The first season is brilliant in my opinion, I've rewatched it several times now (6x45min episodes, 4,5h altogether). The dark and alluring atmosphere, the suspense and how the crime is intertwined with the main characters' past is mysterious while (more or less) realistic.
The story isn't complicated but there are layers to it, it's fragmented, with recurring flashbacks. The writing is excellent really, it deals with heavy themes in a graceful way. It's executed beautifully.
My only criticism is related to casting: the actors who play Sam (the musician/bartender) and Charlie (one of the bank interns), who are polar opposites, look way too similar. Since they don't really appear in scenes together, I thought they were the same person at first (or this might have been intentional actually).
A key theme in the show is "saving" people. Holly's backstory is that in her childhood, a prank goes horribly wrong and she can't save a little girl from drowning, yet she "saves" Milly/Rachel by (unintentionally) implying with her actions that being evil can be normal, basically. Then Georgia shows up and saves Holly from Milly/Rachel's bad influence. Holly carries the guilt into adulthood, while Rachel the psycho proceeds to thrive in the corporate world. The show deals with how Holly wants to find out what happened to Fay, in an attempt to somehow make up for that tragic childhood prank. Finally, she also has to save Georgia from Rachel(who is completely unhinged by the end of the season). I wish we learned more about Rachel's motivation and how she's supposed to know so much, aside from the fact that she's a damn maniac. She's an interesting character. To me, the others were likeable as well, and I loved Louise Brealey's performance (Jude is a great example of how someone smart and competent can still be painfully clueless).
A good story and very pleasant to look at, overall a great season. I wasn't impressed by the second season though.
The story isn't complicated but there are layers to it, it's fragmented, with recurring flashbacks. The writing is excellent really, it deals with heavy themes in a graceful way. It's executed beautifully.
My only criticism is related to casting: the actors who play Sam (the musician/bartender) and Charlie (one of the bank interns), who are polar opposites, look way too similar. Since they don't really appear in scenes together, I thought they were the same person at first (or this might have been intentional actually).
A key theme in the show is "saving" people. Holly's backstory is that in her childhood, a prank goes horribly wrong and she can't save a little girl from drowning, yet she "saves" Milly/Rachel by (unintentionally) implying with her actions that being evil can be normal, basically. Then Georgia shows up and saves Holly from Milly/Rachel's bad influence. Holly carries the guilt into adulthood, while Rachel the psycho proceeds to thrive in the corporate world. The show deals with how Holly wants to find out what happened to Fay, in an attempt to somehow make up for that tragic childhood prank. Finally, she also has to save Georgia from Rachel(who is completely unhinged by the end of the season). I wish we learned more about Rachel's motivation and how she's supposed to know so much, aside from the fact that she's a damn maniac. She's an interesting character. To me, the others were likeable as well, and I loved Louise Brealey's performance (Jude is a great example of how someone smart and competent can still be painfully clueless).
A good story and very pleasant to look at, overall a great season. I wasn't impressed by the second season though.