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Happy Valley. I don’t get it

258 replies

BillyNighysWife · 05/02/2023 14:48

It seems everyone thinks Happy Valley is the best thing ever. I started watching series 1 recently to find out what all the fuss was about. I found it quite watchable but I really don’t think it’s great. It seems to be full of cliches about people. Despite its dark subject matter there is a cloying, mediocre English cosiness about it. Sarah Lancashire is good and as an older woman myself it’s great to see older women as main characters in big narratives. But there have been great, strong women in soaps for decades. What is special about her character and what she does in HV? I don’t get it.

It seems to be very similar to Mare of Easttown, except that was better.

Does anyone agree with me or am I on own with my strange opinion?

OP posts:
CaptainMyCaptain · 06/02/2023 21:16

VioletaDelValle · 06/02/2023 20:57

Ultimately it's a show about relationships and it just happens to involve crime and the police!

If you don't care about the characters then it just won't interest you.

It's very character driven and quite harrowing at times.

Show quote history

This.

DesertIslandCondiment · 06/02/2023 21:22

SideboardOfLove · 06/02/2023 21:13

@DesertIslandCondiment

I understand, I really liked the original too, and for quite a few years I refused to watch the US version.
But when I did I loved it so much 😂 They're very different, and there's a warmth and a depth to the US version that I wasn't expecting. As well as it being very funny!

I tried to watch it but the first episodes were copying the English version. I do realise it then went on to be a show on it's own.

I probably need to try again as I love the actor who plays the main part.

DesertIslandCondiment · 06/02/2023 21:30

Steve Carrell. Yes, I'm going to watch it.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

TV
SideboardOfLove · 06/02/2023 21:43

DesertIslandCondiment · 06/02/2023 21:30

Steve Carrell. Yes, I'm going to watch it.

Yes! Steve Carell is so good!
And exactly, for me it started getting better once it broke away from the UK one.

MrsMikeHeck · 07/02/2023 15:51

@DesertIslandCondiment maybe start with season 2? There are only 6 episodes in season 1 and the show hadn’t quite worked out what it was.

From s2, there’s a shift in the way that we see Steve Carells character. Instead of a hugely unlikeable character, a la David Brent, everything becomes a lot warmer. But don’t let the warmth put you off - his performance as Michael Scott is just as much a cringe fest as Ricky Gervais’s - if not more so tbh.

And if you liked Tim and Dawn, then honestly, you will love Pam and Jim. It’s the greatest tv love story.

DesertIslandCondiment · 07/02/2023 16:55

MrsMikeHeck · 07/02/2023 15:51

@DesertIslandCondiment maybe start with season 2? There are only 6 episodes in season 1 and the show hadn’t quite worked out what it was.

From s2, there’s a shift in the way that we see Steve Carells character. Instead of a hugely unlikeable character, a la David Brent, everything becomes a lot warmer. But don’t let the warmth put you off - his performance as Michael Scott is just as much a cringe fest as Ricky Gervais’s - if not more so tbh.

And if you liked Tim and Dawn, then honestly, you will love Pam and Jim. It’s the greatest tv love story.

Thank you for this.

I'm actually really looking forward to it now.

Rebel2023 · 07/02/2023 16:59

ChilliBandit · 06/02/2023 19:40

Ive just tried watching it off the back of this thread. Got halfway through the first episode and gave up. It was so dull. Does it get any better or is it all just inane chatter the whole way through?

I also think the US office is better though but that’s because I can’t stand Ricky Gervais. I normally prefer British versions of things.

If it helps I abandoned it at the same point and thought "this is shit"
Then everyone raved so I tried again and was up until 2am binge watching it Blush and realised how brilliant it was

ChilliBandit · 07/02/2023 17:04

@Rebel2023 - nooo I was resigned to the idea it just wasn’t for me and I wasn’t going to bother but now I might have to try again!

TheChosenTwo · 07/02/2023 17:38

@ChilliBandit I tried it about 4 times and gave up at about the 20 minute mark each time, wasn’t really paying attention, half distracted etc etc. then decided to sit down and crack on with it as had nothing else to do one evening and ended up watching all 17 available episodes within the next 3 days and waiting with baited breath for Sunday!

whitejumper · 07/02/2023 17:53

I hear you. I knew straightaway it wasn't for me, and I think your term 'lowbrow telly' sums it up. Out of interest I just watched ten mins of the first episode and yep, bored and depressed already, it came across like a grim soap opera. I like gritty, but my idea of gritty, quality drama is something like Prime Suspect, The Fall, or Nordic Noir such as The Bridge or The Killing. Although I do actually like Sarah Lancashire and enjoyed her in Kiri! Similarly Joanna Scanlan, I like her but she is always in depressing stuff like this. And I love David Morrissey but couldn't motivate myself to even start Sherwood, which I suspect is similar.

I also tried Line of Duty recently after reading so much about it and was so disappointed and bored. Drab, depressing places with pasty, gobby people, grim towns, miserable pebble-dashed houses. But I think that chimes with a lot of British people. I did watch all of Broadchurch but it was annoying in a similar way and not the masterpiece everyone claimed it was. I remember at the time there was a BBC drama called May Day which was seen as a rival programme although Broadchurch proved far more popular. I actually though May Day was better.

toomuchlaundry · 07/02/2023 17:59

@whitejumper do you only like drama in non northern towns

VioletaDelValle · 07/02/2023 18:04

'Lowbrow telly'🙄

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 07/02/2023 18:17

Low brow telly😂

Isn’t that the likes of Love Island?

What’s your idea of high brow then? Because HV was well written and crafted. Or was it because it was northern?

ChilliBandit · 07/02/2023 18:28

@TheChosenTwo - you may have hit the nail on the head. I probably wasn’t giving it my full attention. Ok I shall try once more with full attention and then give it up if it’s still not for me.

I did end up really liking Line of Duty but with that it took me 2 or 3 attempts. I loved Broadchurch but you could put David Tennant in an empty room and I’ll watch it. He was amazing in Litvinenko recently.

eighteenthirteen1 · 07/02/2023 18:30

Yeah it's pretty fair to judge 3 series of 6 episodes on the first 10 minutes...

TheChosenTwo · 07/02/2023 18:51

Yeah @ChilliBandit id give it another go, though I’m a full believer that you shouldn’t have to work hard for tv to be enjoyable, books too. Life’s too short to plug away at things that don’t grab you (I just mean flippant things like telly!).

whitejumper · 07/02/2023 19:08

It's not the Northern setting (I'm definitely from further up North than you 😂) but the boring English stereotypes these things are full of. I equally detest the likes of Downton Abbey at the other end of the class scale!

What I would call 'highbrow'...perhaps something like Station 11 which I would highly recommend, but there is a lot of scope for quality TV between highbrow and lowbrow! Am not saying HV isn't good quality drama though...just not a fan of the mundane setting, stereotypical characters (that I saw in ten mins) production values etc.

beguilingeyes · 07/02/2023 19:24

You got all that from ten minutes?! Blimey.
'Lowbrow'. I have not the words.

whitejumper · 07/02/2023 19:36

Have you seen My Summer of Love, a beautiful, poetic film set in Yorkshire?

VioletaDelValle · 07/02/2023 20:11

just not a fan of the mundane setting, stereotypical characters (that I saw in ten mins) production values etc.

None taken 😂😂

It's amazing how you got all that in 10 mins.

RampantIvy · 07/02/2023 20:59

I wouldn't describe HV as "mundane". It is anything but. Maybe people who found it mundane missed the subtle nuances in the story.

It was pretty realistic, and maybe that's what some people didn't like.

And sorry to point this out, but I do get a little bit of anti Yorkshire sentiment in some of the posts on this thread.

Disclaimer: I live in Yorkshire but I am not from Yorkshire.

lollipoprainbow · 07/02/2023 22:13

Also loved where the heart is. More cosy drama !

MadamLeota · 07/02/2023 23:30

I put Grantchester on tonight, only because I’ve never seen it and more James Norton isn’t a bad thing. To my endless surprise DH seemed to enjoy it….

VioletaDelValle · 08/02/2023 08:26

RampantIvy · 07/02/2023 20:59

I wouldn't describe HV as "mundane". It is anything but. Maybe people who found it mundane missed the subtle nuances in the story.

It was pretty realistic, and maybe that's what some people didn't like.

And sorry to point this out, but I do get a little bit of anti Yorkshire sentiment in some of the posts on this thread.

Disclaimer: I live in Yorkshire but I am not from Yorkshire.

Spot on.
People seem unable to accept that it's realistic rather than an over egged stereotype of Yorkshire-ness.
Bizarre!

PuppyMonkey · 08/02/2023 08:32

What I would call 'highbrow'...perhaps something like Station 11 which I would highly recommend.

Well I saw a one second clip of Station Eleven and I can therefore say categorically it is rubbish and contrived and stereotypical so anybody who likes it is clearly wrong Grin **

** this post is sarcasm, please do not cut it out and quote it later in the thread out of context.Wink