The Couple Next Door

Aww, I so wanted this to be good!

The trailer looked great, but so far (just started episode 2) it's cheesy, lame and a bit - well, boring.

I love a good Harlan Coben, which I thought this had vibes of, but noooo....

The most entertaining thing so far , is that the neighbour guy bloke looks just like the geezer from Eastenders (don't know his name, just remember him from when my Grandma used to watch it - wish she was here so I could wind her up that it's him 😂) aside from that, yeah, I'm bored....

I'll stick with it, who knows, maybe it's a slow burner... I'll update later if it gets any better 😊

I watched the original Dutch TV version of this show which ran for 4 series 10x40m from 2014-2019. It was a bit cheesy at times but enjoyable with well-grounded characters and a dramatic storyline full of unexpected twists and some pretty raunchy scenes.

The remake seems to have been drained of drama and toned down and as a consequence comes a distant second to the original (Which was titled 'New Neighbours' but can still be found on C4 Catchup with subtitles as 'The Swingers'. If you haven't watched either definitely seek out the original.

The remake didn't feel authentic if felt tepid with a lot of one-dimensional performances, Hugh Dennis aside. For some reason it was shot in Leeds and The Netherlands and Belgium but meant to be set in Yorkshire, so a lot of it just looked plain wrong.

I'm afraid I very quickly lost all interest, it was naffly made in all respects, including acting, writing and direction.

I notice there are some 10/10 reviews here. Well it's Hardly in the same league as Line Of Duty! It's a totally ridiculous story of a middle class suburban neighbourhood, that starts when a young attractive couple move in to one of the houses. They become friends with a couple across the road and this leads to a an affair and it all starts to kick off, especially when a creepy resident from across the road played nicely by Hugh Dennis starts spying on them through a telescope.

There are several other sub plots along the way including corrupt police, diamond smuggling and a local online paper trying to catch a major criminal.

To be fair they cram hell of a lot in these six episodes and it moves along at such a fast pace you don't stop to think how daft the plot is. 6/10.

Really enjoyed the first few episodes but then it started getting more and more ridiculous, with the final episode the worst of all. Whoever came up with that ending should never write a script again and I can't believe even after the final episode was shot, it got the green light to air. Absolute rubbish, disappointing to have sat through it all for that conclusion. The acting was okay. Sam stood out for me, with Pete being quite wooden and I think poorly cast. Overall, not very likeable characters. I have run out of things to say but haven't hit the required characters yet so ignore the rest of this sentence.

Man, with most of the cast this had so much potential. I knew Sam Heughan and Elinor Tomlinson from the few episodes of, "Outlander" that I have seen, so I was on board. Plus the title made it sound intriguing.

Jessica De Gouw is someone I have seen but, she didn't have that instant name recognizability to me, but funnily enough played the best character of this tale.

The story is basically a new couple moves in across the street, from De Gouw and Heughan who are married. They all become closer and "swinging" is in the mix.

Alfred Enoch plays "Pete" who is married to Tomlinson, and boy, is this the worst acting or character briefs he was given with the roll, but by minute seven of a 6 episode series, he is detestable. You couldn't root for him if you tried hard. Props to Hugh Dennis as the creepiest neighbor you've ever come in contact with.

This could been decent at 4 episodes. Still, not bad. It's a good one to watch if you have a lot of laundry to fold.