Fifteen-Love (2023) User Reviews

A compelling drama let down with a rushed ending.

[samnaji-15383 · 7/10 · 26 September 2023]

This is a good story, but it has a rushed final episode that leaves two important questions unanswered, to its detriment.

The acting, music and script are all excellent. The characters feel fleshed out and real, even if the tennis sequences feel somewhat janky but that can be overlooked given we are watching actors not athletes. Some of the crowd CGI was also a bit ropey (note to directors, it is OK in keeping to close shots). On a personal note, it was great to see David Troughton (always a favourite). Aidan Turner and Ella Lily Hyland put in admiral performances.

The story had a nice twist as you try and fathom out if Justine is being a jealous vindictive person or someone psychologically damaged from a traumatic ordeal. I liked the fact you were guessing up until the end, which brings me to some of the issues with the show.

The character of Polly who was pivotal in bringing down Glenn was introduced in the final episode. That is insane. A better idea would be to bring the mystery of who was Polly earlier on and to play on that theme. It all felt a little rushed. The resolution of the show did not address what happened to Glenn's wife and kids and whether Luisa kept the baby. I presume we, the viewers, just make up our own conclusions. I came away thinking either the show ran out of money or the script writers just wanted a "happy ending" and avoided the issue of whether Luisa had an abortion or not as that was too divisive (so they can sell it to the Americans).

On a side note, IMDB - I don't get your algorithm. For the top cast, Aidan Turner does not even make it into top billing, and he is the second main character. Bizarre!

Impressive performances- story didn't gel

[tm-sheehan · 7/10 · 29 August 2023]

My Review- Fifteen Love Streaming on Foxtel

My Rating 7/10

This 6 part drawn out series starring Aidan Turner I found interesting to a degree as another story portraying the patriarchal power of men in Sport.

It also effectively makes a statement that the women who report sexual misconduct by coaches must be taken seriously and not dismissed until the accused is proven not guilty without a shadow of a doubt .

Aidan Turner is very impressive as the charismatic Glenn Lapthorn a respected and sought after Grand Slam tennis coach.

His former tennis prodigy Justine Pearce played impressively by Ella Lily Hyland reaches the semi final at The French Open tennis tournament but sustains a serious injury forcing her to leave the game .

Five years on Justine is undergoing therapy while her ex coach has successfully moved on to coach a new tennis star .

My problem with this story written and produced by Hania Elkington is that her main character Justine Pearce is so unlikeable unappealing and ruthless she uses people to gain her goals and will stop at nothing to gain revenge on the man she was once so obsessed by.

No reflection on Ella Lily Hyland's performance she plays this character exactly as written as a young women obviously obsessed by her handsome coach and totally jealous of his continued success.

Justine is a very troubled woman with a substance abuse problem and a huge ego who after five years seems more driven by revenge than justice.

On the other hand the coach Glenn Lapthorn in my view gets the audience's sympathy immediately because in contrast to his accuser Justine he seems so likeable.

Perhaps that's exactly what the story creator Hania Elkington and Directors Toby MacDonald and Eva Riley wanted to portray but the story didn't ring true for me.

Especially after 6 episodes for me another story that probably would have been a better movie however I did enjoy the performances very much as a whole the plot just seemed a little improbable to me.

I enjoyed all the performances from the supporting cast especially Maria Almeida, Harmony Rose Bremner who play upcoming tennis stars and the coaches wife Khalida Lapthorn played so well by Manon Azem.

Advantage Ms Hyland.

[leslie-murphy · 8/10 · 25 July 2023]

Despite the scathing reviews from the mainstream media, I trusted my instincts and stuck it out for the entire six sets. Yes, there were quite a few unforced errors in the plot and more than a couple of double faults in the editing. Ella Lily Hyland, however was absolutely amazing. She literally smashed it out of the court. Vulnerable and venomous, victim and aggressor, her voice, movement and expression were captivating. Such was her presence, I felt that I had truly known this almost unknown actress for years.

The plot was predictable but worthy. Other acting was less so. One can understand how Aidan Turner became more famous for his torso than his acting ability. Other members of the cast were more caricatures than characters.

Good show, but...

[typhoon74 · 7/10 · 3 November 2023]

It's a bit stereotypic, which is pretty obvious from the first few episodes. You can see where this is going. Perhaps not a surprise since its created by (angry?) women who wants to make a statement?

The show is good, the acting is good, the characters are interesting and well played.

One thing is terrible though; the typical issues when making a show about sports. The scenes when they play tennis...why didnt they just skip those? Its terrible! It looks like a bunch of amateurs playing, with a cheering crowd which would have booooed for much less. If these were the ones qualifying for the grand slams, this show would be a total disaster.

Watch it though, and forget about tennis scenes.

Surprisingly good

[Poleena444 · 10/10 · 26 July 2023]

Wow. Aidan Turner expertly pulls off the most accurate depiction of how a narcissist manipulates and controls their victims. The writing and acting was spot on to perfectly display the many layers of this personality disorder: the love bombing, controlling, facade of gentleness, caring and protectiveness. Plus the underlying immense insecurities and self-loathing that these people feel which culminates into their own self-destruction.

Excellent, heartfelt and gut wrenching acting by the young stars in this show as well. Bravo to the writers, the cast, and to Prime for making this important show.

Incredibly captivating

[devyluv-967-837810 · 8/10 · 11 February 2024]

Despite being slow at parts, the characters, the acting, the story is so incredibly captivating. They've shone a light on a difficult topic that needs to be brought into the public conscious and you can really tell that the cast were passionate about doing this story right.

I'm looking forward to seeing more from Ella (Justine) and Maria (Luisa) in the future. They captured their character's vulnerability, fear, hope and a whole rollercoaster of emotions so well, even during some particularly difficult scenes - I hope there was mental health support available on and off set! Aiden Turner was also fantastic as always - menacing in his role as Glenn.

Another in the long line

[unator · 3/10 · 10 August 2023]

Poorly written, directed and acted, but this series still had the opportunity to do something actually brave - provide an example of a FALSE allegation of assault.

It seems that the long line of 'male-predator' series (and movies) must continue without any challenge to its central theme - ALL women tell the truth about sexual assault and violence.

The Amber Heard-Johnny Depp case provided an insight into this issue, as do many, many actual criminal investigations where false allegations result in a jail sentence for the accuser. For a variety of reasons, there are a few Amber Heards out there.

A truly challenging series would address this real issue.

Drawn out, fails to deliver its attempt to create a mystery.

[PlutoZoo · 2/10 · 24 July 2023]

With a lead playing a thoroughly dislikeable victim and her coach also dislikeable but with hints that he may be wrongly accused, the first episode tries to set up a thriller of polarised points of view and it did at first look set to be one where you couldn't tell who was the victim until the end. Sadly however, the hand-holding need to flag every story with a rider about upsetting content gave the game away and if there was any doubt as to what the subject matter was and whom the victim was, well, the banner-warning ruined it.

In any event, by the start of the third episode they had given up on any mystery and instead it became a very long winded and, at times, silly tooing-and-frowing about a young woman seeking revenge/justice for impropriety and psychological manipulation by her tennis coach. The problem with where they took the story was that the coach just wasn't that insipid and although they tried to portray him as evil in the end it didn't play out terribly convincing, partly because the writing relied on casting every other adult as completely dumb and every victim as totally submissive and abjectly helpless. The police were also cast in this light. It was therefore badly written/researched which is a shame as the subject matter deserved more gravitas and accuracy as to the true unfolding nature of real-world events such as these.

Even the internal inquiry was so unrealistic and the fact that she was made redundant would be completely illegal in the real world and any organisation would take advice on such matters and would be quickly told that you can't make someone redundant without wider consultation and certainly not a person alleging abuse by a director of the company. She also didn't have any legal representation with either the police or at her internal inquiry and it was so completely erroneous and unrealistic that I wondered why they even bothered delving into these scenes if they couldn't provide even a modicum of factual realism.

Given the, at times, soap-opera quality of acting from the lead actors and some of the supporting cast, it's impossible to see how this Amazon Prime Originals series is achieving the rating it has, which puts it up there with some of the best rated series on Amazon-owned IMDB, currently ahead (at 7.5/10) of Bridgerton(7.4/10) for example. Interestingly, it has yet to garner the traction needed to even register ratings on other ratings platforms. Maybe it's the tennis theme, who knows exactly what influences ratings these days, It certainly isn't all down to the quality of production/acting/writing.

Whether deliberate or not, the dislikeablility of nearly every character in this show was also annoying as it made it difficult to root for justice when everyone was so self-centered and stupid. It was also drawn out over twice as many episodes as necessary to tell this predictable tale. Nil points.

Surprisingly terrible

[skyemaidstone · 3/10 · 8 September 2023]

I'm a huge tennis fan and I expected this to be full of in accuracies and take liberties in the name of making good TV. And it was utterly inaccurate in just about everything about tennis.

That would be fine if the show itself was good. Unfortunately after a semi decent start it falls of a proverbial cliff in terms of well.. pretty much everything.

Let me list a few of the worst things: Horrible acting from most of the cast, the directing, pacing, script and story are all over the place. You get endless repetitive scenes of the coach talking in a ridiculous voice saying pretty much the same lines.

By episode 3-4 it seems like they're out of ideas or trying to fill time because they reach for pretty much every TV trope you can think of.

The main actress is actually pretty good. Especially for an unknown.

Why use Wimbledon and Roland Garros in a story and you can't even mention it them by name? There are plenty of other big tournaments? Why is the main character acting like she's broke when she would have won nearly £1million from the French Open? Why is the grass completely worn out down to mud on DAY 1 of Wimbledon? Oh and news flash for the writers... tennis players regularly rant and scream at their coaches in front of millions of people - no one cares, it's not the dramatic moment you think it is.

I'm mystified how stuff like this gets made.

Cheap but watchable

[nextstopvegas · 5/10 · 31 July 2023]

This is very much a lightweight series despite the serious storyline. Unfortunately there really aren't many likeable characters, if any.

However, the biggest issue is the tennis. It's simply not feasible to try to make a TV show or movie about players competing in 'grand slam' tennis tournaments when you don't have the rights to use the real tournament names. It just totally takes you out of the moment. Worst still, there was absolutely no reason to try to do this as they could have made up some big tournaments and the story wouldn't have been affected.

In addition, they should have found some actors who could actually hit a tennis ball correctly - they are supposed to be elite stars. This especially applies to the main male player.

If you watch pro tennis this series is supposed to be for you I guess but it will bug the hell out of you.

Overall it's OK but absolutely nothing special.

Disappointing

[racheljdenyer · 3/10 · 11 November 2023]

I'll admit I only started watching this because it had Aidan Turner in it - and as actor I admire his talent.

No offence to him or to Ella Lily Hyland (or any of the other actors) because it's not their ability as actors that ruin this.

I get that this is important issue, and that the plot in itself was topical. But what on earth happened from its inception to the final production?

It's just dire. I don't know if I'm even going to bother watching the last 3 episodes because I just find it so incredibly predictable, boring and mind numbing. It could have been so much better. That's my word count reached so I'll leave it there.

Yawn fest

[roxmewild · 1/10 · 19 August 2023]

I am stunned that in 2023 they have the audacity to reproduce another tennis based storyline on the repetitive stance of star tennis players total infactuation with her coach injury love revenge yawn yawn!

I am even more stunned that they managed to get Aidan Turner to accept the part ....how far his career has fallen from the classic period drama of Poldark!

Why the writers thought it a good idea to write this drivel that has been done at least 2 times before to my knowledge by way of films without adding anything new baffles me. . Save yourself the time and the boredom by giving this Tv series a miss! Can't see it lasting past the first season and even that is a season too far!

New balls please

[xmasdaybaby1966 · 1/10 · 2 May 2024]

I enjoyed the first couple of episodes.

I thought this might be different.

I thought it might be original.

I thought it might be about a woman making false accusations about a man (and a white man in particular) showing that women can be manipulative too.

But then, by episode 3, it just joins the conveyor belt of all men (particularly white men) are evil shows.

There is an agenda by the media almost making (white straight) men feel apologetic for being whom they are (Justin has a gay nan and a lesbian on her side).

Role models are in short supply for us in the media and shows like this do nothing to help.

I 2009 Blue Murder did an episode about a woman that controlled men. It was different.

I have watched thousands of films and TV shows since but have seen nothing like it.

Bring back originality.