Midwinter of the Spirit

I liked the first episode of Midwinter of the Spirit, and look forward to future episodes. The biggest complaint I have is one that is fairly constant for many series and mini-series - the background noises, whether music or other sound effects, often overpower the dialogue. Some actors easily overcome this problem because their voices carry well enough that they can be heard and understood. Other actors are, naturally I suppose, more soft spoken, and I have to strain to understand what they are saying. For me, this really takes away from my enjoyment of the show. I found this to be true of this show, as much as any other. Otherwise, my rating would have been higher. I wish those in charge of sound effects would be more cognizant of this. As for those soft-spoken actors, I would exhort them to SPEAK UP!

Bravo ITV, I cannot remember the last time I saw a new drama from ITV that was even remotely creepy or as dark as this.

Really well made, well written, it's just a shame that it only consisted of three parts, I'm not sure if there is mileage for further episodes, but let's hope it's revisited.

Of the three episodes, the first part was definitely the best, very dark obviously, but well structured, the second was excellent, and the third still good, but a little off the first two.

The series focuses primarily on Merilly, she focuses on actual demons and her own personal demons. Trying to bring up her 16 year old daughter single handedly after the death of her husband who'd been having an affair. The Police call in Merilly to help with a Satantic killing and a world of nasties is opened up.

Really well acted, I love Anna Maxwell Martin, a great actress, ITV need to find her a top notch role after disastrously axing The Bletchley Circle. David Threlfall is always a joy to watch, as is Siobhan Finneran. Leila Mimmack is wonderful as the creepy Rowenna.

Excellent production values, they looked really good, very slick, the music used was really good too, though I would agree with an earlier poster that it was a little invasive on times.

Creepy as hell 10/10

I'm often asked what someone should watch. Well, if you're like me...you like a new world of wonder, a great story and being left with a "Wow"-feeling. I recommend this 3-episode miniseries to binge all at once.

I've read and reread all of the Merrily Watkins books and enjoy them very much. I accidentally discovered that some of them had been made into a mini-series, during my latest reread, and went off to find them. I shouldn't have been surprised; so often a favourite book is filmed and it just doesn't work. Though there was a quality to this miniseries that made it seem hopeful. But really, I had to force myself to watch the final episode, and only because I'd gone to the effort to download them, and hated to waste the bandwidth.

They have played with the characters, and the story-line to the point where it has pretty much nothing to do with a really great series of books. The characters are shallow and sketchy, the plot is contrived, and pulls the more extreme bits from several books and bodges them together without logic. What is subtle and complex and a really good psychological thriller as a book, doesn't even come across as the usual pumped up crime drama, but just irritating and wrong. I'm really disappointed.