Gold Digger SPOILERS

[IHaveBrilloHair]

For those who have seen it all, or don't mind spoilers.
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Not impressed, and disappointed that Julia was so pathetic at the end. Get a grip, woman!

I enjoyed it had relatives with a very similar house in that area initially thought it was their old house so bought back happy memories of visiting as a teen

I watched most of it on binge today (got up to the bit where they were discussing the Dad being abusive to the Mum and trying to take his own life , and Della was left to look after him when she was 8yo)

Having read this (spoiler) thread I might watch the rest , it looks like it picks up pace .

I really couldn't care about any of them. The Mum was too wimpy and reasonable , the 3 DC obnoxious and in their own individual way selfish .

She's just so insipid. Julia.
She's doesn't speak with any life.. Its hard to know what the allure would be...

I can't tell if it's deliberate

From where I was sitting Benjamin seemed to constantly fall back on victimhood and the tactic succeeded. He looks like a complete control freak to me and Julia fell for it hook, line and stinker! ...which means Julia does not learn from past experiences. Very sad and absorbing.

I must be a bit of an old romantic, but I believed Benjamin was genuine from the start. There's such an air of mistrust and cynicism. Not surprising here, given that so many posters have suffered at the hands of untrustworthy men, myself included, but I find it quite sad.

That final scene where he stands in the window with a self-satisfied smirk said it all. He played her completely and her response is to drape herself over him. Yuck!

Well was it a self satisfied smirk or a contented smile as he had at last found someone who loves him - good acting.

I think it was a smirk. A look of “ I got away with it”.

Anyone, on the morning after their wedding to someone they love and in the face of opposition from all and sundry, would be perfectly justified in looking self-satisfied. And they were looking out of the window together, arms around each other, wasn't just him surveying his spoils.

I watched 5 episodes in 2 days! I loved it, I thought the acting was fab. I liked how it focused on a different person each episode. Thought Alex Jennings played the part brilliantly, I almost felt sorry for him at one point then he showed what a nasty character he really was. The son was so unlikable but had major issues from his childhood.
I think the ending was clever, was left ambiguous but I think as others there that Ben could have been the murderer and he was just after her money. What were all the phone calls about, was he really phoning his ex? Or was it the brother. Sorry if this has been discussed already.

After Julia came and stood beside him for a hug he glanced at her and then looking straight ahead smirked. I supposed it’s how different people will interpret it. I think it was a look to mean that he had married her for her money and that he had got away with it in the end.

In deciding whether it was a self satisfied smirk or not we have to look at the clues - the practice wedding speech "...What's yours is mine" and the way he says "It's MY house now" to Ted. There is also a pattern of manipulative behaviour in how he waits when Julia asks him to move in, until he gets the response he wants from her, then he indicates that he will move in. He is showing her that her happiness depends on him. There is also the confident, I'm in charge body language with the wide spread, planted feet as he surveys his domain with his back to Julia. Tellingly, he is there on his own, then she joins him, taking up a position not at his side, but behind him. Gosh, this reminds of of doing lit analysis at uni!!

Forgot to add, the ambiguity about Ben is probably intentional as it says Series 1. Red herrings everywhere! :P

I think it could go a lot further. Julia plays the sweet placid victim but she is also deeply manipulative. She was very adept at forging his signature. I'm intrigued how she made her fortune. Also intrigued that Leo looks mixed race and Ted is very blonde. I wonder if a back story about her and Marsha's husband will emerge... There were some ambiguous lines about why Ted hit her and then tried to take his life, him having an affair with Marsha as 'revenge' for her trying to leave. But was she planning on running off with someone?

And there's loads of mileage in how Ben might change now he is married to money.

I thought she forged the signature just so she could tell the kids he had signed. It wouldn't be worth anything as soon as he said he didn't sign it.

The only thing I would question is why get married. They could have easily lived together - though there wouldn't have been much of a story but an intelligent older woman, why marry, disenfranchising the DCs which would naturally anger them, I certainly wouldn't - I'd want to keep my tabs on the money!

On the night she was going to leave/Ted beat her/suicide attempt - Julia was looking up Cliff's phone number.

Who’s Cliff and how do you know that?

I watched it all over a few days, and it wasn't one of the best series I've watched but I suppose I was engaged enough to finish it...

Was it Marsha's house that Ted and her lived in? Did I miss something? Where did all the money come from, they were two seriously large/expensive houses.

Benjamin was really unlikeable and unfanciable to me. I'm similar to JO's age and I can't imagine fancying him, just not my sort. I found Leo really irritating, I have kids similar age and if he acted up and stomped about the place like that as my son, I'd be telling him to sod off to his dad's! He seemed to play one against the other continually and acted like he was 15 not 25.

Ted lived in Marsha's house, he said something to Leo about it being her house.

Which is what leads me to think Julia had all the family money, maybe in trust as she kept it all in the divorce (considering all the offspring were adults, so no child maintenance to be paid), and that Ted was also a gold digger.

The classic trait of a psychopath is that they practice smiling in the mirror because they don’t have empathy . The smile and then cold stare afterwards confirmed it. He was not a good man .

Cliff is Marsha's ex husband? In one of the flash backs they show Julia with the phone and her address book and you can clearly see the entry is for Cliff.

I agree all the children (apart from Marsha's DD who seemed well balanced) seemed to be acting younger than their ages - especially Leo!

I’ve made it to episode 3 and it’s been a struggle. Does it get any better? Is it worth persevering with?

Ted told Benjamin he'd spent his whole life paying for this house in one argument. Perhaps Julia had family money or perhaps its her divorce settlement? Ted may have had a well paid job.

Marsha saying they'd known them for 34 years, if they're all approx 60, knowing each other since they were 25 is not out of the question.

Julia going to Sunderland by train the day before her wedding was ridiculous.

I really wanted her to ditch Benjamin, I also really liked Patrick's wife.