I didn't enjoy this and I know that sounds bad for something so earnest.
But I did find the teenage scenes tiresome - I have read quite a lot of books (often by men) which have teenage years in them and find it so tiresome. Teenagers don't speak to each other in the deep earnest way these authors believe they did. Boys didn't kiss each other and hug in the 80s and the sun didn't always shine in Ayrshire. But I get that this is to create nostalgia. But then I felt we knew far too little about them all as teenagers. What did Noodles hate about his parents? Why exactly did Tully struggle with his dad? We needed more of that. Were there no girls or girlfriends in their teenage years? I haven't read the book but assume it is more detailed on these things and on the other members of the group, who I didn't care one tiny bit about. But I felt it was one of those male nostalgia genre things that pushes women to the periphery, sorry to say. And, in this case, only existing as suffering spouses to be ignored and upset in later life (and in the 80s - see Tully's mum).
On the subject of ages, I found the ages of the cast troublesome , too, because it meant it was unclear to me how much later this was. Iona looked young, but we knew nothing at all about their relationship , who she was , what her job was (again this annoyed me ) . Her name suggests in the book she is Scottish, so maybe there is more detail on her? Ashely Jensen mentioned having babies at one point but as a PP pointed out she is 53. Perhaps Google tells us too much and we were supposed to assume these were all people in their early to mid 40s? I could tell they had aged MC a bit - beard ages him and some grey flecks.
Andrew O'Hagan giving her away didn't matter. I don't think it was meant to be her dad - no one in this programme seemed to have family really. I have read criticisms of the book that centre on the fact that O'Hagan- in his own grief- is positioning himself as the single most important thing ever to Tully. Which does make sense n the one dimensional presentation of his wife.
I also found it distracting that characters like Colin McCredie (ex Taggart) were introduced , we didn't really get to know them and they were a distraction. Slimming down the characters might have helped. I also got annoyed by their perfect middle class, tasteful lives! No one , except for MC, ever seemed to go to work.
And on a final whine, the actor playing Young Tully is not Scottish. Even DH who hasn't got much of an ear spotted the accent sounded wrong. Preferred Young Noodles - I quite liked him and would have liked more.
I grew up in almost exactly the same place in the 80s and my 80s weren't dappled light and post punk navel gazing! In fact, much of life in the West of Scotland was grim and ,whilst they discussed Thatcher, the desire to escape wasn't really justified in the way their memories were framed. That said, I would have liked to have spent longer in the 80s - I take it the flashbacks were to represent how we remember our pasts, which could have been clever - I gather the book is more linear.
For a better Martin Compston teenage rite of passage thing watch Loach's Sweet Sixteen - a believable, and heart-breaking, male teen friendship in that film, set in post Thatcher Greenock, just up the road.
Sorry - long post! But it has irritated me that so many newspapers gave this 5 stars and I can't tell why. Is tender masculinity such an unusual thing that we are suddenly falling over ourselves to praise something which shows it and not getting some critical perspective on it? I don't much care for Strike but I think Cormoran Strike as played by Tom Burke was a much better portrait of a man struggling with demons and emotions.