bowiewhist

Gripped from the outset and loved the tension brought about by a decent plot. However there were two snags which lead me to drop from 5 stars to 4 stars - potential spoiler alert here - the casting indicates who will be left for the final episode AND there are a couple of weird plot holes. One plot hole for instance is the otherwise savvy Lisa, a southern US no nonsense woman and experienced hunter, getting blind-sided by the baddie. One minute she has a clear close shot that could have disabled the perpetrator and the next they have vanished in the blink of an eye like some sort of spectre. I realise sometimes we need to suspend belief but this was in many respects very gritty realism so didn't work. Another is the killings not being quicker. I fail to see the benefit of not just disabling them all with toxic mushrooms and then knifing them as they writhed. Then the killer could alert the conspirator and be rescued along with the booty. Anyway despite these reservations I enjoyed the story, the setting, the performances and the guessing game - even if I did strongly suspect whodunit from the start. I would like to see the survivor and partner in a follow up series as they were very watchable. Suitably gruesome, callous and tense. I see there have been some detractors but I was always keen to see the next episode and can't quite understand any series getting one or two stars as it suggests either it wasn't all watched or begs the question why was it watched? If something is so unlikeable surely you stop watching after episode one? I love this genre of programme and think this was decently written, plotted, performed, shot and edited.

A decent plot to weave all the stories together for what could be - but doesn't have to be - the final outing. A tad sentimental but none the worse for it after all these years. Amazing photography, drone work, costume and sense of time (1930). I was irritated by the decision to castigate the work of Agatha Christie as fit only for the nursery - how very dare Mr Fellowes? I also felt the final reckoning for a less than pleasant character was rather convenient and unlikely but all in all this is a film for the fans and it didn't disappoint. I shed a tear in the last three minutes.

Sorry - review I posted was for another film of same name.

After two episodes I have settled into it. The first was the usual exposition so we get the idea and meet the players. I solved episode 2 fairly easily whereas I was baffled by episode one and would have chosen a different country based on the clues. Rob Brydon is a decent host although his role is less intertwined than that of Claudia in the Traitors. I'm waiting to see if the three evicted contestants get a chance to return or indeed if we get to see the lad who in a bonkers move left to go home - both activities seemed rather odd/unconvincing at the time. There isn't quite enough time to form allegances nor is there enough jeopardy regarding the amount of money to be won. Early days - but I like these types of show so will stick with it. Edit: Now watched the whole series and the final was a disappointment - it is so open to manipulation. The race to get to Rob is so heavily edited that we can't be sure that we aren't being played - the cast members wouldn't know or be able to verify if they were ahead or behind and the use of former contestants slowed the hunt for clues with the inevitable hugs and greetings. I think it deserves a second series with some changes - more genuine clues without the red herrings, more use of nous and strategy and less running about. Worthy winner (given how the cast was portrayed...so who knows really?) but at the end I think 3 stars.

A clever idea to take Lear to the west. Generally I think highly of Sir Patrick Stewart but his accent is inconsistent in this and it took me out of the action. I'm never too comfortable with horses in the middle of shoot outs either, although I can appreciate there needs to be realism. Marcia Gay Harden in the Goneril role is superb, as is the scenery but I wouldn't re-watch.

I am very disappointed with this as it has promise. However having watched four episodes it seems as if the writer (also an executive producer) is trying to emulate the humour of some aspects of Gavin and Stacey and blending it with Father Brown/ Sister Boneface style cosy crime drama. Two fabulous rights making a huge wrong! Timothy Spall accounts for the two stars I have given. He's got the best of the lines and seems sufficiently realistic and intriguing. Unfortunately he is paired with such an over the top eccentric young officer, Janie, who is an embarassment to we Welsh. I am sure the actress is doing her level best with the drivel she is given to say but the way the character is written is neither funny nor believeable. The settings are very pretty and the crimes have a sprinkling of logic behind them but it all feels very forced. The attempt to be quirky overshoots by miles. If recommissioned for a second series this could be a very good show indeed but Janie needs to be replaced by someone less kookie. Kookie can be great but not for a police officer and not as a foil to Spall who just needs a foil for his character to play off. The episodes I have seen have used Welsh actors I've seen many times before - at least three of them too typecast to work for this. Good to see Cymraeg being spoken and translated. What a missed opportunity.

Overwhelming loyalty dating back to the first episodes with Hartnell mean I simply can't drop below three stars and I must acknowledge that to sustain good stories consistently while the world evolves year on year has to be a massive challenge - but lately the writing and acting has been patchy. A sensistivity had been developed with the regeneration for the 21st century, something tender, each Doctor touching a nerve as they encountered loss upon loss - but somewhere in the Capaldi years (no reflection on him) this seemed to get traded for a comic book version and since then I've begun to realise I am no longer the right demographic for the show. Fair play I have been kept enthralled - mostly - for 60+ years by wonderful baddies, a brave and inventive doctor and a smattering of decent companions with some, often scary, cliff-hanger episodes but lately things seem hollow, a bit too knowing to the extent that it begins to beggar belief that the humans who now encounter The Doctor haven't already heard of him and his Tardis. In much the same way that the Star Trek films seemed to turn up alternatively as either weak or superb, the x factor for good drama seems to me to be the age old connectivity with the audience through relationships and very believable characters. I'm not sure I believe anymore.

This is cosy crime on the outskirts of Cambridge and thanks to the most wonderful characters it is an easy watch, engaging and often moving. It can be twee here and there but not everything about crime has to be violent and brutal. I particularly rate Al Weaver who now directs as well as plays Leonard. I am very much enjoying the new Vicar - helped by him being very easy on the eye!

Very impressed with the sense of place and in particular with the Sikh/Muslim issues demonstrating the tensions between cultures. I felt this domestic aspect was more compelling than the slightly fragmented hunt for a serial killer. There were several moments when belief had to be suspended - especially over Riaz's love life. The last two minutes of the final episode, while moody with a good music score, seemed wasted - a blatent attempt to hook a second series by leaving us hanging. Some strong performances and generally good direction. Not entirely comfortable with the moral compass. However maybe these days one has to suspend belief that a copper will have honesty and integrity...

I think it was useful to have watched this spontaneously without much idea of what it was about or who was acting in it. As it got underway I sussed it was set in an English seaside town in 1920 and the sense of time and place was pretty good - with the exception of some incongruent casting for the period. (I know, I know, you are not meant to say anything or notice but it jars and anything taking you away from the narrative and experience is just pointless. If the same logic had been applied to everything then there would be women on the jury!) It is absolutely hilarious while also offering a dark, troubling undercurrent of coersive control both of an individual and of women in general. This is one film that offers plenty of lines to its female protaganists and they are ripe and racey. An absolute hoot in many ways but also profoundly sad.