Like some other reviewers I'm a little bemused at all the 10 stars. I guess this is because the outbreak of AIDs - and the dreadful ostracising of gay men dying from it - is being tackled for the first time in this way in this generation. Which is great. I just wish the execution had been a bit better.
The characters are too superficial to do this important topic justice and the story is rushed. Keeley Hawes is one of my favourite actresses but her character-arc as Ritchie's mother is just weird and unbelievable. Actually a lot of the characters are - they talk in ways that are just not realistic. Their dialogue is all telling and no showing, with much modern thinking that wouldn't have been expressed that way back then.
Jill annoyed me too. Lydia West is usually a compelling actress but Jill was a one-sided creature, all maternal and sacrificial with no life of her own. I longed for her to have more depth and ambiguity.
Olly Alexander has a spark, though. He is brilliant at portraying emotion. He's also very cute, and with a top script and a top director he could go on to great things. This wasn't quite it. Nathaniel Curtis as Ash also stood out for me. I wished that the author had chosen to make more of Ash and Ritchie's relationship - spent more time developing it, making us care about it. As such, it was all painted in way-too-broad strokes.
I'm glad this was made and that I watched it. And it will have been a success if it teaches younger generations even a little of the attitudes prevailing at that time, and just how horrific a disease it was before scientific research enabled people to take preventative drugs and live good lives while HIV positive.
Still, with a longer run of episodes and less "cartoonish" writing, perhaps this could have been the 10 some think it is.
The characters are too superficial to do this important topic justice and the story is rushed. Keeley Hawes is one of my favourite actresses but her character-arc as Ritchie's mother is just weird and unbelievable. Actually a lot of the characters are - they talk in ways that are just not realistic. Their dialogue is all telling and no showing, with much modern thinking that wouldn't have been expressed that way back then.
Jill annoyed me too. Lydia West is usually a compelling actress but Jill was a one-sided creature, all maternal and sacrificial with no life of her own. I longed for her to have more depth and ambiguity.
Olly Alexander has a spark, though. He is brilliant at portraying emotion. He's also very cute, and with a top script and a top director he could go on to great things. This wasn't quite it. Nathaniel Curtis as Ash also stood out for me. I wished that the author had chosen to make more of Ash and Ritchie's relationship - spent more time developing it, making us care about it. As such, it was all painted in way-too-broad strokes.
I'm glad this was made and that I watched it. And it will have been a success if it teaches younger generations even a little of the attitudes prevailing at that time, and just how horrific a disease it was before scientific research enabled people to take preventative drugs and live good lives while HIV positive.
Still, with a longer run of episodes and less "cartoonish" writing, perhaps this could have been the 10 some think it is.