Paula

To begin with, this was good edgy stuff. There were some inconsistencies in Paula's character but then that can be true of life too. The slow moving first episode came, rather abruptly, to a climax. Then everything fell apart. At the start of episode two, I genuinely felt I must have missed at least half an episode. The characters had gone completely over the top, shouting, screaming and acting hysterically. It's all completely inexplicable. At least Paula is acting more consistently. She just goes to bed with whoever happens to walk through her hall door. Then she starts shooting wildly in a bathroom in an empty city restaurant at Christmas! Why is it Christmas all of a sudden? Or is it just that the production had too much to drink and thought it was Christmas?

Everything is falling apart in Paula's life. She is having an affair with a married teacher colleague, and now her headmaster has found out about it. Her younger brother is having serious problems (drugs, alcohol?) and is living in a garage. Moreover she has discovered rats in her basement, and when she hires a handyman to take care of the problem, he turns out to be a psychopath. No wonder Paula has to swallow a lot of pills to avoid a breakdown.

This is the outline of the brilliant thriller TV-series "Paula" from BBC, which is a movement away from "tedious realism" towards an embracement of the supernatural and elements from old horror movies such as haunting ghosts, rats in basement of your house, and children locked up in a cupboard. It's all really a bit over the top, but I love it. The acting is very convincing. Paula i played by one of the upcoming actresses in British film, Denise Gough and the sexy but dangerous handy man, which Paula hires to fix the basement of her house, is played by Tom Hughes.

This looked like it would be something special with twists and turns in abundance but it flat-lined in grand style. Even though the source of evil seemed obvious and the past was about to be explained. It just didn't happen and became more and more ridiculous. I understand that TV audiences are not all fortunate enough to apply logic and notice obvious faults in relation to how events are depicted and how they would happen in the real world. The holes in this grew larger than the potholes down the end of my road and fact became fiction in virtually every scene. I would list them but there were too many. Potential turned into farcical and suspense turned into the damn right ridiculous. Did they change writers and directors half way through? In the end I had to keep checking that there was only 3 episodes as there was only 5 minutes left and the end made the whole series look like a broken pencil, no point. So much potential ruined. Better luck next time.

The best thing about this Irish-set drama are its strong characters, notably the heroine, a confident but normal young woman whose life is undermined after making an unfortunate sexual acquaintance. It's relative weakness is its plot, which fails to operate on the principle that "less is more"; instead, the menacing premise set up in the first episode is not so much built upon, but almost discarded in favour of new, unnecessary elements, and the ultimate conclusion doesn't ring true. It's a shame, as the cast all do a good job; with a little more restraint, this could have been really good.

Haula Paula on a trawler and dump her out at sea

Like most people said , it starts out with a lot of promise.... and then it springs leaks on every pixel on the screen.

How do they get away with crap like this ?

You'd need a couple of rolls of scotch tape to join the scenes together, and unless I'm losing my mind (which is quite possible after this debacle) there was no one looking after the store after episode one!

This was like the tail of a kite when the wind drops , just all over the place with no idea as to what direction it's going to flap in.

I, who have no experience whatsoever in scriptwriting, could have turned out a better product than this unfathomable piece of garbage.

If it's ever announced that there'll be a season 2 I'll call the military, no sense in calling the Garda as they appear to be completely useless.

Put a 100 mile exclusion zone around every TV studio and don't let ANY of this crew past the gate!