User reviews

1. First review ever. 2. I picked this up seriously late. 3. What what what. I shamelessly consume TV series and particularly crime / drama. So I have some experience. This was special. Really special. Short and effective. It was brutal with its honesty. Bless the Scottish accents for some edge. Layered darkness. You need to watch and enjoy. Script and acting. Photography. All top notch. Lovely find on Netflix.

Wow, this was unexpectedly good, if unrelentingly bleak. It covers a whole gamut of awful scenarios and dark subject matter. It's brilliantly written and acted throughout and some of the performances are the best I've seen for ages. It really deserves a wider audience, but it might all just be a bit too heavy and realistic for some.

There will be inevitable comparisons to 'The Missing'. Will keep this comparison brief, as anything should stand on its own two feet without constant comparison, 'One of Us' is not as good. That said, while flawed it is well made and gripping in its own right.

'One of Us' cannot be faulted visually or in the production values. The Scottish scenery is like a character of its own, so beautiful yet so atmospherically remote, and one is indeed reminded of Scandinavian crime dramas such as 'Wallander' or to a lesser extent 'The Killing'. Photography is pretty exquisite too, capturing the scenery wonderfully. A broodingly moody music score always helps, and the one in 'One of Us' works well, almost cinematic-sounding but not intrusive.

Writing here has much to say about adult and sensitive topics such as euthanasia, murder, drug dealing, grief, misconduct, adultery, Parkinson's and incest and deals with it all in an incredibly intelligent, clever and non-biased way. While the storytelling is not completely flawless, for me it does have to be commended for trying to be different from other mystery dramas, focusing enough on the mystery but focusing also on the aftermath and repercussions for the families and also presenting a moral edge. There is a huge amount of atmosphere too, the production values help as well as the skillful direction, but it is high in tension and conflict with plenty of twists and turns that all feel relevant and stop the storytelling from dragging.

The denouement is intense and very affecting, though admittedly while the motive was a shock and didn't see it coming for a second the murderer's identity, after such a great job by the writers diverting suspicion onto one character to another, wasn't so much, very much strongly suspected them at the end of the penultimate episode.

As said, it is not perfect. There are parts of the drama, especially in the first episode, where there are so many revelations and so much being told that there is a danger of missing something and it occasionally feels confused. The resolution of the female police officer's story was rather illogical, in real life she would have not got away with what she did regardless of her personal situation. That's personal opinion of course. Also loved what was done with the characters, so vividly drawn and presented as characters that are both vulnerable and deeply flawed, one gets to know them so well and really care about their main situation and also other subplots that while one cares about how the drama ends one doesn't really want any of them to be the murderer.

Reception to the acting has garnered mixed opinions, being positively received by most critics but panned here. From personal opinion it was very good, and while the overwrought opinion is understandable the frenetic emoting and looking downtrodden/miserable fitted the tone of the storytelling and the nature of the situations/topics covered very well. Admittedly though, the frenetic emoting is overdone somewhat by Joanna Vanderham who occasionally comes over as robotic in the first two episodes before registering stronger when her material gets meatier. A couple of actors, such as Steve Evets, do speak low and quite quickly and when the Scottish accents are as thick as they are it is not always easy to understand. Juliet Stevenson and John Lynch however in particular give very nuanced and moving performances, Stevenson brings out her character's vulnerabilities heart-wrenchingly in the second episode and Lynch is often incredibly powerful in the last.

In conclusion, has a few problems, particularly the odd story lapse and a couple of performances that could have been better, but mostly very successful and gripping. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The characters are complex and nuanced as are the performances for most. Others like the brother Rob are marred in just being a plot device rather than fully formed person. The parents get the best stuff and while there's lots of nail biting and the furious smoking of a cigarette- and why wouldn't there be- they each unravel, piece by piece, righteousness, judgement, martyrdom, cowardice, greed and of course, hypocrisy. All of it. It's Greek tragedy.

This is a totally mesmerizing series. There is almost a subplot for every character all of which interweave to reveal the bigger mystery.

Each character has realistic and sometimes horrible motives, sometimes the person is just weak. No matter, all motives are completely believable and keep the plot twisted.

Plus the acting is phenomenal. I could not recommend this show more strongly.

Great first episode, the rest are a bit sluggish. There's a few separate stories being told and I expected them to weave together, but in the end they were kept separate. The ending was unexpected, but felt drawn out. Good acting and cinematography.

I'm looking for more UK series to watch and realized I saw this and thought I left a review. Very good mystery, crime, thriller. Th guy from the fall ( one of my all time favorite's ) is in this. If you like good thrillers, who dun it's you'll enjoy this.

PLEASE do yourself an enormous favor and ignore every negative and even-less-than-highly positive review. This is superb! Extremely intelligent, unpredictable, twists and turns, very believable. Not scary. Not graphic. Not bloody or violent. I've watched it twice. I haven't seen anything on Netflix better than this series. This is the first review I have written. I highly recommend this series.

It started off really well, but the twists kept getting sillier and sillier. It keeps you guessing and on the edge of your seat so that's a good thing, it's something easy to watch if you're not going to take it too seriously.

This decade have more desolate parts of the UK created their own crime dramas, where harsh nature bears a natural supporting part, emphasizing the bad thoughts and bad deeds... Events and characters are intertwined, actors-actresses have usually no model look, creating the atmosphere of reality and letting to pay more attention on the whole cast rather than someone single and "famous".

The series in question, with main events in the Scottish Highland, includes the features above, and that is why it is generally to my liking. But as the total No. of episodes is 4 only, some supplementary events and characters are excessive, focusing on 1 crime could have been enough. The course of solving the crime is okay, the wrongdoer was not revealed too early, but the motives and background did not leave distinct impression for me. That is why I rate e.g. Shetland and Happy Valley higher than this miniseries here.

Well...... I have just binge watched this fabulous powerful well written drama it was astounding. There are a few interlocking stories linked up to the main one n they are all superb. It has been a long while since I have seen something of this calibre.

The acting was excellent n the characters were so believable n fit in beautifully with the story.

The ending was a completely gobsmacked experience n totally unexpected n unpredictable.

I highly recommend this series especially if you like intense dark n suspenseful drama.

The actors were wonderful. I really got interested in the plot but The denouement was absurd and just plain awful. I can't get back those 4 hours of my life.

A young and recently married couple Adam and Gracie are murdered in cold blood by one Lee Walsh, a small time mugger. Lee then commits a car theft at knife point and drives off to the Scottish countryside to finish what he had started. As fate would have it, his car meets with an accident and overturns, gravely injuring him. But strangely, he has landed up in the farm of the Elliott and the Douglas families, Adam and Gracie's folks, respectively. It sounds too much of a coincidence, and therefore, it perhaps isn't.

Almost unconscious, Lee is rescued by the two families in mourning already due to the tragic loss of the lives of their loved ones, it takes them no time to discover who Lee Walsh actually is. They hold back their retribution, albeit only temporarily, giving sanity a chance. In the dead of the night though, someone's unrestrained anguish and hatred for the murderer get the better of the senses, and Lee's death is inevitable. Each one of the members is aware that the culprit is one among them, but no one owns up. In the meanwhile, police detectives arrive at their doorstep to speak to them about the double murder and Lee Walsh. It's showtime - do they discover about Lee's death at the barn too, and is retribution the real motive?

"One of Us" is a gripping BBC mini series based on an apparent coincidence that really isn't one. It's a complex web of mysterious liaisons and relationships, family secrets and emotional turbulence. Created & written by Harry & Jack Williams and directed by William McGregor, the series is brutally fast, deeply disturbing and sharply narrated. The performances are commendable, and the Scottish countryside is beautiful. There is a subplot playing by the side about the dilemma of the investigating officer, and it was altogether avoidable as it's not relevant to the theme.

Very good mystery. Kept me interested and kept the suspense. I love how unpredictable it is.

Great turns and twists of a "who done it" story line. Ultimately, those who are implicated are not held accountable.