Ava Hillier

Inspired hysterical laughing at one point in episode one when Billy bob’s daughter tells him intimate details about her sex life , but other than that it’s pretty ghastly and predictable . Hence the single star . Everyone in it is hideous . One hopes they all blow up , and they do ! Oh please bring back Zen or the Sopranos or Breaking Bad or anything with one ounce of complexity . Or Tehran ! I got through only the first episode by way of disclaimer , nothing more . Because at some point you have to make a choice that reminds you that you do have a functioning brain .

I haven’t seen a show this good in years. We forget that Sam Neil was a blazing hottie in his youth , slim and elegant and smoking his face off . Every British actor of that generation is in one episode or another and the sets are entirely realistic , an expensive and gorgeous production . There are some welcome and surprising scenes of sexual deviance largely from the female cast of characters , and wonderfully louche performances by British secret service agents and their handlers . We also forget the cruelty of Bolshevik Russia towards its Jews and aristocrats, …. Or do we ? Action packed and highly entertaining until its final moments which fill one with pathos . Unbelievably , Neil’s character is based on a real person which makes it all the more delightful . I would give 10 stars if I could; it makes one want to start smoking again and have a gin. Or two .

Excellent and unique show with superb acting by all . Portman of character is fabulous as a repressed 1950s Jewish housewife with the desire to make something of herself through writing and escape the demands of her suffocating kosher home . Her odious husband is as hateful as humanly possible . Women are the sufferers in this piece , black and white , Jewish and not . Their lives are lies , complex and dark , their sufferings are sexual and bloody . They are used , beaten , manipulated, raped and aborted ; their strength is to try and save the vulnerable , which is also their weakness as it forces capitulation . The black community is shot through with manipulation , corruption , deceit , hypocrisy and exploitation, by men , of other men and of course , of their women . This is a dark but also weirdly uplifting program : the music is jazz gospel blues mix, with dance dream sequences and marvellous solo performances by entertainers who are exploited through their addictions. The black actors are beautiful , elegant and sometimes evil . They are worldly and corrupt and tragically human . They are Baltimore . They are ALL Baltimore .