From Darkness

I wasn't able to finish watching the first episode...

Lots of shots of Claire Church gazing deeply (into the past) with accompanying visual and sound effects. Close ups of quivering lips and tears and other such artifacts.

Little else going on, the usual "boss (es) not happy with progress".

Then the flashbacks started, that did it for me, had to hit the kill switch.

The most entertaining part provided by DS Anthony Boyce, the Oxford educated dog-hating, orange juice drinking, seasick, hung over assistant.

This is just a terrible series from every possible perspective! The script is bad, the plot unrealistic, the editing is a jumble of scenes that appear to be stuck together in a random manner, and the cinematography goes overboard with close ups of eyes, nostrils, mouths, all to the point of ridiculousness. Even if one tried to follow the incomprehensible plot, it all appeared so disconnected that it was impossible to unravel. As other reviewers have pointed out, The writers seemed to have been trying to make this like a Scandinavian noir detective series where all the characters have some life issue, however this just falls flat here! The ending suggests that the creators had hoped for a second season but thankfully the BBC must have decided that one was enough pain to inflict on viewers! Do not waste your time on this....you'll regret it!

Entertaining but not spectacular.

Unbelievable in parts. A few enjoyable twists. Villians are suitably deranged. Only 4 one-hour episodes making it easy to binge.

The people rating this less than a 3 are just being ridiculous and dramatic. I've given it a 6 as that's as far as I'm prepared to go but it's more of a 5.

(Also, i quite liked the ending, which was perversely satisfying.)

Three quarters of the way through this series, I feel I can provide a well balanced review based on what I've seen so far.

It is quite slow in parts, there have been more slow pauses and deliberate gazes then I have ever seen. The production values are a little disappointing, it feels quite clunky.

The story is interesting, but it's been done better so many times, Waking the Dead, Messiah etc.

I have to say I found Anne Marie Duff quite a strange choice for the part, she's an excellent actress, maybe too good for the part. Johnny Harris I have enjoyed more, he fits the role much better.

It's improved as it's gone on, Part 3 was rather good. It will be interesting to see who was responsible for the murders.

From Darkness really reminded me of The Missing (2014). Both shows had a lot of style. The Missing was how a tragedy effects the people around that tragedy, and in eventually solving that case we get to see humanity in its rawest form, with all the self-interest, cowardice, bravery, hope and despair. If you are looking for a police procedural production then it would be fair to say that the actual case is certainly interesting, with added dimensions beyond the original murders that would put it in the not-been-seen-before category. I wouldn't call the case wildly original, but, to be fair, it can claim credit as an expansion on ideas we already know. From Darkness is not really a police procedural though, but a rather a drama around a police procedural. If you took away that drama so we knew nothing of the investigating officers and their families then the whole series would have been over in one episode. It is quality drama however. Certainly the framing of shots, cameras used, techniques, cinematography, symbolism, colour, etc, were excellent. The sound design reminded me of The Dark Knight, but it worked a treat, so so what. As drama this is quality that we have come to expect from the Brits, gut wrenching, tearful, infuriating, strung out on a taunt wire and ringing. The actors have plenty to work with, and do a good job. For me, I always find the balance of these new shows to be a little selfish, in that it is the victims I want to feel sorry for first, and the families and investigating officers second. These days however such shows tend to draw you in directly, indeed, from the opening shots, into the lives of the officers first and formost, and then it is only through them, their eyes, that we can feel for the victims. I find it irritating that a case need be burdened by former relationships complicated by burning, unanswered questions, immediately impacting on current ones. In short order, we find ourselves in a world of pain that has very little to do with the case. To enjoy modern crime shows I always have to agree to agree, and try not to feel I'm intruding. It is for this reason that I can't enjoy such shows as much as I would like to, I guess I'm more an Agatha Christie type, where the detective has foibles, not problems. One has to admire the professionalism of From Darkness though, and I'm sure all involved will go on to create many fine shows.