Too Good to be True

My first thought about this was 'Surely they haven't given away the plot in the title?'. After about 30 minutes I realised the answer was 'Yes, they have'.

At this point I decided to turn my brain off to prevent any possible damage but continued watching. Actually, if you watch it in brain off mode it's not that bad, there was even a twist at the very end that I didn't see coming, the sort where you ask yourself afterwards: 'Why didn't I see that coming?'.

Channel 5 give us new dramas on a very small budget which is great but sometimes the quality suffers. It's unambitious, undemanding viewing, you will see worse shows this year, which is a depressing thought.

I am a completist by nature. A crappy book, I will finish, etc. So, having been 2 episodes in on this drivel, I decided to just finish it. First off, I switched it off twice because the little boy Liam, was the most annoying kid I have ever seen on television. They really pulled out all the stops for this caricature. Glasses, check...Short in stature...check. Know it all...check.

This made zero sense. You are googling his wealth in episode 3?

She's a cleaner, who never does anything but walk around with a dust cloth. She has this horrible kid. She has an awful accent.

He was on Downton Abby and he is a good actor, but this was a horrible project.

He " casually meets her", and the drama unfolds, from a really stupid premise.

I guess this a show for keeping in the background. You know, when you like to have some noise, while doing something. I actually do that often, when I code, for example: put a TV show or a movie on one side of the screen, and code on the other. When in that kind of mode, this show may look decent, since it has quite good dynamics, but... When you start to think about it seriously it makes little to no sense. The woman has a kid, and we are led to believe, she cares about him, and sacrificing her own food for him even. But then, she has an abusive ex, against whom she does not have a restraining order (and probably did not even try), and then she takes the kid with her to a random "billionaire" that wants her to clean for him without much of an afterthought, that it may be dangerous.

Not only that, but she also completely ignores the requirement to not enter prohibited area on her 2nd day. Or 1st one depending on how you count really. Don't get me wrong, even "The Beauty and The Beast" had this kind of thing in it, and numerous other stories, too, but they always either tempt the character to break the rule or force through some kind of accident. There was no accident here, and I do not think closed doors tempt people that much to risk a job one needs to literally survive.

But I guess, that's what you would expect from a person taking her kid inside guests' rooms in a hotel, she is cleaning at. Taking the kid to the hotel, because there is no one to look after him? That I can understand. Taking him inside the rooms? Definitely a no-no, and in real world would probably result in her getting fired pretty soon.

These seemingly little things break the whole atmosphere that the show is trying to build. Since this is supposed to be a thriller, the damage is outright fatal.

Having watched some utter dross in 2024 whe it comes to tv drama I went into this with some trepidation as a result of all the recent reviews. This is a little predictable but is easy to watch and does have a storyline. I think some of the reviews are a little harsh considering some dramas I've watched based upon good reviews only to find they are shockingly bad. I'm glad it's only 4 episodes long however the story flows nicely, setting the scene and although most people would scoff at the storyline by saying "well this is too good to be true" I guess that's the whole point.

Overall I would say this is worth a watch if at a loose end.

Single mum and cleaner Rachel lands on her feet, when she is offered a job cleaning for a wealthy businessman, the pair soon become close, but Rachel is left wondering if things are too good to be true.

I've read some scathing reviews about this show, and whilst I don't think it's great, I still think it's watchable.

The issue I had, is that I thought the first two episodes were very pedestrian, too slow, and very predictable, it definitely improves from episode three onwards.

You have to wonder where Rachel is at on occasion, would a mum let her son spend so much with a total stranger? It was a little hard to believe.

There was definitely a degree of tension, and episode one had a nice amount of intrigue.

Kara Tointon and Allen Leech are both rather good, and I really liked Sara Powell's performance as the cold and stoic Simone, a very interesting character.

Filmed in Dublin, it looks rather good, makes a change from Eastern Europe.

6/10.