The Halcyon

The Halcyon proves how fickle the producers of TV series must be. The Halcyon starts off in a fairly average way I must say, but as it develops it becomes something totally engaging, and rather excellent.

Beautifully acted by all concerned, great performances from Steven Mackintosh, Olivia Williams, Liz White etc, but it was the constant brilliance from Hermione Corfield that I enjoyed most of all, she was superb as Emma.

Lavish production values, the Hotel in particular looked fabulous, gorgeous costumes, and a true sense of realism during the bombing scenes.

The series got better as it went on, the last few episodes in particular were excellent, I hope the petition that's going around encourages someone to take the series on, there are so many more stories to tell.

Excellent drama, 8/10

Loved it. Gets better each episode. Intrigue a plenty, and some wonderful relationships developed as the show went on. Worth watching.

The first episode of THE HALCYON feels as though it was created for an American audience -- it feels obvious, not nuanced. As far as origin episodes go, it's packed with characters and sets many balls in motion. A few actors establish with strength, but others seem to be modeling wardrobe. --- There bit of tension and a nice jolt in direction, but the production doesn't achieve the velocity suggested by the music. Although the project is beautifully dressed, it feels very familiar. What might be run-of-the-mill sibling rivalry still has a chance to become much more: sibling teamwork. --- Although THE HALCYON has been compared to DOWNTON ABBEY, the pecking order and their relationships are less precise. A missed opportunity with THE HALCYON was establishing it as an actual functioning hotel before igniting fuses.

I find it interesting that, while the overall rating for this series is near 7, almost everyone who bothered to review it didn't like it.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed the series. The sets are nice, the characters are appealing, and it's all briskly paced.

Certainly, I could pick at things. The plotting is at times not quite logical and at others unrealistically tidy. The band music is not especially true to the period; they sound more like a neo-Swing band from the '90s. Characters are likable enough, but there wasn't anyone I liked to the level of almost any character from Downton Abbey.

But I (and my girlfriend) enjoyed it all the same.

Bolstered up by great settings the series is easy to watch but not very demanding. What really annoys me is the obvious lack of research that has gone into the background of the story lines. Its as if the writer has based the plots on two premises, 1. the average watcher is too young to know the facts used are incorrect and 2. the facts don't matter as the whole thing is just a posh version of east enders anyway.

It was clear from the start that reality was out the window (windows that are not bomb shatter proofed I might add) when the mistress of Lord who owns the hotel sat in on a mega secret political/economic meeting and pretty much took over the meeting. Not in unenlightened 1940 she wouldn't have,she would have been lucky to have been seen in public let alone at any meeting other than the women's guild.

It kind of went down from there ,the young lord who inherits the hotel takes every other day off from his fighter squadron to spend the day in bed with his girlfriend at the hotel,well Im sure his mates can handle the German air force. Oh and by the way ,his squadron seems to be made up of pilots from all over the world, one from the Indian sub continent and one from Poland at least, not in a British RAF squadron in 1940 they wouldn't be. The staff officer prejudice at the time meant that even experienced Polish fighter pilots were kept in there own squadron at Northolt and not allowed to engage in fire fights until they took the law into their own hands and proved they could do it What happened to the careful research that used to go into this type of show,how can you relate to a series set in an important historical era when the background is fantasy. It reached the bottom rung last week when four times the hotel staff wished departing guests a safe flight home to the USA. Just how were they going to do that,there were NO passenger flights to the USA at that time!! Even American planes destined for use by the RAF were sent by ship in crates until about 1941.There was only one passenger service prior to 1946 and that was a sea plane from Southampton to New York and that was closed in 1939

Id like to sit back and let the series roll over me as I took a passing interest in it but now I find myself looking for the next glaring mistake, its a pity really as some of the above mistakes would have made good story lines if portrayed correctly