The Fear

The most depressing piece of crap I've ever seen on TV. I honestly can't figure out why I watched all four episodes of this thing. Not one single likeable character to root for or empathize with.

Anyone know the artist/s who painted the artwork admired by Richie and his wife? It is spectacular and suits the basic theme of the show.

Peter Mullan gave a stunning performance in a series which just dragged on too long. The flashbacks would have been better as a prologue at the beginning as they became boring to the point of being really annoying. I know that the intent was to show Richie losing his mind, but the four part series could have been reduced to two hours with no loss.

Two things puzzled me: why did no one turn the illegal immigrant gangsters into the police/immigration service, then they would have been rid of them? and the progression of Ritchie's Alzheimer's Disease must have been the fastest on record. My observation of dementia and Alzheimer's has been that it takes years rather than days.

Overall, 'The Long Good Friday' did it better.

As others have said, Peter Mullan was brilliant.

I enjoyed this series, although 4 episodes was plenty. I was rapidly tiring of Richie's hallucinations (which became repetitive).

I'm no medical expert, by my understanding of Alzheimer's is that it is a fairly gradual decline. Richie seemingly went from having a mild cognitive impairment, to being almost fully incapacitated in a matter of days?

Don't waste your time with it. Compared to shows that come from the US like Better Call Saul or Quarry I can't watch British films or tv series any more - the production values are so low, the scripts undeveloped, the entire approach is amateurish, cheap and cliched with silly special effects, flashbacks and moody music telling us what to feel. It's unbelievable in any case, Brighton is so thoroughly gentrified I couldn't buy into this criminal family. The characters didn't work, couldn't believe in the two sons and the art gallery wife. If they'd set it in another city like Bristol or Birmingham I might have bought into it more. Instead, if you want a corking crime drama I'd advise you search out a DVD set of the 1988 Euston films series also of the same name, The Fear, which was about a thoroughly nasty little psychopathic wannabe gangster called Carl Galton, played by Scottish actor Iain Glen (who actually did manage a London accent). This doesn't rely on wonky special effects, of the F word to make itself 'edgy'. It's slow burning, intelligent crime drama with location shooting in actual clubs and bars (I know cos I was around at the time). I can't say I was disappointed by this because my expectations now are so low I tend not to bother with anything coming out of Britain but it occupied my attention for an hour on a Tuesday evening. I won't bother watching the rest of the series.