I am Hannah

[Fuckingawful]

Anyone watching?

Yes. Not really enjoying it though. Definitely way below the standard of last week. Just retreading old ground - hasn't the 'body clock ticking' thing been done a million times already? Plus, the dialogue sounds really stilted. Does anyone actually talk like that?

Gemma Chan is a lovely looking woman though lol. No seriously i feel sorry for her trying to find someone in a sea of sickness

Why didnt she see the 1st guy again?

It might have been done well. But it's just cliche after cliche. Walking past a school and bursting into tears looking at the kids? Please.

Egg freezing now, with tediously expositionary dialogue. What's next? Grabs the first man she sees because she's so desperate to have a baybee? I'm all cliched out.

I saw a description of this and thought it was going to be about a child free woman

But then I heard it wasn’t.

Could someone please tell me what happens, I am REALLY motion sick from the shaky camerawork and can’t bear anymore! Haven’t seen the other ones in this series, are they shaky too? Or worth watching?

Oh I hate shaky camera work.

*I saw a description of this and thought it was going to be about a child free woman

But then I heard it wasn’t*

Yeah, we've seen all this so many times before, haven't we? Unlike last week's, which was so much more interesting.

And the dialogue really is clunky.

I can barely follow as her beauty is so distracting! She's stunning.
Didn't really enjoy it though which is a shame. I think it was the story not her acting but this one felt flat.
Oh also cliche alert - the dancing in the flat and drinking wine alone was so predictable and done so many times before.

At least we didn't get to see her tuck into an M&S Meal For One while feeding the cat. So I guess we should be thankful.

@IcedPurple i thought the same This would have been WAY better had this been about a childfree woman whose mum was pressuring her to have kids. I thought/hoped that was what this was going to be about

When child free women are portrayed in dramas they are usually shown as changing their minds It would be great if a childfree woman was shown as the lead in a drama and it was depicted as a positive choice not a negative one.

So much could be done with a drama involving this. You could show the reactions of people in her workplace for instance.

They could show men in the workplace being threatened by her choice because she would be able to compete on the same level as them.

Also flip it and show her always getting the shit shifts at Christmas How many times have we seen those threads on here.

So bloody much more could have been done with this.

Helena “This would have been WAY better had this been about a childfree woman whose mum was pressuring her to have kids”

This is how one TV guide said it. Lucky I saw another one and realised it wasn’t that.

There is a great bit in Mr Selfridge with a child free woman going for a big promotion- in the 1920s - and saying to shocked male colleagues “why not? I have none of the traditional impediments of marriage and children”. Great bit of historical drama there.

Ooh yes i remember that Rosa.

Last weeks was so much better. This was tedious. I really didn’t care!!
Yes, she is beautiful though.

It was a bit cliched but I liked the sense of despair and bewilderment that came through, plus the loneliness or aloneness.

Going against the grain, but I did enjoy it - well, maybe not enjoy, but kept watching. I thought it was a nuanced and delicate telling of a story of her conflicting emotions and feelings of isolation. In real life, desires and hopes aren't linear or clear cut or neatly fitting into the assumed narrative of an issue. Not big drama but a realistic examination of emotional pain.

It had more in common with the first in the series than the clunky second one which was a more traditional issue narrative that was realistic in intent but failed to engage me.

I dunno, I thought the early part of it captured the bind and frustrations of dating quite well. You're supposed to pretend you're free and easy and not make any demands on the man at all, or have any expectations, or mention marriage and babies until you're at least six months in. But then there are some guys who get really aggressive if they think you're "playing games", like Hannah's second date. It usually doesn't get as far as a date because they display their twattish behaviour long before you arrange to meet them, but I definitely recognised the type!

I don't think it was as clear cut as her being desperate for a baby, either. I don't think she even knew what she wanted but she went down that path because of some sort of sense of FOMO.

I agree..I think the dating and all that comes along with that was very well explained and very real.

I thought it was more FOMO too but I would have enjoyed a drama about a child free woman by choice and is happy with this.

It could have been interesting, yes. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a child-free lifestyle being depicted in anything other than a tragic or pathetic way before, and I would like to see a drama that explored how the world treats women like that. BUT I don't think that story would necessarily have fitted into this series.

BUT I don't think that story would necessarily have fitted into this series.

Why not?

The other 2 films dealt with issues which aren't often discussed or portrayed on TV. Whereas the whole 'body clock ticking/why can't a beautiful, clever, succesful woman find a man' thing has been done SO many times! And while I know not everyone agrees, IMO this one wasn't particularly original or interesting in its portrayal. Just one cliche after another.

I don't see why Gemma Chan couldn't have portrayed a child-free woman fending off the same overbearing mother's (yet another cliche of this type of story) demands that she reproduce, or dealing with friends asking her why she hasn't 'settled down' and she'll regret it later blah blah blah. Would have been more interesting - at least for me - than yet more tears at holding a baby and dancing around the flat on your onesome.

Was she trying to get pregnant by the black guy she was seeing? I liked them together!

I don't think so. I think she just thought he was a great shag, but he wanted more.

IcedPurple probably because that is pretty much my life and I wouldn't be particularly interested in watching a drama about it! I thought this was a competent portrayal of how some women can end up wanting babies because they feel like that's what they're supposed to want, and I can't say it's a subject I've seen being tackled in exactly that way before. Obviously it didn't appeal to everyone but I liked it.