Shitty ITV dramas, why do I do it? Watch them I mean.

[Handay]

Every time it's the fucking same but I get hooked in by people saying "ooh it's really tense and gritty" only to find yet another example of formulaic crap. Key ingredients: high octane women on the verge of madness usually pitted against each other surrounded by morons with the men especially being super moronic and the escalating craziness of women driving everything. Triggers to madness= infertility/infidelity/having/wanting a career. Plot unfolds by people saying things they'd never say in real life in order to make plot unfold.

Basically shit on a stick.

I swore after that execrable John Sim fiasco that I'd never do it again but I heard so many good things - all untrue - about Cheat that I broke my vow, stupidly.

I agree with you. I'm embarrassed for ITV

Thank you. It's just such bollocks. And the moron husband always gets involved with the other woman. Ffs.

Yep. Shit on a stick indeed, a complete waste of my time.
I’m annoyed, but not as annoyed as I was when I wasted my time on lost. Fuming angry at that pile of time wasting shit in a skip.

I only watched a few series of that and then felt cheated when my neighbour who I used to watch it with moved away (I didn't have sky) and I didn't get the rest. From what I gather I was lucky.

I just refuse to watch anything on ITV whatsoever. Its all dumbed down and made for the lowest common denominator.

I was going to catch up on Cheat, maybe I won't bother... Is it Dr Foster all over again?

@Glittertrauma

I completely agree with you.

ITV and channel 5 are totally abysmal.

Oh, I enjoyed cheat. I think the actress who played Rose is really talented, she was fab in Three Girls. Was shocked att how old AE looked, had a mssive crush on him as a younger women. What did you dislike about it?

I don't watch any of them . Tonight I watched an old episode of The Durrells. I don't like soaps or quizzes either, apart from The Chase.

I disliked it for all the reasons above. Which meant that it was shit.

They're all shit.

Marcella = every plot involves someone she knows, even though she lives in London ie a city with 8 million people, giving her yet more opportunity to go cray-cray in an indeterminate divorced woman kind of way.

Dr Foster - cray-cray woman, infidelity, younger woman, makes em all nuts etc

That thing with John Simm - load of craziness culminating in a prolonged scene in the garden which seemed to consist of the scriptwriter saying "fuck me we've got twenty minutes to fill and no plot; what can we do now?"

That last season of Dr Foster was almost unwatchable. Everyone was horrible and behaved like animals. Never again.

I have a serious wariness about ITV things now. The hype is always way out of proportion to the quality.

Also the acting is very exaggerated. Every single actor seems to get a note that they have to bug out their eyes and never ever close their mouth. Once you see, you can't unsee!

Think the only good one of recent years was Unforgotten. But in general, I think ITV commissioning team don't give viewers any credit for intelligence.

I'm going to give The Bay a go on Wednesday. I don't have high expectations but the cast are great - www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-03-13/the-bay-morven-christie-itv-air-date-time-cast/

I knew this would be about Cheat! It was very Dr Foster. I was lured in by the brilliant Katherine Kelly but guessed the whole thing by the 2nd episode, mainly because it's been done so many times before.

Also, using infertility as an easily overcome plot device pisses me right off. It's lazy and seems to be the new "pregnant after a one night stand they shouldn't have had." Sometimes they even combine the two.

Doctor Foster was on the BBC! But otherwise agree.

DAMMIT!

I also knew this was going to be about Cheat from the title. I've only seen the first one.

Do I watch the rest or not? I'd hoped this thread contains spoilers.

I assume the great twist is that the wrong one's in prison?

Yes Unforgotten was good and that one about the boy who was murdered with David Tennant as the detective.

You guys need to watch Fleabag, AfterLife or Friday Night Dinner.

Fleabag is BBC
Friday Night Dinner is C4

Not sure about AfterLife.

You got that this thread is about ITV, right?

I agree that 2 out the 3 you mention are brilliant (and I can't comment on the 3rd because i don't know it)

Afterlife is Netflix.

Ok unforgotten I'll make an exception for. But that's mostly because of Nicola walker. I'd watch her reading the script to the X factor and love it.

Yeah, I know the thread is about itv dramas

We have established they are shit. So watch the stuff I recommended that isn't shit