Insomnia

Interesting concept but the acting talent (Vicky McClure) is absolutely wasted on the dire script. Every line of dialogue is obvious, lazy and sounds almost like it was written by someone's child on their work experience. The characters don't feel real or believable because every single line is written to get the story from A-B-C rather than to tell us anything about the character. Like at a certain point in the script we are asking 'why was x character being so secretive?' so now another character has to ask this exact question out of nowhere. All tell and no show.

I made it through the first episode only but there's no way I'm going to make it through the rest. Really such a shame as this could have been far more interesting if better executed.

I was looking forward to this as I'm a big fan of Vicki McClure, but honestly even an actor of her calibre couldn't stop this from sliding into one woeful mess. At first the story seems compelling enough, but after a few episodes the characters start to behave in ways that will have you shouting at your television. The respective sub-plots featuring the teenage daughter's dodgy relationship and the sister's fertility struggles add nothing to the story except to provide the characters with further opportunities to demonstrate poor judgement and engage in cringeworthy conversations where everyone talks in circles. The second to last episode enters the realms of hackneyed, scorned stalker out for revenge who does a bunch of silly things that are completely ludicrous and overblown and ohhhh my, the kid's behaviour in the final scene... I was hoping a meteorite would land on the house and put everyone out their misery. Is it a revenge thriller? Is it a supernatural thriller? Is it a social commentary about adults who try to be their kids' besties instead of parenting? Or a piece about overly ambitious middle class professionals handcuffed by mortgages on gigantic houses in the countryside, burdened by their past relationships with creepy family members? Who knows? Please don't do it again, Vicky, you're so much better than this.

The end of the first episode jumps into a trailer for the next episode that can only be skipped by pausing, fast forwarding, or backing out of the episode and manually selecting the next episode!!! It presents you with immediate spoilers that will pop the bubble of Mystery before you can reach the remote!!! I do not understand why this would be introduced without a "skip spoiler" button!!! This show seems to be a slow-burn, tepid tea storyline which will likely simmer for quite a few episodes before it reaches a light boil. For that reason, an ultra high speed condensed spoiler between episodes clashes loudly! So far the acting seems great, it has a real potential, as the plot thickens - no need to dilute it in such a way!!!

The show concludes with a loose end dragged into the pond and left there with no further mention of it! The purpose of the number sequence really doesn't add up! It certainly does not leave you waiting for season 2.

It's a bit of an odd one. It portrays itself as some sort of spooky, supernatural mystery... but then just pivots into family drama and suburban horror.

And I found the family drama and suburban horror interesting and with some nice twists - but not too many to be silly - and I ended up watching all the episodes in one day.

The strangest thing is they almost seemed to forget where the story started and had a bit of a rush at the end to try and then return to that narrative. And I can't say they did it that well.

Those wanting more spooky goings on will be disappointed. It did feel a bit of a bait and switch and that's going to upset some viewers.

But as I said, I really enjoyed it. The cast was good too, and it was nice to see a different range to the lead actress from her time in Line of Duty.

I was excited to watch this as Vicky McClure has done some great TV and the cast is strong but it didn't live up to my expectations.

I won't post spoilers but the overall story is actually really good however the show takes way too long to get to any kind of reveal.

At first it's unclear whether it's a crime/thriller story or something paranormal. This doesn't add to the suspense but is just annoying as it feels like the show doesn't actually know what it's about. Some of the side storylines are probably supposed to be interesting red herrings but they just feel increasingly pointless as the series goes on.

This could have been an excellent two-parter as there are some decent performances from a solid cast and the core story (when they get to it) is good. As it is, it feels puffy and self-indulgent which is a real shame and a real waste.