I hate to be that person but it’s not gripping me as much as the previous series. We simply aren’t seeing enough of Catherine and her loved ones. What made HV so good was the real, genuine, believable dialogue between Catherine and her family. Tension at dinner etc. We’ve barely seen Catherine and Ryan interact.
The Knezevic’s storyline is boring me to tears, they are villians but you can’t even love to hate them or be gripped by watching them get taken down because we know nothing about them other than it’s a few unpleasant blokes who human traffic women and money launder. The pharmacist killing Jo in a fit of rage is far too similar to John Wadsworth killing Vicky Fleming last series and was predictable from a mile off. Feels like more male-on-female violence just for the sake of it.
We aren’t seeing enough of Tommy, he was fuming when Neil mentioned Catherine, why didn’t we see the aftermath when he went back to his cell?
The dark humor isn’t there, in previous series even with everything Catherine had going on we saw lighthearted moments, usually relating to Catherine’s jobs. There hasn’t been much of that in this series except right at the start. They tried to do it with the whole alien thing but it didn’t work, probably intentional to show that Catherine is having a breakdown though I guess.
We’re halfway through now and I feel like it hasn’t even gotten started.
My guess is the twist that TLR didn’t rape Becky, she had PND and that’s why she killed herself after having the baby. Catherine in her guilt (perhaps she feels she didn’t support her enough) and grief, looking for somebody to blame thought up the idea of Becky being raped as an explanation and ran away with it. Catherine has never actually said out loud that Becky admitted (feels the wrong word as Becky would be the victim…’admitted’ feels to accusatory but can’t think of a better word) to being raped. Just that “She couldn’t tell me because she thought I’d make her report it”, and “She didn’t tell me about the pregnancy because she was in denial” (she was 17, maybe she genuinely didn’t know the signs but Catherine just assumed she had been in denial).
Of course, we know from the Anne that TLR IS capable of rape, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he raped Becky. It may have been his stint in prison for drugs (post-Becky) that sent him that way.