The Pact

I can't understand why the low score. Well maybe I can. It's four women in the lead. It's a Black woman as the senior police officer. It's the presence of an utter turd who gets himself offed because he's an utter turd. 'Not all men' I hear you say. No not all men. No man I know behaves like that but you can hardly deny they exist. Anyway this isn't a true crime drama it's fiction so get over yourselves.

Great cast and great acting. And a surprise whodunnit. Well it surprised me anyway. Enjoyed it.

The BBC have had some hits and misses with recent thriller / dramas, and this is one of their hits. Good on the BBC for modernising their view on audiences by putting all episodes on iPlayer for us to binge watch.

We were really disappointed with the pursuit of love, with no bones and sparse storyline. The Pact, however, had us glued to each episode until we reached the final conclusion. No spoilers here, but if you love the Welsh countryside from Monmouth to the head of the valleys road, a compelling storyline that builds, twists and turns, and are willing to spend 6 hours to be thoroughly entertained, then this is for you.

Pay no attention to Marmite reviews - make your own mind up.

After an arrestingly twisty first few episodes - The Pact, a somewhat far-fetched crime drama set at a Welsh brewery - falls away in big chunks. What makes it worth a gander at all is the incredible cast which has no right to be this good - they all turn in great performances and to see Marsan and the brilliant Aneurin Barnard as a fractious father and son is glorious. Ade Edmondson is also there. If this had cut out a lot of the extraneous fat and red herringy side-plots and been three episodes rather than six it could've been really fascinating - but sadly it wasn't.

Having read the previous review I understand what they mean. However I'm currently on the third episode and quite enjoying it. More is happening behind the obvious and it's certainly worth sticking with. Good afternoon or an evening's viewing.

What's really upsetting is the MSM reviewers saying they like it. Despite it being on BBC it has all the cachet of an ITV thriller. A good cast, ludicrous two dimensional characters. Every line flat as a pancake. Every single trope you've ever seen is thrown into the mix. Every 'twist' is signposted like a motorway. You just know we'll be given one red herring after another until they need to install traffic lights in 'the woods'.