Out There

Very watchable, UK take, on a Breaking Bad type of show.

I surmised, around Episode 3, that this was not a stand alone series as there are too many threads to tie up in just 6 episodes. Usually, that WOULD bother me as I like things to just finish rather than go on & on, stretching the patience of the viewer & diluting the plot (Gangs of London, take note), but this series has some understated characters & the Welsh scenery is lush.

There's really nothing too negative to say other than there being one or two characters who, so far at least, seem surplus to requirement & have a distinct scent of Red Herring about them.

I sincerely hope that all the acting team have signed up for the long haul.

I am writing this after Bingewatching series 1 over 2 nights.

It's filmed in a part of the world I know well, the strong Welsh cast give the show gravitas, theres beautiful scenery of the less rugged hills of lower mid Wales and the characters are well written too.

The downside is perhaps the accent of Martin Clunes but is still closer to a mid Wales accent than that of the real Welsh actors.

After about the second episode you put up with it and forget his years as doc martin as the script takes over and the viewer is gripped with the story.

It all goes well until episode 6 where it seems to lose it way Like the forthcoming series Protection, this has 6 episodes whereas the usual 4 for a itv drama might have been enough.

Do hope it will return but keeping such a strong cast together will be a big job for the producers.

To this reviewer this is a series about ambition. The protagonist, well defined by Martin Clunes, aspires to live his life as those before him have, a farmer in farm country, raising a family, and making an honest dollar. His ambitions are challenged however by the local lads, who have an entirely different business in mind; by his own son, who is not finding the respect he needs in farming; and by the job of farming itself, which had somehow failed to keep pace with the realities of the modern world we live in. Meanwhile, all those ambitions are in turn challenged by the producers at BBC who (like their counterparts across the pond) are lately obsessed with the challenge of taking a project that would have worked best as a one-of feature, and morphing it into a multi-year series. Which it most definitely is not. But a multi-year series has a much higher payout, doesn't it? ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Farmer, Nathan has to deal with a raft of problems that arrive all at once, his son Johnny gets involved with a gang of drug dealers, and when his neighbouring farmer dies, it looks as though the future of his own farm is under threat.

I had very high hopes for this one, a Welsh set drama, fronted by Martin Clunes, penned by the excellent crime writer Ed Whitmore.

After a slow start it does pick up, it gets better as it progresses, an incident in the third episode changes the tone and feel of it, it gets warmer, but I'd never really say it ignites. I wasn't blown away by the final episode, is it perhaps left open for a second series.

There are a series of hard to believe events, you need to suspend your disbelief somewhat, but it's definitely watchable, largely due to the excellent performance of Martin Clunes, who gives us an interesting Welsh accent.

It is great to see so many Welsh actors, the likes of Mark Lewis Jones, Sharon Morgan, Aneirin Hughes and Eiry Jones, all play their parts well.

Good visuals, great location work, Carmarthen in particular is great to see.

7/10.

When is a mini series not a mini series when it is a series!

We watched this as we knew that as it was classed as a mini series by IMDB it would be only one series and NOT multiple series'

Imagine how disappointed we were when the last episode finished leaving an unfinished story!

It was a great series deserving 8-9 out of 10 until the final scene of the final episode resulting in the whole family grunting and groaning with dismay and the thought if we won't remember anything about this when the second series comes out!

Please please please categorise the TV series' correctly as it is really annoying!