Happy Valley. I don’t get it

[BillyNighysWife]

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?

No, it is not - do some reading (particularly Sally Wainwright's take on this) and you'll see that although they have similarities, Mare was not based on HV, nor is it the 'American' version of it.
But don't let the facts get in the way of making an unimportant point

In a previous post you said you were from the North East
And in another post you said you were from the North West....
and yes, I appreciate that lancashire is in the NW - I am from there

There's a lot of things I don't 'get' in HV.

I've only just started watching it, I am on S1 E4, after being told how great it is and it is keeping me interested. One thing confusing me is, in this episode-why have they decided to kill Ann? What's made her 'Too hot to handle' now?

Isn't it because the police visited the house and the caravan park?

Dh and I are watching on catch up, and aren’t exactly the most avid fans.

For a start, I thought the accountant chap was about the last person to think of the kidnapping - OK, he might have thought of it, out of sheer furious resentment, and fantasised about it - but actually to go ahead with it? With people he knew to be dodgy?

I wish Sally Wainwright would come up with something else more like Last Tango in Halifax - we really enjoyed that - as usual catching up long after it was first shown.

And Sarah Lancashire’s mumbling has reinforced our need for a sound bar!

Just to add, I’d never have thought James Norton would make such a brilliant villain!

is that what it is? It doesn't make much sense to me.
And yes, I dont normally have subtitles on but I do for this! I can't tell a bloody word she's saying! Glad it isn't just me.

And Sarah Lancashire’s mumbling has reinforced our need for a sound bar!

The sound quality on flat screen TVs isn't great. We have wired up some decent speakers to our TV. I have lived in Yorkshire for over 40 years and don't have an issue with the accent, but the clarity of the conversaion wasn't great, so we used subtitles.