Tatau

I did sort of enjoy tatau. But some parts were silly and rushed. It felt like the writer was composing a script for a school exam. He left it to the last minute and the energy drinks and coffee started to wear off. What started as quite engaging and mysterious turned into 'oh god, please don't ...ok you did' type scenes. Spirit people were used as shortcuts without imagination. Kind of like when there's a complicated storyline and it ends with 'it was all a dream'. Spirit spys are both cheap and unimaginative. The actors seemed to deteriorate with every episode after realizing how poor the story line was written. The plot had a lot of potential. The characters involved were quite engaging and the bikers were a good dynamic to add because they created a sense of suspense and rashness. When a sub plot started to progress it seemed as if the writer had no idea where it ended or even continued. Overall tatau combined intense scenes with absolutely horrendous ones. The ending was disappointing. I still looked forward to watching every week up until about episode 4 or 5 where it got boring and unrealistic. The writer should have spent more time on the concept because it could have been a brilliant show. The plot was great but it unraveled poorly. A 7 is generous. Some episodes were a 9 some were a 4. The first 3 episodes are worth watching. I'd skip to the last episode beyond that to see how it ends. It could have been good but is just about average.

Yes, giving this drama 9 stars might seem overly generous, but watching it is worth your time if you are seeking some fun and escapist drama. Settings: tropical, gorgeous, different from the average film or TV show (Death in Paradise TV show doesn't capture the stunning beauty of a tropical island like this drama does). Setting draws you in and that can be very relaxing, of an evening. Cast: handsome main character is hammy and gorgeous. Sidekick Budgie is the star though. Other reviewers have talked about his "energy". In ye olden days, that was also called sex appeal. He's got it. Check it out. The three female stars are compelling and believable and the rest of the cast seemed just right. Excellent acting all around. Plot: what plot? This story line raised and dropped so many plot lines I got whiplash, but it was ALL good. Myth-folklore-thriller-ghost-sci-fi-stranger-in-a-strange-land and much more. My jaw flapped open at the liberties taken by the scriptwriter, but bless him, he made it all hang together, kind of. I admire his daring. Overall: A sometimes suspenseful but always absorbing drama in a lush setting filled with good actors, delightfully improbable plot twists, great scenery and even some haunting background music. Perfect way to take the edge off a bad day.

Some shows are victims of the commissioning channel's lack of support, for example, the sudden cancelling of Atlantis which grew into a greater show with each episode. I imagine Tatau will not get a second series so we will never know whether it would have matured over another set of episodes. But I for one would tune in if the series was re-commissioned. Bravo to the BBC for giving viewers something out of the ordinary.

Tatau's strengths: It made an eye-pleasing change to see sun-kissed locations different from drab urban offices and bucolic green villages favoured by typical home-grown TV series. The actors were uniformly good with the double act of Joe Layton as Kyle and Theo Barklem-Biggs as Budgie managing to convey the reality of buddies who had been travelling and who had a shared history. Joe's intensity and Theo's buoyancy motored the plot. Theo's story contained an imaginative twist and the hints at Maori culture were intriguing.

New faces to British TV, Shushila Takau, Alex Tarrant and Rawiri Jobe as Aumea, Maui and Koringo were convincing and unsettling in their portrayals of ambiguous characters – should Kyle and Budgie trust them or not? Cian Elyse White as Lara Morgan, I thought, was an attractive and charismatic performer and character; she probably had the best-written part in terms of variety of tone and emotion.

Sadly I think the show's weakness was in some aspects of the writing, where, although the set-ups and the complications all had massive potential, there were underwritten characters and scenes that seemed either missing or rushed. I want to applaud Richard Zajdlic on the one hand for creating a complex show with some fine scenes and character moments but I wonder whether the pressures of budget and/or time and/or location meant he would have produced a more satisfying total narrative if circumstances had allowed. I noticed he was producing too. I know he is an experienced writer and one of the past shows to which he contributed, This Life, was a classic.

I wanted to see more depth to particular characters Aumea's father and her brother both had much more potential than the script allowed. Temuera Morrison had a powerful screen presence and his role in the climax could have been much more developed. Budgie's mum (and Budgie's whole back story prior to arriving on the island) proved functional rather than integrated and thematic. It struck me that Tyler and Dries (Tai Berdinner-Blades and Barry Atsma) had a lot more mileage and were fascinating in their vignettes but it struck me they were potentially more complex than the screen time given – the relationship between Kyle and Tyler seemed to have resonance but we weren't shown how or why. Ditto Maui and Dries.

Future Stars:

All the actors were engaging and I hope to see them again in the future. Overall my family and I enjoyed this series a great deal – and enjoyed shouting at the characters' decisions – always a good sign of an engaging drama.

Yes i know, a 10?.. not quite. this show seriously needed its score boosting. I think its only fair to give something a real review after watching the entire series/story arc. This show was a surprising hit for me showing that BBC are not afraid to explore something totally new. loved the supernatural side of this show as well as the surprisingly not used as much these days "crazy locals on a foreign island." i thoroughly enjoyed this show and the characters journeys throughout. Decent Plot, Interesting Twist, Satisfactory Acting, Beautiful Cinematography. GIVE THIS A SHOT!! you never know you might just fall in love.