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What really makes this series is Hetty's demeanor. It's hard to explain but she is comforting and fierce at the same time. I love the humdrum British world it takes us to, a different culture and setting than the one I live in, but I appreciate that it gives me a taste of simpler times.

My favorite episodes: Helping Hansi (a German gardener is being harassed by residents of a building complex and pinned as a Nazi. His acting of his isolation was really good.) Woman of the Year (Hetty solves a crime at a home for battered women. It's well done) , Runaways (Again a hard topic is addressed: Hetty finds out where a two mentally disabled young adults who are in love ran off to), Fisticuffs .

The first few episodes moved far too slow. But the latter opens, when they were focused on escaping, were great. The acting is OK - I didn't find the characters themselves too interesting or relatable. The real redeeming element was the mysterious story line. I kept wondering how it would all get explained at the end because it was so far fetched and strange. The twists were indeed interesting. Each episode peeled back a layer, often only leaving more questions.

Also, it reminds me a bit of Harry Potter.

If you are OK with not understanding anything by the last released episode, go for it.

Note - it's hard to rate this series because the first season is excellent, and the rest are not worth watching in my opinion. Overall, i give it a 7/10 just because the first season is so good.

The way this show is structured is really unique - from the perspective of one kid per an episode. In other episodes, you can see how that kid's life intertwines with other kid's lives, so its very interesting.

I think they overdid their depiction of how poor role models the parents were in the kids lives - often being totally unable to be reasonable role models. And how much freedom the kids had also seemed overdone. There are other qualms I had with it - but overall, it was neat and I would suggest the first season to the curious.

I would also recommend "Life as we know it" as a related series that I liked much better.