The Stolen Girl

Well I was sold on the cast, regardless of the story. By the end of episode 1, it was clear, that this 5 part series was going to be excellent. In a nutshell, this is a synopsis...Elisa ( the always fantastic Denise Gough) and Fred ( Ditto excellence Jim Sturgess are married with 2 kids, Lucia and George. A new schoolmate ( Josie) with calm and cool mom, Rebecca Strike Back's wonderful, Holliday Grainger) ask Lucia to stay for a sleepover. The next morning when Elisa goes to pick up her daughter, it turns out the the home was an Air B&B, and all traces of Lucia, Rebecca and Josie are gone. The next 4 episodes introduces us to a variety of characters including Ambika Mod ( One Day), and Bronagh Waugh ( everything great). The show does not go off the rails nor is it contrived. This series is based on the novel, " Playdate", by Alex Dahl.

Not the worst series I've seen but very predictable. Not a strong cast either. Denise Gough holds this whole series together unfortunately. Could have been a great series with stronger actors. The few plot twists were actually not bad and where I say predictable a couple of turns I didn't see coming but nothing earth shattering. If you've got nothing better to watch it's ok to have on in the background. Not a lot to worry about if you miss a few minutes here and there. You could nearly just watch the first episode and the last and not bother with the rest. Not horrendous but not going to win any awards either.

It was a good series. Entertaining, but I firgured out pretty quickly what must have happened. I was waiting for another twist, but it never came. I did watch it in one go, so it kept me interested!

Great perfomance by the women in gthis cast, especially the woman who plays Elisa and the woman who plays Josephine's mother. The man who played Fred also did a great job.

Not everything seems to be realistic in my opinion, but it also wasn't extremely farfetched. I would watch if there will be another season made.

I was left with a few questions about the 'why?' of some things, so maybe those questions could be answered in a second season.

The resolution of the story is an absolute let-down and utter disappointment. Millennial do-goodism afflicts the choices of how the characters behave and of how the climax unravels. I felt cheated. But that's usually the case with contemporary defanged narratives. Pity, the acting is top notch, and much deserving of a better and much ballsier and darker script writing. The first couple of episodes are great, unfortunately it quickly becomes a morality tale of atonement that is a tad too predictable for my liking. The revelations do not land with a gut punch but with a fizzle. Once I realised where it was heading I kept hoping it would re-adjust course. It never did.

Somewhere deep inside is a plot that has some merit but, with the exception of Holiday Grainger, the acting is so bad it's beyond laughable. One can only suspect that Disney+ signed it up unseen.

The performance of the distraught mother (Elisa) and the lead detective (D. I. Sinclair) are disgraceful but award winning by comparison to journalist (Selma) and her editor (Kaleb). Most of the others are bad but could easily blame diabolical direction.

Selma interviews without taking notes and receives photographic evidence via email which arrives within seconds and without having given her address.

Reactions are amateurish and situations contrived however, the worst part of all is that I watched all 5 episodes but in my defence, I had a wager on the ending.