I loved it. I loved the long takes and the low-key atmosphere, and I thought both leads were great (and Aisling Bea and Sunil Patel). I hardly ever watch tv, had never heard of this, was flicking through channels about to go to bed, and landed in partway through episode two and was engaged immediately, and watched it all over the next few days.
I don’t think Alice is particularly ‘damaged’, or not more than averagely so, though I did find myself thinking that her high income is what allows a lot of her character arc — flitting around the world, dipping in and out of high-stakes jobs, able to buy Jack a houseful of furniture and expensive baby gear, halt her own expensive wedding, have Harley Street care, change her mind about going to Cuba etc.
Far harder for her to be this carefree, freewheeling type living in a grotty houseshare in Brixton and worrying about paying her bills.
I have questions, which I also asked on the TV-pace thread.
Why on earth did the writers have combative, intelligent, no-bullshit Alice fall for a dimwit football agent with awful friends (and doesn’t she seem like the last person he would fall for?) It seemed like a very eccentric decision, and never seemed like a likely marriage.
How does Maya morph from PA (‘you can’t be my friend because I pay you’) to actual friend (though she still seems to act as PA to Alice)?
Did other people keep confusing Alice’s office with her apartment, because both were approached by similar-looking long, dark corridors?
How does Alice manage to zip around London (work, dates, entire days out etc) without ever having a bag, a purse, even keys etc with her? The only time she has a bag is when she and Maya and leaving for the insemination appointment, and Maya packs and carries it! I know it’s intended to show her unfettered character, and I did keep thinking that my arrivals and departures would have been far less impactful, as I spent five minutes throwing paperbacks, purse, keys etc into my backpack before walking away up Parliament Hill.
I admired the low key way Alice’s death was filmed, especially the shot where the porters, Jack and Alice’s body are in the lift with an oblivious arguing couple, but I did wonder whether, in a (presumably) expensive private clinic, the are where relatives would be allowed to sit with a body would have involved quite such shabby corridors and quite so much of an air of behind the scenes?
I assumed we’d flashed ahead a long way in time to see Celia suddenly being an accomplished dancer en pointe, but it doesn’t seem so — she must have gone from having her first demo with Alice to going en pointe very quickly…