Paula

To begin with, this was good edgy stuff. There were some inconsistencies in Paula's character but then that can be true of life too. The slow moving first episode came, rather abruptly, to a climax. Then everything fell apart. At the start of episode two, I genuinely felt I must have missed at least half an episode. The characters had gone completely over the top, shouting, screaming and acting hysterically. It's all completely inexplicable. At least Paula is acting more consistently. She just goes to bed with whoever happens to walk through her hall door. Then she starts shooting wildly in a bathroom in an empty city restaurant at Christmas! Why is it Christmas all of a sudden? Or is it just that the production had too much to drink and thought it was Christmas?

This one is a good mini series. Characters are well developed especially Paula. Characters are complex and flawed individuals even the police. The atmosphere is created through competent acting, facial expression and generally taking time to allow the audience to feel the emotion and intensity of the story. The English are the masters of subtlety and understatement which I prefer to the often American brashness and spelling every bit of the plot out for you. Things are not black and white they are more complicated than that. We are formed by our experiences especially the early ones and that is made clear in this three part series. I liked the ending because it is appropriate for this production.

Everything is falling apart in Paula's life. She is having an affair with a married teacher colleague, and now her headmaster has found out about it. Her younger brother is having serious problems (drugs, alcohol?) and is living in a garage. Moreover she has discovered rats in her basement, and when she hires a handyman to take care of the problem, he turns out to be a psychopath. No wonder Paula has to swallow a lot of pills to avoid a breakdown.

This is the outline of the brilliant thriller TV-series "Paula" from BBC, which is a movement away from "tedious realism" towards an embracement of the supernatural and elements from old horror movies such as haunting ghosts, rats in basement of your house, and children locked up in a cupboard. It's all really a bit over the top, but I love it. The acting is very convincing. Paula i played by one of the upcoming actresses in British film, Denise Gough and the sexy but dangerous handy man, which Paula hires to fix the basement of her house, is played by Tom Hughes.

The characters created for this series are the most cringe worth group created in a very, very long time. Normally you can find one sympathetic character in a show, but in this case everyone is totally dislikable. The other major problem is the inconsistent unfolding of the plot due to very poor script writing: one major event in the first episode just simply dies/disappears in the second and third episode; given the seriousness of this event this is an extraordinary problem for consistency in the program - in fact, I literally yelled "That's ridiculous!" at my tv screen midway through the second episode. I did watch all three episodes, but regret doing so. This show really gives credence to the need for a zero star rating.

Just about life driving people psycho. Nothing new or interesting not sure why it was made really.