Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

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:
Jewel1968 · 05/02/2023 18:06

I think SL is a great actress and is great in HV but for me the story lines are a bit meh. I watch it cos of her acting and her character.

I suspect MARE of East Town borrowed heavily from HV but had better story line. I think KW and SL are similarly excellent actresses

pinkyvase · 05/02/2023 18:07

JaneJeffer · 05/02/2023 15:14

The US Office is way better. The English one gives me the cringe and I can't watch.

Agree (from season 2 onwards) - US office is far superior

And Happy Valley is brilliant.

KevinsChilli · 05/02/2023 18:08

TheChosenTwo · 05/02/2023 15:22

I’ve only just discovered it this week so very late to the party, binge watched the whole thing and looking forward to the last episode tonight. I’ve really enjoyed it but no one programme is going to be universally enjoyed which is why there are about a thousand channels and another hundred streaming services to choose from!
ps I hate the US office with a passion. Watched one episode and thought it was utter crap.

The first season of US office they’re trying to copy the British one and it’s not good. From season 2 onwards it’s just brilliant (until Michael leaves anyway…)

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

TV
Original poster
BillyNighysWife · 05/02/2023 18:09

@VioletaDelValle
I have never lived in the Calder Valley so of course I can’t say if the programme is a realistic depiction or not. I have lived in the NW until I was 27 and then moved to a village and then small town in the south before moving to London. I really did not notice any cultural difference whatsoever between north and south until I moved to London. I think a lot of things that northerners think define them are just things they notice if they move to London.

OP posts:
WednesdaysPlaits · 05/02/2023 18:09

Mare of Easttown was extremely average compared to Happy Valley. It didn't have the same depth.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 05/02/2023 18:10

I think Camilla Long in the Times today summed it up for me. I'm enjoying it to a degree but Catherine's one note character is really starting to grate on me a bit now.

The US Office is excellent, once you get past the first series where is was just trying to copy the UK version.

EmmaEmerald · 05/02/2023 18:11

WildRosie · 05/02/2023 18:03

I'd venture that programmes such as Happy Valley, Broadchurch and Line Of Duty are so hyped up that it's virtually impossible for them to live up to the expectations. So, disappointment and underwhelming responses are likely.

Are these programmes any good? I haven't watched any of them.

I avoid news so rarely see hype

Happy Valley I love - I won't see the finale for at least a week though.

Broadchurch Season 1 excellent, stopped watching next one which went a bot odd.

Line of Duty, stopped watching at Season 4 I think, but that was very personal, I just wasn't clicking with that particular story.

YellowAndGreenToBeSeen · 05/02/2023 18:12

The script is outstanding. Sally Wainwright writes for women - especially Northern, related or close friends women - like no other. I’d give anything to be able to script like her.

Then you add in 2 brilliant female leads who clearly really trust each other as actors and the other outstanding performances and you’ve got a humdinger of a series. All this, before the plot twists and drama!

EmmaEmerald · 05/02/2023 18:13

OP so is the "cosy" bit just talking to people at bus stops? Happens in London too.

sorry, just of all the adjectives I'd use, that isn't one.

thirstyformore · 05/02/2023 18:15

I'm from the Calder valley. Went to school a stones throw from where the pharmacy is set in the current series.

HV isn't cosy. It's real. West Yorkshire working class rural/urban living. Thats what makes it so superb. The gripping story line interweaved with a true northern reality. It's not set in a big city, or the countryside, or a quaint chocolate box village. Just a normal northern setting which is millions of people's normality.

And the acting is excellent.

Johnisafckface · 05/02/2023 18:15

I feel you. I decided to take the plunge and watch it recently after hearing all the raving reviews . I actually got bored and had to skim thru it and I still didn’t make it to the end. I actually just read some spoilers so I would t have to watch it 😂. I tried to watch season 2 and it was a bit better but I still couldn’t get thru it. Different strokes for different folks I guess 🤷🏾‍♀️

Telephome · 05/02/2023 18:15

BillyNighysWife · 05/02/2023 18:04

@Telephome I am from Lancashire. All of my family and many of my friends still live there. I just dislike stereotypical representations of northerners.

Anyway, enough people have told me I am wrong about Happy Valley so I will keep on watching. The plot might draw me in.

I do live in the Calder Valley.

My house is in the middle of a straight line between the road the police woman was killed on, and the high rise flats where TLR mum's body was found. I've never once watched and thought 'ee, how lovely and cosy, and warm and strong us northern women are'.

I don't think I've ever seen that trope portrayed in any of the series. We're not all open and honest, there are enough scrotey, unpleasant characters to put that stereotype to bed. I think if you're seeing that, that's your own prejudic showing tbh

VioletaDelValle · 05/02/2023 18:17

BillyNighysWife · 05/02/2023 18:09

@VioletaDelValle
I have never lived in the Calder Valley so of course I can’t say if the programme is a realistic depiction or not. I have lived in the NW until I was 27 and then moved to a village and then small town in the south before moving to London. I really did not notice any cultural difference whatsoever between north and south until I moved to London. I think a lot of things that northerners think define them are just things they notice if they move to London.

But HV doesn't make a big deal about being Northern. It just happens to be set in a specific part of West Yorkshire and the characters speak with a very accurate Halifax/WY accent. The area has a known drugs/gang culture which is depicted accurately.
The characters are accurate representations of people who live in the area.

Would you prefer if they were more generic? Didn't speak like those of us from the area do? What specific Northern thing is bothering you?

SnowyPetals · 05/02/2023 18:19

It's interesting that the OP's username is BillNighysWife. If I were comparing Bill Nighy with HP for cosy clichéd Britishness I know who would win. It would not be HV 😂

VioletaDelValle · 05/02/2023 18:21

It sounds like the OP doesn't like it because she thinks its trying to hard be northern......

I'd still like to know just how much they have watched!

ILoveMyCaravan · 05/02/2023 18:21

I've binged watched series one and two and thoroughly enjoyed them. I'm struggling to watch series three, simply because of Sarah Lancashire's teeth! Has she had something done? She just looks and sounds so different.

bookworm14 · 05/02/2023 18:28

I have only watched season 1 and one episode of season 2 so far, but I do agree that it’s not quite the masterpiece some make it out to be. It’s very watchable and the acting is great, but season 1 had some poor writing (why on earth does Catherine let Ryan go out by himself on his bike when she knows Tommy Lee Royce is at large and looking for him)? The subplot involving the police dropping the investigation into the local councillor also irritated me - councillors have zero influence over the police and certainly don’t have the kind of power that would result in an investigation being dropped.

SammyScrounge · 05/02/2023 18:28

BillyNighysWife · 05/02/2023 14:57

I think it’s the cosy Britishness that puts me off. It seeps into the acting and writing. It’s all a bit mediocre.

There's nothing cosy about Sarah Lancashire's performance as Catherine Cawood.The cafe scene with Clare ranks with the most dramatic scene I have viewed.for years. It was Lancashire's tight lipped pain and restraint contrasted with silly Clare's meaningless verbiage that.created that an overpowering tension.
I can't wait for tonight's episode but at the same time I can't bear that it is finished

kenyaswhiterefrigerator · 05/02/2023 18:29

Mare of Easttown was based on Happy Valley. Also brilliant

turnipash · 05/02/2023 18:36

You sound hard to please and cynical

Is this a theme that runs in your life generally?

turnipash · 05/02/2023 18:38

Series 3 not as good as 1/2. Would have preferred Tommy whatsisface to get killed off snd the story moved on

Mummyme87 · 05/02/2023 18:39

Absolutely disagree. I love it, I’m literally on the edge of my seat and can’t wait for tonight’s episode, albeit devastated it will be over for good

BadHabitsGoodFun · 05/02/2023 18:47

I don’t know what northerners you know OP, but I don’t know any who bang on about their gritty northernness. 😄

I love HV - I think there is always an element of Tall Poppy syndrome about this, it’s very cool to slate anything perceived to be liked by the “masses”.

Anyway I’ll be watching this cosy little drama on the edge of my seat tonight 😄.

EmmaEmerald · 05/02/2023 18:48

turnipash · 05/02/2023 18:36

You sound hard to please and cynical

Is this a theme that runs in your life generally?

Harsh!

I am hard to please and cynical 😂

I would have been fine for Catherine to kill Tommy at the end of season 1, and make it look like a fire.

but then we'd have missed the wonderful line in Season 2 "is it because he's pretty?" Like the summation of so much human failure, that line. But season 2 had enough material to run without TLR I think. Great stuff.

IglesiasPiggl · 05/02/2023 18:48

turnipash · 05/02/2023 18:38

Series 3 not as good as 1/2. Would have preferred Tommy whatsisface to get killed off snd the story moved on

Indeed, and I am amazed that he looks in such rude good health after all those years in prison. Glowing skin, and only the one scar from a skirmish. Still love the show though!