me interested.