The Town

This is absolutely classic brilliant British drama. Three perfect episodes. Absolutely and completely totally satisfying. Great story. Great characters. Beautifully wound up. I totally loved it.

This is a very good "series" (if three episodes are a series). The actors are all very strong; Andrew Scott, in the lead role, is a revelation, as is Martin Clunes. This show belongs to a uniquely British genre, the something-is-surrealistic -about-this-place -but-everyone-seems -to-find-it-normal -and- that's-also-odd mystery. (The most salient example of this genre is The Prisoner, though The Town is a great deal more understated.)

The comments of some reviewers that the series doesn't explain every detail of the characters' lives; that some plot points are superfluous; and that it isn't a documentary on local government; are all accurate. I didn't care, and I doubt other admirers of well-crafted television will, either.

Bottom line: I liked The Town very much, and wish it had been an entire series.

Andrew Scott puts in a great performance and makes it just about worth watching. The plot itself is serviceable. That's the good news.

The rest is bad. It's called 'The Town', but should have been called 'The Hamlet', since there's only one pub in use and everyone meets up all the time in a tiny range of locations. Then there are the ridiculous figures of the ruling mayor and his side-kick, who seem to be from a kids' series on CBBC. What parallel universe is this meant to be? I am not the first to note that English towns don't have mayors like this. Without this nonsense, I suppose the title would have had to be changed to something more relevant.

Has Mark never been back to Renton for the last decade or more? Is London on a different planet? Why is he over double the age of his sister? Why is their Gran in the programme at all?

From the other side of the world, I can honestly say that I enjoyed this 3part series. I found it much more enjoyable that some episodes of Midsomer Murders that seem to be repeating on our local channels interminably, although some of them ARE intriguing. The bewilderment and disbelief of the siblings was extremely poignant, especially Mark's belief that he would be able to return to his 'life' in London and forget what had happened - as if! I suppose if you live in England, some of the action might seem unbelievable, but as an outsider, watching the lives of the people in 'The Town' seemed quite believable to me. But then, I also enjoyed the Harry Potter series and recently the re-run of Independence Day. I suppose you just have to accept that what you are watching is 'theatre', even though it's on the screen, and accept it as that. If you want realism, watch a documentary. If you want atmosphere, pretty scenery and a (reasonably) plausible story line, you really can't complain about 'The Town'. I watched it in one hit after recording it from free-to-air, and I'm glad I did. Go on, make yourself a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and watch the complete series on DVD. You won't regret it - unless you are young and prefer your TV viewing to be full of action.

This is one of those stories that as it goes along, more and more is revealed until it gets to the point of being ridiculous. It has good characters, a good atmosphere, and I enjoyed everything about it but that core aspect of the plot, with twists and turns that make it so ridiculous that it leaves a bad feeling when you've finished watching it, like you've been cheated. It starts off with deaths so mysterious that you share how devastated the son is in being unable to comprehend or cope with it, then it is answered in a somewhat plausible though unsatisfactory manner, then that's up-ended by a twist, then THAT'S up-ended by another twist and then it's over.