The Casual Vacancy (2015) User Reviews

J.K. Rowling casts a cold eye on rural life in the Muggleverse

[The_late_Buddy_Ryan · 7/10 · 3 May 2015]

Good but not great BBC/HBO series, should appeal to fans of Penguin Classics—there's a bit of Trollope (many pairs of knickers in a twist over a parish council election), Dickens (broad social satire, mostly aimed at the snobbish, hypocritical bourgeoisie), all the way up through Margaret Drabble and Jane Gardam (class conflict and social pathology in a microcosmic village).

The script has the usual problems of a long, populous novel that's been sliced and diced for television. The first two eps were quite involving, the third kind of rushed; prob'ly should have had a fourth to fill out the backstory and tie up some loose ends. I felt sorry for some of the minor characters, like Gaia and Sukhvinder, who had to hang around forever waiting for their one or two tiny scenes.

Good work by the usual suspects—Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, Rory Kinnear as the goodhearted lawyer whose death creates the casual vacancy (on the local council—it's complicated…), Julia McKenzie as a real-life Miss Marple (i.e. sneaky Thatcherite grandma). Abigail Lawrie is amazing, in her first professional role, as the series's secret heroine, a tough girl called Krystal. Haven't read the book, but I agree that what another reviewer called the "water downed" ending was not very satisfying.

The three part TV miniseries is about what happens to the village of Pagford after Barry Fairbrother, a sympathetic character, unfortunately dies on his wedding anniversary

[robbiekendalrk · 6/10 · 6 January 2016]

Barry was a member of the Pagford Parish Council and due to his death they have to elect someone to take his place. The candidates were: Mr Colin Wall, the Headmaster at the local school; the dependent Mr Miles Mollison, the son of the self-absorbed Parish Council leader Howard Mollison; and the abusive Mr Simon Price, Barry's half-brother. Simon pulls out of the election after his son, Andrew, creates a Ghost_of_Barry_Fairbrother who mocks the candidates. In the end Mr Miles Mollison wins the election by one vote as Mr Colin Wall votes against himself. The Pagford Parish Council's focus is voting for whether Sweetlove House should stay as a community centre, a necessity for the Fields Council Estate, or to be turned into a spa, a luxury for the village of Pagford. The decision has disastrous outcomes. Barry Fairbrother, who dies unexpectedly, is an extremely sympathetic character who is married to Mary Fairbrother. Barry and Mary have no children but Barry's unsympathetic and abusive half-brother Simon Price, who is married to Ruth Price, has two children: Andrew and Paul Price. Simon's son, Andrew, is best friends with Stuart (Fats) Wall who is the adopted son of Tessa Wall, Krystal Weedon's counsellor, and Colin Wall, the Deputy Headmaster at the local school. Fats has a sexual relationship with Krystal Weedon, a resident of "The Fields Council Estate". Krystal is very protective of her younger brother, Robbie Weedon, because their mother, Terri Weedon, is a recovering drug addict. During the series the Weedons get a new temporary social worker, Kay Bawden. Kay has a daughter Gaia Bawden, who Andrew Price gets a romantic interest in. Towards the end of the series Andrew Price and Gaia Bawden get a job at Howard Mollison's delicatessen. Howard Mollison, the unsympathetic Leader of Pagford Parish Council, is married to Shirley Mollison. In the series Howard and Shirley only have one child Miles Mollison, who is a lawyer, is married to Samantha Mollison, who owns a failing lingerie shop. Miles and Sam have two twin daughters, Lexie and Libby. Samantha develops a crush on Vikram Jawanda, a cosmetic surgeon, who is married to Parminder Jawanda, a GP and a member of the Pagford Parish Council. Vikram and Parminder have a silent daughter, Sukhvinder, who says one line in the whole mini-series and that line is: "Whose f***in fault is it then?" after Krystal Weedon tragically drowns, one of her most significant lines in the series raising the question of our responsibility for other. Parminder is good friends with Barry Fairbrother and, like Barry, want to save Sweetlove House, bequeathed to Pagford by ancestors of Aubrey and Julia Sweetlove. Aubrey and Julia Sweetlove want Sweetlove House to be turned into a spa for their own profit. A main theme of the mini-series is the widening gap between rich and poor, The Sweetloves/Howard Mollison vs The Weedons/Barry Fairbrother. The rich (Sweetloves and Howard) want Sweetlove House to become a spa so that they can get more money whereas Barry wants to keep Sweetlove House as a Community Centre because he knows what it is like living on The Fields Council Estate as he, as a young boy, lived there. The story is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's tragedies set in rural Wessex where circumstance and social attitudes are seen as significant contributors to someone's unnecessary death as Barry, unfortunately dies in a rural town Pagford.

a jk rowling project...

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 6 September 2021]

Written and produced by ...JK Rowling, of Potter films inc. It's a three part mini-series. We're ten minutes into part one, and nothing yet. But, it gets going fast! Turns out a couple of richers want to turn the community center land into a "wellness retreat", which should make someone a lot of money. But the board of Pagford has a responsibility to keep the center open, helping the locals. It's all very ethereal... when the lead supporter of the council can't do it any more, they want to fill the spot with someone who will back the new wellness center. But... some of the locals who depend on the community center step in.. in various ways. The vote is approaching... who will fill the vacant spot? And who is uncovering secrets that need to be uncovered? It's pretty interesting. Sense of drama and suspense. Directed by Jonny Campbell. Had directed the remakes of Dracula and Westworld.

Too many departures from the book

[elenipnyc · 6/10 · 27 September 2018]

They did not need to add a "thorough intro" to the mini-series. The introduction that the book provided was perfect. (The book's end was perfect too.) We start with Barry Fairbrother's sudden death and then see how the town starts to deal with it. Barry Fairbrother: What happens when the good man in town, the smart man, the progressive man, the honest man, the open-hearted man, up and dies? You are left with everyone else. This is what JK Rowling explores. The dynamics of a small-minded tight community.

Very good (and entertaining) discussion of real issues affecting Britain today.

[tooplanx · 9/10 · 1 March 2015]

Had to write a quick review to counteract the ridiculous first review from whom I can only assume is one of the privileged snooty characters from the programme. I honestly thought it was a joke outside. The programme isn't particularly crude: it shows a realistic depiction of fairly ordinary life, swearing and sexuality included.

Yes, Britain really is like that, and the drama painted a very intimate and affecting portrait of the lives of ordinary people, the hardships they face, and their failings as human beings.

Highly recommended. Apparently IMDb wants me to write more, so I'll say that the scenery is also very nice, so if you fancy a holiday somewhere with nice countryside, I believe it was filmed in the Cotswolds...

Human nature painted for television: superb.

[linnet100 · 10/10 · 23 February 2015]

What a gem of a drama from the BBC. What makes this, and what it is at root all about, is a study of human nature, or rather natures.

The characters are beautifully drawn: subtle, complex and deep. Relationships are intricately woven and multi-faceted.

There is a delicious comedic element that only adds to the bite over real issues. The PCC meeting in episode 1 and the library scene in episode 2 will live long in the memory. Colin's comment about the Philosophy section and Kierkegaard was a moment of genius.

The tension between the village and the neighbouring estate is a microcosm of life that seems very pertinent in today's Britain. For 'estate people' read almost any group of undesirables that the established residents don't want. Many of the settings, for example the secondary school, could be straight from almost any comprehensive: yes some kids really do speak to teachers like that.

The Casual Vacancy is a fabulous drama which is all-too- rare these days.

Human nature painted for television. Superb.

If you've read the book, you'll hate what they did to it.

[petehand-60425 · 4/10 · 28 March 2015]

This series made me want to weep - at the senseless waste of acting talent and script material. For this is not a TV dramatization of "The Casual Vacancy" by J. K. Rowling. It's a TV dramatization of the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of The Casual Vacancy. What's more, it appears that slashing it down from a full series to a 3 part synopsis was done after filming already started, probably by the director tearing pages out on the set, rather than by intelligent script writers. How else to explain the presence of all the characters from the book, yet no role - not even dialog - for some of them? How else to explain all the setups in Episode 1 that are just left hanging with no follow-up? What does remain is excellent, completely capturing Rowling's characterizations and the petty snobbery of English village life, but the ruthless editing leaves too much out and too many loose ends. There's no exploration of the interaction between children and parents that is core to the book. There's no hint of who is behind the "ghost", a major plot device. Sukhvinder, who has a life-changing experience in the original, is literally seen but not heard. There's no resolution for the dysfunctional Price family. I don't know why the scriptwriters even bothered telling us Gaia's name, since she's reduced to a walk-on extra.

What's left, basically, is an excellent performance from Michael Gambon and Julia McKenzie as the Mollisons. It's worth watching just for that. But that's the tragedy of this series - these are the canonical Morrisons, nobody will ever do it better. And that means the series will never be remade, and the full story will never be told.

Fascinating, haunting and really well done

[KamMcQ · 9/10 · 2 September 2019]

I saw this series when it first aired and it has impacted me still, four years later.

I have never seen so much story packed tightly into 3 episodes before. There are layers upon layers showing the many different lives people live and how the characters interact alone and in a group.

This series has a very powerful "before you judge others, consider what they are going through" message without slapping you in the face with it. I even felt shame for making an early assumption about one chatacter that I inevitably adored and admired greatly.

You know those "How are you feeling today?" forms with every emotion possible listed? I felt nearly all of them through each episode.

The most impactful scene that brings emotion just thinking about it even four years later was paired perfectly with the song "Choir to the Wild" by Solomon Grey. There has not been a better song matched to a scene in any move I have ever seen. I discovered Solomon Grey through this series and love all of their music.

The acting was outstanding and the scenery was lovely.

It's not a light, happy series at all, but it is a fascinating look at life from many different perspectives and will certainly cause you to look at things differently.

Disappointing

[labailey-521-460781 · 4/10 · 5 March 2015]

I thoroughly enjoyed the book but feel that this adaptation was an utter let down. The book needed very little work to adapt to the screen but instead new relationships were invented and old ones ignored throughout. The original characters were lost, the cast contained good actors but several were miscast, the hallucinations (with Death) were ridiculous. I was really looking forward to this show but I think whoever was in charge utterly missed the point - other than trying to portray real characters, and even in this attempt I believe the changes they made to how characters behaved meant that in the big picture relationships didn't work properly and characters were shallow. They should have stayed true to the book instead of altering nearly every aspect.

Fantastic!

[Chanandler-Bong · 9/10 · 2 March 2015]

Fantastic look into human nature and the way we British are with one another. Living in a rural town myself I have met a few people like those in this mini-series.

I would thoroughly recommend this to everyone. The story is originally by J.K. Rowling so of course it's going to be brilliant. She once again blew me away with her detailed and thrilling story. The BBC did a fantastic job with adapting it too. Really well written. And they had an incredible cast from Michael Gambon to Keeley Hawkes (a particular favourite of mine).

What nailed it for me was the ending. A true look into how unlucky you can be (or how lucky) and to know who your real friends are. Moreover, the little things can create a domino effect and become bigger than you thought. I was in emotional shock in the end. I love it when a film or TV series is SO good that I don't see it coming.

Now stop reading this and go watch it!

Really Good.

[Diddisnap · 9/10 · 24 July 2015]

This was a really good mini-series. It left me wanting to see more and I was very disappointed it was over. I didn't realize when I first started watching it on BBC in the US that it was only a mini-series. I thought it was a regular show, and at first I wondered when the next episode was coming! It's a true drama, and terribly sad in parts, with no feel good happy ending. It showed the realities of the struggles of different people. There is no sugar coating. With all this, why even bother watching it ? Because its so well done. It's as simple as that. It has a story that draws you in, characters that connect, and very good performances.

Not As Good As I Expected

[Signet · 4/10 · 23 April 2021]

The acting is good and a with complex plot from Rowling but over-all not worth my time. None of the characters were really appealing or convincing (except for the dead ones) and I could not really engage with the story-line. Considering everything, i can't recommend this film. I stuck it out it the end but finally I was sorry I bothered.

Excellent satirical drama

[tradu-06897 · 10/10 · 6 March 2017]

Not being a fan of the Harry Potter series, I was glad to find such a good drama based on a book by Rowling. (I haven't read the book, but would like to.) To disagree with another critic on IMDb, the death visions are well done. They borrow, in their simplicity, from traditional mummer's theater, and are one of my favorite aspects of the show, along with the scenery and interiors. Themes and plot twists are as intriguing as the town's different spaces are colorful. The scene of a recovering addict's tortuously long wait for a bus is perfect. Bravo to all involved.

Disappointing Adaptation

[marinelalas · 4/10 · 15 March 2015]

It was hard for me to enjoy reading The Casual Vacancy when it first came out because it was just such a different style of writing for JKR post Harry Potter. However, I did end up enjoying the book as a whole. I thought it contained very tragic endings for each character that had a lot of lessons about the harsh reality of life. I was looking forward to the miniseries but quickly disappointed when I saw the TV adaptation completely changed the story of majority of the characters. The plot stayed the same but they completely water downed the tragic life of Krystal. The fate of Krystal and her littler brother were different in the miniseries than the book. *spoiler* In the book Krystal's little brother does drown and overcome with grief, Krystal rushes back home and purposely overdoses on heroin to kill herself. Just thought it would have had a powerful ending to the miniseries if they would have kept the same endings.

Intriguing and very watchable

[Vindelander · 8/10 · 26 October 2020]

Well this has had a bit of a panning from some reviewers which I feel is very undeserved. There's a lot packed in to 3 short episodes and it's quirky - a cross between This Country and Hinterland perhaps.

Great casting, interesting storyline and a serious study of village mentality across all age groups. I haven't read the book so maybe that's why my view is much more positive than some of those who have. It's a sad story really but there is hope at the end of it.

I've watched it twice so that must be a sign.

Tragically beautiful.

[iangordonmiller · 10/10 · 23 December 2022]

An excellent adaptation of an equally brilliant book. The screenplay was as faithful to the original story as it was practicable to be so. Either way, what plot deployments or omissions were more than compensated by the performance from the cast ensemble that was truly magnificent. They were excellent, and not just the big names..watch out for Hurst and Lawrie. I can't help think that the neg reviews are made up from either the potter community who never got over the half blood prince adaption, or the vestiges of the trans community who just negate anything Rowling has done because they are both misinformed and ignorant. Read the book, watch the series, make your own judgement. Don't be fooled by me or anyone else.

Life of muggles

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 2 March 2015]

JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, a grim adult novel which she wrote under pseudonym looks at life in a small market town of Pagford dominated by grotesque characters like they stepped out of an updated Dickens novel. I have heard it said that the book is also inspired by the play, An Inspector Calls, where various characters in the village are in effect the Birling family who have been responsible to the ruin of a young girl's life.

Michael Gambon is the power mad, money grabbing parish councillor who wants to turn a community centre into a wellness spa. Julia McKenzie plays his malicious wife and Keeley Hawes is the flirty but brittle daughter in law. Rory Kinnear is the one who has fought against the closure of the community centre and whose sudden death create the casual vacancy in the parish council and Gambon wants his spineless son to stand and others also wish to contest the seat but a ghost writer on the internet is revealing some home truths.

Yet Pagford is not a place just for the haves. Poverty is rife as well as drugs, drink, teenage sex and domestic violence. This is also the story of teenager Krystal Weedon, living with a drug addicted mother and looking after a baby brother with social workers hot on their trail.

The three part drama series is a world away from Harry Potter. I know my daughter, a Rowling fan attempted to read The Casual Vacancy but gave up, it was not her kind of book. The series has a bittersweet and grim tone. It is political in context between the haves and haves not, the latter who are getting the rug pulled from under their feet.

However the series was not wholly a success, maybe lacking humour, satire and maybe some comeuppance against some horrible people. I believe the ending was changed and softened to make it less tragic from the novel. However I felt that the series would had worked better as a two hours television film and maybe done with being less star studded, Emilia Fox for example was wasted.

What is not in doubt is that Abigail Lawrie was outstanding as Krystal.

It's a terrific drama.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 28 April 2024]

The Council of the small English town of Pagford are set to vote on the future of Sweethope House, either a luxury spa, or a community Centre. The vote is swung by solicitor Barry Fairbrother, but when he dies, a casual vacancy arises.

Every action has consequences.

Another piece of magic from the magical mind of JK Rowling. It's almost impossible to explain what it is, as it's so complex, it's part fantasy, part character study, part tragedy.

There are so many strands, so much going on, but it all ties together superbly. If you watched it, and didn't like it first time round, give it another go.

The third episode is incredible, it's a staggeringly good piece of television, the final act is devastating, one to have you in floods of tears.

Superbly acted from start to finish, this features an incredible cast, and there are some sensational performances, Abigail Lawrie steals it for me, Krystal is a fascinating character, and Julia McKenzie is fabulous, seeing her play such a nasty lady, truly against type.

10/10.

Unlikeable

[fatfil-414-451797 · 2/10 · 24 July 2015]

I really struggled with this series. Although not a huge fan of Rowlings boy wizard books, I mostly enjoyed her writing style.

I haven't read the book this originated from, but found the series unenjoyable and full of the most obnoxious group of characters. The only half decent character doesn't survive past the first 30 minutes.

There is very little that is recognisable as a storyline or plot, and seems to amble along on the strength of people being unpleasant to each other and pursuing their own ends.

I Found it jaded, dated and reminiscent of an old midsummer murders plot.

I definitely enjoyed the book more than its pale adaptation

[IWasKnownAsThe1SentenceReviewer · 3/10 · 2 March 2022]

I definitely enjoyed the book more than its pale adaptation for television, thinking that it could have been an interesting 100 min movie for the big screen.

A mess of a story

[Bilkoboy · 1/10 · 6 March 2015]

It's difficult to know where to start with this very disappointing drama. Set in a beautiful rural village where millionaire business people and professionals in their grade I listed manor houses live but a well struck 5 iron from a sink estate full of drug addled benefit scroungers and ne'er-do-wells, it seems to be attempting to highlight cultural and social divides, unfairness and inequity in our society. Fair enough, reasonable basic idea.

The problem was that the story was, quite frankly, rubbish. Initially it looked like a small guy vs. nasty rich property developer yarn, but this never really materialised in any meaningful or interesting way. When the impassioned champion of said small guy, and always excellent, Rory Kinnear dies at the end of a rather slow scene setting first episode, a from-the-grave on-line ghostly presence appeared to be setting up episodes 2 and 3 to develop into a ghost story (it didn't), or a taut psychological drama (didn't do this either). Instead it meandered between low level soap opera story threads (which mostly led nowhere interesting), made trite, obvious, uninteresting social commentary on far too many topics to be impactful, and ended up as a tragi-drama with a completely random drowning crow-barred into the story to provide some sort of "conclusion".

Low points - Gambon and McKenzie and Richard Glover were cartoonishly "bad", Emilia Fox's character was totally peripheral. The final scenes when the young boy wanders off and is then effectively abducted, not 20 yards from his mother by a well meaning doctor, who never thought to look for, or shout out to, any parents before carting him off home, was just ridiculous.

High points - Abigail Lawrie and Rory Kinnear were excellent, Keeley Hawes pretty good. Rural town setting was very nice indeed.

Crude Schadenfreude Portraying A Country No-One Recognises

[journalist1 · 1/10 · 15 February 2015]

What a huge, filth-ridden crater Rowling has made of her career with the publication of her first 'adult' novel, so it is with no surprise what a perfect bed-fellow she has in the left- leaning British Broadcasting Corporation because we've always known the BBC hate rural Britain and the people that live there but this production takes their bias and distaste to a totally new level and while the BBC portray this as a fictional drama people would be astonished to discover many within the BBC see rural Britain through such a twisted and perverted lens. No-one I've spoken to has for one moment ever been confronted with the behaviour characters in this crude, distasteful rubbish calling itself a modern British drama affect.

I'm appalled but not surprised the BBC are fronting this show however, as I am convinced they believe the behaviour therein is typical of contemporary Britain, perhaps that is so in their little sordid lives, that is not however, the way the rest of us live ours.

We all know how low the quality of BBC productions have fallen in recent years but this truly is a new low.

Shitty book, slightly better adaptation

[zinabaggins · 1/10 · 4 March 2015]

I've read Rowling's book, but not in its entirety because I couldn't stand the way she writes. Obviously, all the good ratings in here are from people who worship Harry Potter. Never liked that either. Now, about the adaptation: This book is about all the evil and ugliness in the world gathered in 500 pages. So was the series. It had no redeeming quality, except from the much better handling of Barry, who we're supposed to care about, because he changes everything in Pagford with his death. Lawrie is an excellent actress and so is Keeley Hawes. Never liked Gambon but he succeeds in being a complete dick. But the material doesn't help us to like what we 're seeing, it's all black, angry, sad. This is not how the world is. It's not just black and white. But I guess Rowling is depressed. Anyway, I think the changes were better than the book.

Feels like Rowling twists reality to fit her own ideological views.

[mshavzin · 1/10 · 17 February 2016]

I wouldn't care, except that it makes for a boring predictable story. She is so hell bent to "prove" that people have to use their funds to save others, that it turns me off. Its not that I completely disagree with some of the political points of this "story" . What I do dislike is the idea that we should somehow be saving the Krystals of this world. Krystal's place is not anyone's fault but her mothers, and her own, and not anyone else's. The fact that the council members made mistakes in their lives did not disturb me half as much as the fact that their kids were willing to turn them in, shades of Nazi Germany. The only bad guy in the story seems like the writers, really. Sure, people can improve themselves, but it isn't fair to ask society to bail them out, and that is obviously what the story asks us to do. On top of that whoever wrote the script obviously knows absolutely nothing about Methadone, Heroin, or Opiate addiction in general, and writing about things you know nothing about is tacky. Example; Its perfectly normal and expected for people to relapse. Its generally not seen as a failure until about the fifth time. Most Opiate addicts will relapse four times or so before the treatment takes. The Sheik family really annoys, because it seems like an attempt to make sure that the hero, if there is one wasn't by any chance a white Christian person.

Hateful tripe

[ash-78884 · 1/10 · 8 June 2016]

Do we really have to be reminded of how disgusting suburban British life can be. How miserable can one place be? I'm from the West-Country and I really. And why is this entertaining? We watched the first episode most of the way through. I was so depressed and infuriated with the horrible characters. There is not one character that could be the shining light in the hell-hole. I was so miserable that I forgot that I could switch it off. I eventually came around and did so. I read the plot on this site and I am so glad I will see no more of this garbage. Suicide, rape, more drugs and more hateful children as well as the horrid adults. I need a good comedy after this crap.