THE FOLLOWING EVENTS ARE BASED ON A PACK OF LIES - tue 9pm bbc 1 - TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

this look good. Had a great write up !!!

Starts Tue. For 5w. Yes will be on iPlayer. No I don’t want any spoilers as will watch weekly as you all know that’s what I do 😂😂😛😛

Rob is a conman, and a very proficient and insidious one at that. He enters people's lives, takes their money, their dignity, their trust, and then vanishes.

He already did this to Alice, who he married 15 years ago before disappearing without a trace, leaving Alice and her family penniless.

However, when Alice spots him again one day by chance, she follows him, and finds he is about to enact the same treatment on one Cheryl Harker, a wealthy and celebrated fantasy author who is still grieving her late husband.

As he worms his way into Cheryl's life, she isn't foolhardy - she persistently tries to detect falsehoods and extract herself from murky situations. It's just that Rob has no bones about doing whatever it takes to sell a story.

First things first, this isn't like any other conman series you have seen or are likely to see in a very long while, most crucially because of the way it treats its central trio.

Rob is not a glamorous, impressive figure - sure, he's played by Alistair Petrie, so he has a great deal of charm, enough that you easily understand why it is that so many people fall for his tricks. But he's not in any way idolised. He's a villainous, enraging figure, wholly lacking in empathy and overwhelmed by self-interest.

This is a series ultimately about manipulation, gaslighting and distortion of the truth, and it analyses those themes meticulously, with real depth and clarity of thought.

So that's one big tick in the show's corner, while another is its distinctive visual style. The use of colour is a particular marvel, with bright pinks, greens and bold shades splashed across every frame like pop art.

Because of Cheryl's background in fantasy, the series also draws in iconography and tropes from the genre, helping to heighten the show's reality and that off-beat texture while not detracting from the more tragic, darker sequences. All of this culminates in a bravura, eye-popping finale which really has to be seen to be believed.

We are lucky. Another drama to start this week. That’s 3 now

the woman in the wall
the tower s2
Th following ……

I find the same thing. I often need to check who certain characters are etc when watching films or drama but with The Following Events, I just give in to the complexity and it's rather nice.

I think the way it's filmed emphasises how surreal what's happening is and how difficult it is to figure out what's really going on if you are one of the people Robbie is lying to and manipulating.

@MotherOfGodWeeFella me too. The bit where he got upset as he was ashamed he had let Alice believe he lost the money because of her but he had outside financial advice who to.d him to stay away from it. My baby girl😢

The court just felt very wrong. Why didn't she have representation? Why wasn't she told of the court moving rooms? I have to say I thought the two police people coming to her house were actors hired by Rob.

I can imagine Rob could have a real heart attack. He must be under a lot of (self imposed) stress. I hope Cheryl comes to her senses soon. I thought she might be twigging her faculties were being affected by the drink, but then she drank it all so who knows.

This does show that if you know something about someone, don't pretend to be someone else and lie about how you rescued their dog, amongst other things.

I wonder what is in the brown envelope Rob put in his safe? I thought he was clearing off then.

Hope next weeks has a good ending

Nah. Fake

His face

That's the thing isn't it- it's plausible that he could have a heart attack.

Look at his eyes. Def faking it

Alice should've told Cheryl how she actually rescued the dog when Rob had thrown it in the water to drown . Maybe she'd have listened then , but then she's so confused with what's been happening and to find out Alice had lied about who she was...

Not sure whether Rob's heart attack is real or faked , all will be revealed next week !

I think this has been utterly gripping. Characters have made very poor decisions but each one has been plausible.

I really can't understand the reasoning behind dropping all episodes. This is just the right sort of drama for weekly in depth analysis and wild theories. And I could have seen this becoming a word of mouth smash.

And Cheryl's house is gorgeous. And I really hope the maze is important (but don't tell me).

I think the BBC felt under pressure to drop all the episodes at once to make it more like a Netflix/HBO series. They did the same with The Sixth Commandment, which I did binge watch. I've been enjoying this in weekly episodes. And yes, Cheryl's house is gorgeous, as is she.

That's why I love ch5 dramas

Cheesy but can't binge

I love the weekly thrill /wait

But also like to discuss theories and interesting seeing other people's views and what they pick up out of ut /what I miss

I liked all episodes at once and watched some back to back. It is very well done and similar to some real life romance scams.

Here tonight for the final episode. Is anyone else watching?

Yes it was very good

Was 30m behind

That was bloody fantastic

Was so clever the ending

And well done who called the maze being in the ending

Hoping for s2 for when he gets our in 6mths

And what an amazing party !!!

The ambulance crew were fab

Tho did she ever get her £100k back off him

And well done who called the maze being in the ending

That was my thought too. Somebody also mentioned the piece of paper with the passwords that Alices's dad threw away and later reclaimed.

Really enjoyed it!

I called the piece of paper!🙌

That was such a good ending. I loved how the two women talked about how it would go if they went to the police and I loved how they made Rob looked mad at the party with all his victims being there. I hope the icing on the cake would have been the woman who was waiting for him abroad (I can't remember her name but she was at the club where Rob assaulted Alice).
But Cheryl, for the love of all things, please stop accepting drinks from Rob!

Well done longtompot! 👏 👏👏

I loved Alice and Cheryl working together and of course their allies like Cheryl's agent and stepdaughters.

I'm pleased that it looks as if it's being set up for another series.

That was very clever and most were in on it . Loved the paramedics , paid actors !

I loved it. Very entertaining and clever with some laugh out loud funny parts, but also a serious message.

The storyline and pacing were spot on. Loved the settings and filming style. The characters were larger than life but the situations and outcomes so believable.

Ending was fab !!! And kept me
On my toes

Loved it, fabulous!

Was he actually a phd doctor or had he made that up?

I think he made it up. Wasn't there a bit where people were calling him Dr and Alice pointedly called him just by his first and last name? Rob's institute was just affiliated to the university and I can quite imagine that he managed to fool everyone he had a PhD.

I finished watching this last night. I wasn't sure to begin with but I'm glad I stuck with it, the ending was good, very clever.

I hope that wasn't a set up for another series and just shows how these pieces of shit move on from one victim to the next until they die.

Edited to add I think Karl Johnson and Mark Bonnar should play father and son in something, quite possibly with Ellie Haddington because it would be rude not to 🙂

Rob's institute was just affiliated to the university and I can quite imagine that he managed to fool everyone he had a PhD

DH and I were away for the last 2 eps so we just finished watching them last night. Was there ever actually an institute at all or was it a massive, glossy con? The Derek Jacobi character was totally bent as well and completely in on it. The institute seemed to be mainly built of huge publicity photos of 'Dr' Rob and him generating publicity for himself personally…