Breathless

This is an awesome series. It has a slow build, but it's well worth the wait (big reveal). There is a lot of suspense and surprisingly, romance. It has good character development. They are not one dimensional and they all have heart. It was beautifully shot. It has great costuming (think Mad Men) and music. The actors are real pros. It has riveting dialog. The ending leaves it open for another season. I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop should they decide to make a second season. I don't understand the negative reviews for Breathless on IMDb; were we watching the same show? I went into watching this series without knowing anything about it. I happen to watch Masterpiece Theatre on PBS and am a big fan of mystery. I can understand why people might think this show is not a mystery based on episode 1, which is why I said it's a slow build. Quite a bit of time is spent setting up for episodes 2 and 3. If you can be patient, I do think it's worth it based on the things I said above.

In the first instance I likened this to Twiglets not sure if I liked it or not but I just had to keep going back for more and more. But by the end of episode one I was totally hooked and have been totally addicted and am desperately hoping for a second series.

It has perfectly captured the essence of the era and yes other Doctor TV series made at that time, so much so I felt I should be perched on a chair with my TV aerial trying to get a good picture.

It has made a refreshing change from the usual "period drama" yes of course it will be compared to Mad Men, even Emergency Ward 10 and other sixties doctor series but I for one see nothing wrong with this and look forward to enjoying more of this first rate series.

All these actors/actresses were previously unknown to me. Joanna Page appears in other online photographs to be considerably thinner than she appeared to be in this series. Her upper arms looked as if she really was very heavy. The choice of dresses, the eyeglasses and the hairstyle added to the illusion of weight. Did she put on weight for this role or was she just padded?

... why 'Breathless' garnered such poor reviews and such poor scoring on IMDb.

The direction was beautifully fluent, not a moment lost.

The plot line was perhaps a little crazy at times, but kept me guessing till the end.

The sets and the costumes were sumptuous to the eye ...

And the acting was superb. I was going to say, particularly from Jack Davenport as Otto and Catherine Steadman as Angela, but then I remembered how superb also were Natasha Little as Elizabeth, Oliver Chris as Truscott, Shaun Dingwall as Enderbury, Iain Glenn as Mulligan - not to speak of Joanna Page as the increasingly complex Lily Enderbury. In fact, the acting and the script combined to create real people, characters of complexity, not the usual wooden-tops so often found in TV dramas.

And rather than meander on and on as so many serials like to do nowadays, the whole thing wound up beautifully in six episodes.

If there was any justice, 'Breathless' would top this year's BAFTAs list!

This show is something completely different and refreshing, finally in a world where everything feels like a rehash of what's been done. It has unfair comparisons to Mad Men because it is set in the sixties, but those who say that obviously didn't bother to watch it. The sophisticated plot explores what it is like to be a woman and a man reproducing in a world of limited options and the moral choices OB/GYN's and their colleagues had to face in that world. From birth control and abortion to treating menopause with lithium, the show touches on many topics most networks treat as taboo. The story is very compelling and, considering its cancellation, too much for its producers to handle.