Rev.

I finally gave this show a go, for the last episode in the series, and it's left me completely bewildered as to what all the fuss has been about. I had tried it once previously only to find the credit sequence so annoying that I switched it off.

But, having read rave reviews in the press (Guardian, Telegraph, Standard), with columnists dubbing it 'brilliant', feting it as a masterpiece and praising the performances, I steeled myself to try again.

I really wish I hadn't bothered.

I found Tom Hollander entirely unprepossessing in a vaguely irritating way. His relationship with wife Olivia Colman had no ring of truth – their absurd polite arm's-length behaviour made it seem like they didn't know each other at all but had just been deposited on the same set together that day. She was phonily perky like someone instructed to alter her tone to 'jolly' and 'upbeat' as if talking to a child in need of special encouragement.

They are supported by a cast of characters who all have faces that you want to slap.

Is it meant to be a comedy? There was no humour in it, not a single funny line, bar the chap professing himself to be very good at humility.

I have never had much sympathy for self-indulgent people who lie in bed moping all day after a setback, as the lead did in this episode. After all, he has a wife, child and people who appear to respect him despite the fact that he comes across as a bit dim and self-centred.

Thank goodness this wasn't some gem that had passed me by but rather a travesty of a comedy/drama/whatever (I couldn't really tell), purporting to be intellectual and appealing for some reason to the moneyed upper-middle classes.

If only Olivia Coleman weren't in this. Basically, this should be the story of an inner city vicar who is not really sure if he's making a difference. So if Olivia Coleman's character didn't exist, everything would be fine.

He could lust after the beautiful principal of the school, he could question his vocation and he could get a chance to openly discuss religion in a modern sitcom and that might be really helpful.

But it's hard to understand how these two people would even meet, let alone have sex or get married. They don't seem to know each other and they don't seem to have anything in common. It's like they just added her in as an afterthought.

So she is dressing up like a prostitute in the local convenience store to enhance their sex life and he's questioning the nature of existence. Just doesn't make any sense.

You would think that someone in his situation who decided to marry would be really in love and pretty certain about what they want to do with their life. I almost think she forgets what his job is.

Anyway, they have wonderful actors and they are all wasted with an absurd plot line.

It's not terribly exciting, and there are seldom any real plots, and very little actually happens, but it's a very nice story of an English vicar trying to do his best to please everyone around him. Tom Hollander is a great character actor but he struggles to be the lead in this -- the rest of the cast is so good it doesn't really matter. All in all, Rev. Is a nice place to land when you want a respite from the intense serious drama occupying most of the space on tv today.

I'm not up on British religion -- I'm not up on any religion once it left behind the teaching of tolerance, peace and love and took up the search for power through politics -- so if I say something offensive to someone who follows the Church of England, just let me say up front that I apologize. That said, I must say I adore this vicar. He's often unsure, terribly vulnerable and flawed, but he means well by his congregation, his friends, his wife. He just has trouble sometimes keeping his human-ness in check. And that is why I loved this show. I also loved the last episode with its poignancy and doubt. The Rev. remained true to his character, as much as he always tried to be what he thought he was supposed to be, he was in the end just a human being.

"Joking is undignified; that is why it is so good for your soul." G.K. Chesterton. This show is good for the soul. Minister's on TV are always portrayed as hell-breathing sledge hammers, naive, bumbling, pleasant wimps or something more sinister. (In Australia no one even bothers to include them as characters as God seems to be an irrelevancy in "the colonies".) But this show is nuanced, perceptive, vaguely shocking and laugh-out-loud funny. I really like the way Adam prays in his head. I pray like that too. It feels a bit like Adrian Plass, affectionately irreverent. Maybe I am being a "Nigel", but if I was a minister, I would very much like to be like this one. An unsentimental show about a peculiarly profound vocation.