Dreamland

I happened upon this by chance. It's unlikely I'm the target audience as a 46 year old man. I used to enjoy watching Lily Allen's chat show a few years ago so I gave this a watch other than that my only point of reference was Frances Barber ( from amongst other things Rik Mayall presents and the amazing episode of The Street with Bob Hoskins). The trailer for this I watched after all 6 episodes it is really good. The whole show reminded me a bit of the Stephen Merchant show Outlaws. It's not quite as funny as that show or quite as compelling. I'd say that Barber is slightly wasted in her role which I found a bit cliched (maybe it has been heavily edited) . Lily Allen was good in this but I felt that her character wasn't written that well . Gabby Best was good in her supporting role. The character that held the whole thing together was Freema Agyeman's character . I've never seen her before and she saved this from being a little bit mediocre. I enjoyed it. It is worth watching and is pretty entertaining.

Dreamland has a fantastic cast! Lily Allen, Freema Agyeman, Frances Barber, Gabby Best, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Shiela Reid, shine through as they depict this dysfunctional family. Great to see Kiell Smith-Bynoe in a more serious role, which he does to perfection.

The first episode can be a bit full on, in places, but as the episodes unfold, we see a calmer, deeper, emotional side of the characters and their vulnerabilities. Dreamland pulls you from some brash humour in the first episode through to an emotional journey and anguish as the episodes unfold. 10/10! Bravo! Love to have a season 2!!

The usually brilliant Sharon Horgan is attached to this production, but it's clear as day she's not had much involvement in this limp mess. Surely the whole concept was thought up in some Soho House coke-fuelled session? "Babe y'know everyone's moving to Margate now". The whole thing oozes overfunded and under-skilled girlboss energy, much like so much of British television today. The addition of Lily Allen just intensifies the privilege and disconnection on show.

To make up for a lack of script, acting and storyline they've added a lot of Technicolor saturation to at least keep you involved...

Nothing particularly stands out with this comedy, it's a pleasant watch and makes Margate look quite idyllic. I must admit I got a kick from the nostalgia of many seaside holidays there .

It's not particularly funny nor so many of the main cast gel all that much, with standard EastEnders /soapy plots. .

The cinematography is all over the place though. Lots of lovely shots of the seaside with oversaturated colour and bright vibrant colours give it a pictur postcard look, but the CinemaScope widescreen aspect is totally wasted on everything else. Scenes with characters talking flick between characters and we have full frame closeups instead of wider shots that would look better in the format.

It's clearly filmed for a normal 16:9 aspect and modified in post as the directors just don't take advantage of the format properly .

I have no understanding why some critics said this show was good. Ok lily allen is in it. She's not an actor but is ok in this. It reminds me of Benidorm. Nothing really happens and it's not really funny and there is also not really much drama. It's massively overrated D it's a "sky original" . How many of those have been good? Promising young woman was good but really their output has been poor so it's not really a surprise to see content like this .lily Allen used to be famous for being.a drugged pop star and flashing her boobs. It doesn't appear there is much too much to her. Marry a stranger things actor ....