User Reviews

I need to say first up that Happy Valley is a tremendous show. A masterclass in how to write, direct and act a drama. Its brilliant.

Clare is seriously overdue a proper, plain and honest chat with Ryan about Tommy. Stringing this element out has become immensely tiresome.

Here you go: Ryan, the reason I don't like Tommy is that 1. Your mum said he raped her, Tommy of course may say differently but that's what she told me. She was in such a low place she hung herself 2. He kidnapped and raped your aunt 3. He murdered a colleague of mine repeatedly running her over 4. He threatened to kill you by setting you on fire 5. He nearly killed me whilst I was saving your now aunt 6. He's murdered at least 2 other people.

I didn't tell you till now because these are very heavy subjects. I hope that once you've processed all this you can understand why I'm not ok with you seeing him. He isn't a good role model. He's damaged many people who love you.

Now if Ryan still sees his dad despite all that then blimey!

Things have been heating up this season. Certainly, the end of Episode 2 was a powerful cliffhanger.

Screenwriter Sally Wainwright keeps the story tense, while wisely interspersing a moment of levity by introducing the concept of an Alien-life form Watch Officer.

I had a bit of trouble with what Catherine said to Ryan after she discovered he'd been going behind her back. She was WAY too focused on explanations concerning genetics instead of addressing Ryan's dishonesty straight on.

The angering part for me was Catherine is just as much a liar as every other character. When she talks to Ryan she claims the answers are "complicated", when they're not. Catherine and Claire are two sides of the same diseased coin. Both characters avoid the direct unvarnished truth to maintain their psychological comfort zone.

I especially enjoyed the final scene in this episode. Joanna has revealed she is a totally unrepentant liar. Faisal is about to let her skate all over him when she stupidly attacks him physically, at which point he hears the dangerously incriminating phone message.

It was wonderful how the writer tied that scene in with Catherine successfully busting the very criminals who were responsible for threatening Faisal.

And in this same episode we discover the soccer coach is not such a heartless dick after all. There's an energetic entropy within this script that was truly satisfying to behold.

So the gran knows everything, but doesn't tell it to her sister, or grandson? If what she "knows" is true, a transcript of the fathers trial is an independent report they can all look at. But, gran rolls her eyes and says trust me.

So I anticipate at some stage an intelligent son would read the trial notes. Except when a script writer chooses to withhold information that would end this story thread in the series quickly. So, explains the other concurrent story of another murder and "did the husband do it" as we expect Gran to jump to as a conclusion, based on her thing about beatten wives. Woah.