Out There

People are right about Clunes's accent. Love this actor, he's a natural, but unfortunately they have tried to make him Welsh. If they wanted this character to be Welsh they should have got a Welsh actor.

It's great that it's set in Wales. Beautiful country and unique people. I blame the director. The one mitigating excuse for Clunes's accent is his father is English. But his accent is not continuous - it veers badly between English and Welsh in a single sentence and is distracting. It takes you out of your suspension of disbelief. They should have made him Welsh or English - a whole new barrel of issues to contend with although apparently some say too much is packed into this drama already.

Only on episode one. And will stick with it because like Martin Clunes (let down here by being allowed to make up his own accent), love Wales and the Welsh and am very interested in the subject matter of farmers, youth, county lines etc etc.

Wales, the country, features in this English language mini series. Martin Clunes most famous for "Men Behaving Badly" heads the cast and presents a Welsh farmer barely making ends meet financially and merely making ends meet with his teenage son as well; whose mom has died.

The first episode is a little slow burn, but soon we are introduced to the villains, Gerran Howell plays the teenage drug dealer to great effect. The teenage son is induced to hold a mysterious package and ofcourse chaos ensues.

There is a gritty realism and desperation to our characters and it's easy to embrace them and lose yourself in the drama and tragic events that follow. Included in the drama are the police, their investigations, neighbours in hospital and a duplicitous brother who is both hero and minor villain. The bank looms as they do over all farms, and our hero must navigate these waters with skill.

Of late, although we love British TV over the exploding cars of American TV, the Brits seem to use a chainsaw to hack through the last episode with eyes fixed on season two. But the failure to end season one well, usually disappoints.

"Out There" does not fall into that trap! The last episode is as exciting and edgy as the entire series and proves to be a gem!

Highly recommended!

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Nathan Williams (Martin Clunes) is a rural farmer in the Welsh valleys, living with his teenage son, Johnny (Louis Ashbourne Serkis.) He is becoming frustrated at the sight of the drones he sees flying over the fields near his home, on account of the county lines drug gangs operating in the area. When it becomes clear Johnny has become caught up in this world, Nathan is driven to extremes to protect his son, until a terrifying act of violence plunges them all into a swirling whirlwind of hell.

In the later years of his life and career, Martin Clunes is moving away from the fluffier, more light-hearted comedy roles he broke through with, into more mature, rounded serious drama roles, the latest of which is this six part ITV drama, honing in on the still relevant topic of 'county lines' drugs gangs, exploiting youngsters to distribute drugs in smaller, more secluded towns and cities. The result is a curious mixed bag that just about holds your attention to the end.

In the lead role, Clunes has to carry the project, which he has long form with, and he does so reliably well, managing a decent Welsh accent, numbingly calm, even during high stress moments, and losing his cool only when his emotions overpower him. He has some strong chemistry with co star Lewis Jones as his brother, who has an arguably stronger presence. It's the strongest aspect of a first half that drags a little and feels uneventful, before the gravity of the story kicks in in the second act, and things get dramatic all at once.

It's not entirely believable in its execution, but it's a depiction of an increasingly desperate situation, and it manages to keep you riveted to the end, with an opening for a follow up, to at least make things add up that little bit more. ***

Very watchable, UK take, on a Breaking Bad type of show.

I surmised, around Episode 3, that this was not a stand alone series as there are too many threads to tie up in just 6 episodes. Usually, that WOULD bother me as I like things to just finish rather than go on & on, stretching the patience of the viewer & diluting the plot (Gangs of London, take note), but this series has some understated characters & the Welsh scenery is lush.

There's really nothing too negative to say other than there being one or two characters who, so far at least, seem surplus to requirement & have a distinct scent of Red Herring about them.

I sincerely hope that all the acting team have signed up for the long haul.

To this reviewer this is a series about ambition. The protagonist, well defined by Martin Clunes, aspires to live his life as those before him have, a farmer in farm country, raising a family, and making an honest dollar. His ambitions are challenged however by the local lads, who have an entirely different business in mind; by his own son, who is not finding the respect he needs in farming; and by the job of farming itself, which had somehow failed to keep pace with the realities of the modern world we live in. Meanwhile, all those ambitions are in turn challenged by the producers at BBC who (like their counterparts across the pond) are lately obsessed with the challenge of taking a project that would have worked best as a one-of feature, and morphing it into a multi-year series. Which it most definitely is not. But a multi-year series has a much higher payout, doesn't it? ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))