True Love, what are we thinking?

[TheNightWatch]

I like it, so far. Feel like its abit like Homeland, in that the actress playing the wife looks too young.

God it's awful.

I missed the 1st night with gorgeous David Tennant as I forgot to record it. The one on Tuesday was dire- I was so annoyed by it, especially the ending. Crap acting as well, except from Lacey Turner but I just kept thinking it was Stacey!

I like Billie Piper so was expecting better things but yet again a crap ending and so unrealistic. I loved the adverts to and I am SO disappointed as have no life and live for crappy dramas

Oh and I agree she is gorgeous- I want her hair colour actually

Was it supposed to be OK for a teacher to have sex with her pupil just because they are both women? What if it had been a male teacher and 16 year old boy or girl? Teachers are in a position of authority and trust and should never have relationships with school children.
If it really is "true love" then you can wait until they have left school.
It's more true lust than true love as they all go to bed together after 5 minutes, and only in the first story did they know any background about each other.
The second marriage looked as though it was on the rocks unless they started to talk more and the wife find a bit of joy in life though, he did try asking her why she wasn't happy and she just behaved like a stroppy teenager.
In ther first one DT should have been angrier with his ex just walking back into his life after leaving and her and her sister expecting him to dump his family and go off with her.
If I was DT's wife though I'd want rid of him. I wouldn't want to live with a bloke who felt he could never love me as much as another woman and who hankered after someone else. I'd be chucking him out.

It's damn subversive, I say. BBC trying to do high fallutin' twaddle!

I'm not moral majority by any stretch of the imagination but this series seems to say "twu wuv" equates to shagging someone you shouldn't. Oh and being willing to crap on/leave your life/family for said shag. And the crapped on people will put up with it because of twu-wuv.

It is dire. Horrifically one-dimensional when the tag-line and hype made you expect they would try and portray something as multi-dimensional and complex as human relationships and the real meaning of love in a realistic way.

Also - this is set in Margate or something, no? Given that every family we have seen so far has at least one person out with their "forbidden fruit" walking the promenade, how can it ever be as deserted as portrayed?! Surely they'd all be bumping into each-other with knowing glances or shamed faces!

fwiw - there was more of a development to the relationship (but not much!) and a bit more dialogue last night which made it slightly less rubbish than the other two - if you overlook the really bloody unbelievable storyline.

I'll say it again - the series has been written by a man - and while that shouldn't mean anything, I'm afraid it may have been its downfall. It's one man's perception of love.

TBH, they seem to be saying there is no such thing as True Love, we are all just one step away from it all changing and coming crashing down around our ears.

And yet the strapline is "...an improvised series, exploring five powerful and overlapping love stories set in the same town"

Overlapping I will give them, powerful and love - mmm - not so much.

If they wanted to explore "no such thing as love" that does not necessarily have to mean someone shags elsewhere. Plenty of threads on here have attested to the "just fell out of love, no-one else involved" scenario!

and the lesbians seemed to be the only ones who walked off into the sunset

Think this series is a good idea, but really poorly executed. It's an interesting concept, and could have been really great telly. But the writing (or lack there of) is what lets it down.

Although the cast is impressive, it's obvious some of the cast can't work well with the improvisation. And some, if not all of the pairings aren't believable. Vicky McClure and David Tennant didn't work. She is a really subtle actress where as his method is totally over the top acting. Also as others have said, inconsistencies in the stories - like the kids looking too old etc.

It's frustrating that the wives have been so submissive and forgiving, yet more weak portrayals of women on tv.

Think the Billy Piper one could have been good, but the 'love' story was marred by the school teacher / position of power imbalance. Why not just have a lesbian story?

What baffles me is, how could the creators have watched this back and thought that it was decent TV? All the comments on this thread are more insightful and on the money.

It's a shame as British TV is crying out for good drama and this falls short yet again.

only watched the first ep (which tells a story in itself...) but for all its many faults i did think the scene where Joanne Froggatt and Vicky McClure bumped into each other was sensational. particularly Froggatt...
writers are there for a reason, oh yes (as the rest of the show amply demonstrated) but i thought the under-writtenness of that one scene showed how good it might have been with more precision elsewhere.

btw from what i understand about the way these things work the fact that this is on in summer (even up against the footie) does rather demonstrate that the schedulers thought it was a bit shit. prepare yourself for even more cack being rolled out against the olympics...

Aitch agree re wife/OW passing scene - which is probably why it was used to promote the series. And why I fell for it and switched on. Sigh.

at aitch's assessment of telly over the coming months

aah, is that the scene they used to punt the show? smart of them, i guess, it was amazebo. and interesting, because you'd think it would be Tennant all the way for the promotion of the first show.
i did quite like the under-writing of the scene where he and lost love first saw each other. not the second location, just when she was sitting down and he was a bit gulpy.

Jaime Winstone and Joanne Froggat were on BBC Breakfast promoting it and they played that clip. Interview here, not sure if they include the clip in this clip iykwim?

Tennant currently filming I think, which would explain why he wasn't involved in promotion... and yy - the gulpy bit was good- but then a quick exit to go sit in his car?! When you were able to speak, wouldn't you say "Hey, how're you doing? Fancy a coffee?" first?!

well, in a way that was interesting and annoying. they were furtive in the beginning, but not much later completely cavalier about being caught having a pash on the pier.

I'm thinking they were all shit so I want to know why I watched all three .

Actually I would have given up last night but DH was suddenly interested after watching the trailer for the Billy Piper one

Just watched last nights one on the iplayer and another disappointed viewer here. I was waiting for the exit from Margate by train as per the other two episodes. Thought the young girl was good but BP was weak.

that kaya scodelariou (or whatever her name is) is SO beautiful, i actually have no idea whether she can act or not. i just gaze, open-mouthed.

I think the tourist board at Margate must be rubbing their hands with glee at this boost to their fortunes; it now appears to be THE hotspot for illicit shagging.

lolol. what a lovely line for the posters.

Well I watched again almost because I knew it would be bad. I have been sitting cringing through most of these.
Actually thought last nights was an improvement on the other two.I thought the acting was better and if they were improvising they did better than the previous two episodes.
Thought the young girl was truly beautiful. Will be watching again if on tonight for all the wrong reasons

Although it's bad, some of the actors have come out of it very well. The young girl from last night's episode was very impressive I thought. She did very well with the improvising considering she was one of the youngest members of the cast. And let's face it, she out-acted some of the more famous actors involved in the project!

I just think that with all the money they must have spent on the big names, they could have forked out for a decent script. There are plenty of talented writers out there.

i wonder if we are just expecting too much of it. and are missing the point.