From Darkness

Three quarters of the way through this series, I feel I can provide a well balanced review based on what I've seen so far.

It is quite slow in parts, there have been more slow pauses and deliberate gazes then I have ever seen. The production values are a little disappointing, it feels quite clunky.

The story is interesting, but it's been done better so many times, Waking the Dead, Messiah etc.

I have to say I found Anne Marie Duff quite a strange choice for the part, she's an excellent actress, maybe too good for the part. Johnny Harris I have enjoyed more, he fits the role much better.

It's improved as it's gone on, Part 3 was rather good. It will be interesting to see who was responsible for the murders.

I wasn't able to finish watching the first episode...

Lots of shots of Claire Church gazing deeply (into the past) with accompanying visual and sound effects. Close ups of quivering lips and tears and other such artifacts.

Little else going on, the usual "boss (es) not happy with progress".

Then the flashbacks started, that did it for me, had to hit the kill switch.

The most entertaining part provided by DS Anthony Boyce, the Oxford educated dog-hating, orange juice drinking, seasick, hung over assistant.

Entertaining but not spectacular.

Unbelievable in parts. A few enjoyable twists. Villians are suitably deranged. Only 4 one-hour episodes making it easy to binge.

The people rating this less than a 3 are just being ridiculous and dramatic. I've given it a 6 as that's as far as I'm prepared to go but it's more of a 5.

(Also, i quite liked the ending, which was perversely satisfying.)

But ultimately worth the effort. Plot moves along slowly and overall it is not easy to keep up with what is happening. One good thing is that it is only four episodes so thankfully not too painful.

Opening theme song is great. Only great thing about this poorly written crime series. A great cast handed a poorly written script to try and make it better.

Angst around the dramatics about Claire's mental health is a let down when revealed. Goes on for almost 3 episodes until we find out what hurt Claire is hiding when revealed. Gosh I thought it had been something horrifying like the victims found because this is what we are pushed to believe. Disjunct, male bullies and then the young detective takes a pot shot at Claire...why? The main character Claire's part is a nightmare, gosh how did she act it?. Series is only worth watching to do housework.