Midwinter of the Spirit

This was frustrating. I've read a few of Phil Rickman's books, including a couple of the Merrily Watkins stories so I was predisposed to like this ITV version.

There were lots of good things (creepy atmos,scary looking spirit, David Threlfall) but for me these were all outweighed by just how pathetic the lead character was. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for having a flawed lead character but there's a fine line between 'flawed' and 'utterly useless' and Anna Maxwell Martin's inappropriately named Merrily lands the wrong side of that line. Rubbish as a mother, evidently a poor wife, an unconvincing clergy, pill-popping, fag-smoking, heavy drinking car crash of a character, she blunders through each episode making a mess of every situation she finds herself in.

I'm not suggesting she should be an ecclesiastical Jack Reacher but I just can't stay interested in a character with so few redeeming features. Shame.

I've read and reread all of the Merrily Watkins books and enjoy them very much. I accidentally discovered that some of them had been made into a mini-series, during my latest reread, and went off to find them. I shouldn't have been surprised; so often a favourite book is filmed and it just doesn't work. Though there was a quality to this miniseries that made it seem hopeful. But really, I had to force myself to watch the final episode, and only because I'd gone to the effort to download them, and hated to waste the bandwidth.

They have played with the characters, and the story-line to the point where it has pretty much nothing to do with a really great series of books. The characters are shallow and sketchy, the plot is contrived, and pulls the more extreme bits from several books and bodges them together without logic. What is subtle and complex and a really good psychological thriller as a book, doesn't even come across as the usual pumped up crime drama, but just irritating and wrong. I'm really disappointed.

The premise sounded good, but it could've been better executed. Needed another episode to give the story some breathing room. More time for some character development at the beginning and more substantial detective work in the plot.

Anna Maxwell Martin's character was rushed into her 'alternate' frame of mind so soon there wasn't a perceptible transition. We needed to see her as a strong willed character that went 'limp'. What we got was just a limp, wilted portrayal. I've seen her in other things, she's quite good at playing strong characters -- this time she didn't have the chance.

Overall it was a jumbled, blurry story rushed to conclusion with abrupt 'ah-ha' revelations during the last 20 minutes. Just 1 more episode could've given it the space needed to be something much better.

Good supernatural drama these days on TV is as rare as Hen's teeth, as the saying goes.

Well done to ITV for presenting new and original drama such as this which the BBC has long given up doing.

I didn't previously know about the novels upon which this series was based.

In any event, there is a real hunger, I am sure, for non-formulaic supernatural/crime drama and I do hope to see another series.

All the performances were top-notch and the production values were good.

For those who have belief in these things, the fate of the world is not determined by sociological forces but by what perhaps the Middle Ages more clearly saw as the eternal struggle between Good and evil.

Good supernatural drama (best seen before you read the book, or watched objectively). My only issue? Thank heavens for subtitles! I only have partial hearing and found some of the softer spoken actors impossible to hear without them. David Threlfall as Huw Owen absolutely owned the role he played. I sincerely hope there will be future adaptations of Phil Rickman's books, but with more episodes, as three hours wasn't long enough to do them full justice. 6 or 8 episodes would have been better. I look forward to watching without advert breaks. The locations used for filming were beautiful and atmospheric and the characters mostly well cast.