Happy Valley (TV Series) Episode #1.1 (2014) User Reviews

Great British series.

[cklitzing · 9/10 · 9 March 2023]

I started watching this series to see Sarah Lancashire. I've enjoyed everything she's been in so far.

The series moves along at a steady pace with several interesting characters in it. I only wish, as someone from the U. S they would slow their dialogue down just a bit. Many of their slang words they use is hard to pick up and it makes it a little harder to follow along. I'm just concluding the first season. I'm anxious to watch the second season and the upcoming 3rd season.

If, you like to watch police dramas with good story line, they have made a worthy series to watch.

I hope, the next few seasons are as good.

Phenomenally silly storyline

[Drabble500 · 4/10 · 26 February 2023]

Started watching this because of the hype about the concluding series. A lot of police dramas pass me by because I spent 20 years working professionally in the area and credulity too often gets stretched. But this one takes the biscuit.

The storyline is massively manipulative: a number of ridiculous coincidental strands, twisted to heighten tension and then tightened into another knot. A catalogue of catastrophic strands are wound into one interconnected story. But the central plotline, on which the whole story depends, is utterly preposterous.

The problem comes if you take a step back and ask yourself: is this likely? Is this believable? The answer to both is 'no'. That's the polite response.

The 'happy' is of course ironic but it's quite appropriate for the programme. Dramas this bleak and implausible need relief, whether that's through dark humour (see The White Lotus for example) or lighter strands to penetrate the unrelenting gloom.

I'm afraid the overall storyline is phenomenally silly.