Five Days

For the first season it was a very interesting story but it absolutely did not need to be soooo long. This could have been wrapped up in one.

It is the middle of the day when Leanne Wellings stops to buy flowers by the roadside on her way to see her grandfather with her children. The children are in the car when Leanne goes missing. The kids abandon the car and search for her and it is many hours before grandfather Victor calls the police. Later that night Leanne's husband Matt and his stepdaughter Tanya raise the alarm properly and a missing persons investigation is launched headed up by DSI Barclay as the family implodes with hope and worry.

Following on from the success of previous BBC/HBO crossover The State Within, this next joint effort was really pushed by the BBC, which maybe helped it get ratings but perhaps didn't help it when you look at the approach it takes across all five hours. The story is engaging but you do need to understand that it is not a cop thriller but rather a character story that is as much based on the mystery as it is on the emotional and personal impact on all those involved. I say this because I know many viewers were disappointed with this approach and I think it may have been because they assumed that the hype meant it would blow everyone away. And of course it didn't but what it did do was effortlessly draw me into the people and have me caring about everyone involved.

Thus this is one of those dramas where it is not all about the resolution as it is about the overall drama. This is a good thing because the characters are all pretty well written throughout the five selected days and they are convincingly developed or broken as we meet them each time. This worked really well for me and the cast respond well to it. Some have seemingly stock characters with things going on outside this story while others are right in the middle of the pain and loss. Oyelowo turns in yet another strong performance as the husband and his emotional range in the character is impressive, but he is far from being the whole show. Wilton and Malahide both work well together as the parents. I didn't totally think Smart made her character work and, as much as I like Amuka-Bird as an actress, I'm not sure it helped anyone to have her walking round constantly with an air of surrogate grief. Bonneville is solid while Bonnard, McTeer and others are strong. The child performances are mostly good although Dryzek is the strongest of the three and stands up very well alongside the adult cast. Woodward is good but not given as much to do as I would have hoped.

The downside of this approach though is that the actual story of the crime and the investigation is not as good as it perhaps should have been. Too often things rely on coincidence to move the case forward and I didn't like the way that many things happened while the characters are all within spitting distance of it – I appreciate the town is supposed to be small but not that small! The conclusion to the disappearances may also bug some viewers because it is in keeping with the way that it unfolded and, in my opinion, not that satisfying or convincing.

Overall then a very good character drama that is sadly not quite as good as an investigation. The cast all rise to the material and are roundly good with the script. I'm glad I watched it because I did enjoy it but it is not as perfect as some of the gushing reviews around would suggest.

This could have been a nifty two-parter with tight pacing and concise storytelling. Instead, it's bloated with gratuitous soap opera backstories and boring, long, pointless conversations. The character development overwhelms the plot, and detracts from the impact of the story. A missed opportunity.

This review is for the first season. I, like many people here, was intrigued by the premise and enjoyed the first episode. But the rest made me slowly lose interest. For one thing, it felt like the actual solving/conclusion of the case was rushed and barely dealt with. In fact, in the same episode, I had actually already forgotten what happened to her!

But the main issue I had with this show was that many of the characters were just so unlikeable; I had very little empathy for them and just wanted to slash their tires, kick them in the shins, and force them into therapy. I never expect every character in a show/movie to be likable, but oftentimes there's a powerful character arc where the person redeems themselves and/or their "origin story" is revealed and I feel more empathy for them.

And it seems that in most shows/movies, there just aren't as many characters who are unlikeable and stay that way the entire time. There were four people in this show that just bugged me/made me mad and never redeemed themselves to me. And there wasn't much backstory to at least explain why they were so awful. What really sucked is that they were all women.

Now that I think about it, I didn't feel connected to *any* of the characters - even the ones who were likable. They all just felt underdeveloped and flat to me.

I love all the actors in this series. However, the storyline was disjointed, jumbled, depressing, head-scratching and just plain dizzying. I almost didn't watch the last two episodes but forced myself to finish. I wish I had that two hours back. Haven't been this disappointed for a very long time.