Close to me (spoilers) full series

[faithfulbird20]

What's with all the swearing in this? I can't even understand half the swears. It was a good TV show. Also how is the mistress still pregnant? Shouldn't she have had her baby by now?

[DevilWaresPrada]

Disappointing after a good start, just wanted it to end.

[TitsInAbsentia]

Weak ending.

I was confused by the mistress still being pregnant, but she did mention she had difficulty with pregnancies before so perhaps she lost the first baby - that was the only conclusion I could come to.

Are we meant to think he was gaslighting her all the time?
Or she was mentally unstable thanks to the menopause (or was it that she was menopausal and he shagged around, and then she 'bloomed' when she went on hrt?).
Why did the daughter and her bloke look so shocked when they saw the writing on the wall at the end? Surely the husband would have just passed it off as more of her delusions?
Finally, why did Anna find Eccleston's character so attractive? Middle aged, awful hair, not good looking and zero business acumen, only surviving thanks to his wife's money?

[zafferana]

I didn't get the attraction between Anna and Rob either and found it unbelievable. Why would a 30-something woman fall for some bloke in his late 50s with a wife and kids and whose business was failing? If she just wanted to get knocked up because her clock was ticking she could've done that with a younger bloke without baggage.

I also felt that Rob thinking he could 'have a second chance' with Jo after her fall, when his mistress was sitting there pregnant and waiting for him to choose between them, was ridiculous. If she'd miscarried, then maybe he could believe that he could paper over the cracks with Jo and she'd never find out, but with a new baby on the way??? It was just such a weak motivation and contributed to the damp squib of an ending.

I liked the character of Thomas though - I bet that actor had fun playing him.

[DevilWaresPrada]

Who sent Jo the photos of Rob and Anna kissing?

[zafferana]

She was hiding in her car and took them herself @DevilWaresPrada

[DevilWaresPrada]

ah ok, I'd lost interest at that stage ...

[faithfulbird20]

I lost interest too and the ending was weak as well. I wanted to know what happened to Rob at the end and the kids.

[Louise5754]

Just finished. I was hoping it was all in her head and she would "recover"

I thought the son would be dead but they didn't want to tell her just yet. That storyline of him being having an older boyfriend was pointless.

Why was the older neighbour so weird and trying to avoid her?

What was the story about his failing business? So he could kill her and claim on the insurance?

Did she tell the police he let her fall?

Thought it was crap to be honest.

[TitsInAbsentia]

Am with you on that, a lot of loose strands that made no sense and contributed nothing to the 'finale' (I say it like that because I didn't feel there was one).

[2Rebecca]

It was all very predictable. It started strongly then got weaker.

[ButtonSister]

Although she had a year of memories missing I think a lot of the action happened towards the end of that year, so the lover had only recently become pregnant.
Was there an explanation for the daughter dramatically changing her hair style from the dinner party where she introduced her boyfriend to a year later?
Highlights for me were CE 15 years earlier with his hair combed forward and slightly tinted to represent a younger self ; and the character of the boyfriend who was awful but very, very watchable because he was so horrible.
Other than that the series would have benefitted from being 2 episodes shorter - fewer repeated flashbacks and pointless sub-plots such as the stern looking neighbour and the gardener.

[icelollycraving]

That is 6 hours of my life I won’t get back. I seem to get into these crap dramas lately and feel I have to see it through. Sunken costs fallacy.
Nice to see Hastings. Another beautiful house. The affair woman had a big home too. They never have a normal house. In fact there are hardly ever normal houses in dramas.
I really thought it was going to be a more exciting ending. Tbh I thought it was going to be a more exciting series.

[MerryInthechelseahotel]

Things I don't get (but I was losing interest too)
What did the other woman see in CE as pp said he was nothing to look at and had no money etc?
What was the purpose of the "Help me" hidden messages?
Why does the son say "on the surface we are a normal family?"
The only thing that's not normal is losing your memory for exactly a year how ridiculous
It had such potential too so was disappointing

[Rollergirl11]

Also it was really weird that she was having such vivid flashbacks to her having sex with Thomas and then it ended up being just her fantasising? Also why was he saying to her he wished she could remember the last time they’d seen each other if it wasn’t because they had had sex?

Why would the kids agree to go along with the Dad in not telling her significant things like her job?

And when did Jo fall out and not speak with her best friend for months because in all of the flashbacks you see them going out for dinner and she was at the fundraiser?

[Italiangreyhound]

"Was there an explanation for the daughter dramatically changing her hair style from the dinner party where she introduced her boyfriend to a year later?"

Personally, I think she did it to look different from her mum. Possibly a out the time the mum dyed hers blonde.

Mostly crap. Thomas and mermaids only good bits!

[awaynboilyurheid]

The other sub plot that came to nada along with weird neighbour,
son being gay, daughters boyfriend being a kind of mick jagger impersonator, friend not speaking to her for years, was the woman at Jo’s work at the refugee centre, who came into her house. Jo screamed at her to get out but we never found out why!
Started off really well then just got more ridiculous and unbelievable, at the end jo calling them all to the house was like a Agatha Christie plot, could have shortened this by three programmes, then wouldn’t have wasted so much time watching this deteriorate into drivel.

[QueefofSheena]

Really rubbish ending, although I did like the awful boyfriend, he was the only realistic character despite being an utter twat.

It wasn’t all Hastings, the hospital they showed was Hemel Hempstead and the affair woman’s house was in St Albans. That was the most interesting part, spotting places we knew.

[Campervan69]

God it was terrible. Bad acting, completely unbelievable. If my mum had fallen down the stairs I'd be at the hospital waiting for her to wake up.

No reason for the help me messages as she was happy prior to the fall and had no idea anything was wrong.

The husband should have been prosecuted for letting her fall.

[QueefofSheena]

I forgot about the messages! So did they.

[Lottapianos]

I've watched 4 episodes and thought it was rubbish. Really ropey acting, slow and ploddy, very dull. Going to jack it in after reading this thread so thanks for saving me some time 🙂

[KillingMeDeftly]

I watched it all but it was very weird. Connie Nielsen was decent but Eccleston was awful! Hard to believe it was the same actor from Shallow Grave and Jude where he was so good. And his floppy blond wig was very distracting too. Not sure what Anna saw in him.

[TidyDancer]

This was one of the worst dramas I think I've seen in years. Genuinely awful. A week later and I'm still annoyed I wasted several hours watching it.

[Lottapianos]

'Connie Nielsen was decent but Eccleston was awful! '

Totally agree. Hes wildly inconsistent - can be great, can be bloody awful

[Madhairday]

Finished this today, don't know why I bothered. It was awful. So painfully slow, loads of ends left untied. Are we meant to think she'd imagined him letting go after all because she imagined the mermaids at the end? Is it all unreliable narrator stuff? Funny thing is I've read the book, found it in my kindle library but have no recollection.

Agree re Christopher Eccleston's hair. Dreadful.

So was she having an affair with Nick or was that an imagination, or him saying she's all got it wrong? I was barely paying attention by then.

There was pretty much no plot to this. I had high hopes too.

[Shadowside]

Very, very slow and a lot left unexplained. If anyone's read the book can they please throw some light on some of the plot holes? I did like Connie Nielsen as Jo but thought Christopher Eccleston as Rob was dire. It was still better than Hollington Drive though, which was unbelievably dreadful!