The Split Barcelona

[oatmy]

Anybody watching? I have questions!

• Why are they so cool about Liv getting married, she can't be older than 20?
• Surely her brother would have come back for the wedding?
• When Rose said she was missing 'the girls' I thought she meant children, but it sounds like they haven't had any yet?

*two-parter

@trickyex - I think Alex Monroe - as was the gold bee necklace.

I thought the same.

I enjoyed it, but I didn’t go into it with high expectations, watched the previous series and it never really delivered.
I like Nicola Walker very much, but think this is possibly her weakest drama. She was amazing in Last Tango, the first two or three series, before the writing went downhill.

It’s always had daft plot holes, which are glossed over by the clothes and houses and lifestyles. Nice bit of escapism, but never anything more.

@suburburban

The bike riding boyfriend was a nice bloke, as you say, but they kind of went out of their way to give him a whole load of tics and attributes that made him awful. Like, didn't he have allergies or nosebleeds or something? And you kind of know they stood in wardrobe for ages finding which bike helmet looked the most uncool on him. And then they gave him a permanent rucksack.

I'm not saying everyone needs to be cool but in a cast of people in good suits they made a point that he wasn't cool, and he didn't really have his shit together in other ways, he was just sweet and a bit useless and then they ran him over.

He seemed like a bit of a comment on people who aren't incredibly well paid lawyers in good suits, if I'm being honest.

I'd forgotten he'd died! Was very confused at the start of this and had to look at Wikipedia.

@Ariadneefron 's summary is magnificent, but don't forget the implausibility of Liv not remembering where her and Gael's "special place" was and sending a search party immediately. Also why didn't they bugger off together? Gael wasn't angry with her. Hannah needs to have a few words about 'do you want to marry someone who dramatically flounces off at the first hint of trouble?'.

It was very poor all-round. Didn't even like any of the outfits. . The Guardian journalist must have been paid handsomely for the review.

It's always been high-end, soapy, escapist tosh really though. I don't think it was ever regarded as BAFTA award winning drama.

@handsdownthebest

After having seen it, I saw the headline ' There are moments that are just ridiculous -'

and I'm thinking, Yes.

Then I saw ' -ly sexy' .

I'm like, What?! Did we watch the same program?

Almost touching knuckles with Toby Stephens is just not sexy enough to merit that headline. The whole glowing review makes me think the reviewer has awful taste in telly, or didn't watch it because it was Christmas and she had better things to do. And frankly, with hindsight so did I, but hindsight is 20-20.

@Ariadneefron I know what you mean, the characters were always pretty two dimensional. Eldest hot shot sister ....talented but reckless sister ....not so clever, whiny drippy youngest sister ....

In the first series the drama was around the people divorcing, their character, their story and not so much around the family of lawyers and all their baggage after that it became all about the lawyers and their family baggage and for me went downhill from that point.

I just thought this Barcelona special, which wasn't even in Barcelona, was a damp squib, it was just a whole heap of nothing and you knew exactly what was about to happen the whole way through, it was lame and predictable.

I think this is Hannah’s blue pleated dress
https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/product/the-kooples-v-neck-asymmetric-hem-woven-midi-dress_R04239589/#colour=NAVY
looks like it comes in burgundy, red and green. The navy is on sale at La Redoute!

I really loved the coat Hannah wore in an earlier series. Like a long rain coat but the body was pleated. Formal but so feminine

If you want to see more of daughter Liv blubbing a lot, watch The Serial Killer's Wife on channel 5, starring Hannah's sister Nina. It took me ages to stop seeing them as Liv and Nina!

I agree they seemed to go out of their way to ensure the viewers knew he wasn't one of the beautiful and cool people like them, he was nice but in a not one of us way.

@Ariadneefron

Your review is absolutely spot on!

I was also wondering why people were getting hung up on it not being filmed in Barcelona before remembering it was called The Split: Barcelona!

Agree about Liv's wedding dress looking more like a nightdress.

oatmy · 29/12/2024 21:59

Ruth and Ronnie are very sweet. I can't believe that Nathan is still pining after Hannah - she has a real knack of getting men to fall in love with her!

Totally agree. I think Hannah is the only single woman in London and Barcelona!

It's the holidays so I watched all 18 episodes again before I watched the special!!

@soupsong the coat was iconic

Watching second episode now. Liv really irritates me. She's just a whiny annoying snowflake. Also not sure how all the men fall for Hannah. Don't understand why livs siblings or her cousin wouldn't be there. It's definitely not as good as the series and think they should have left it at that.

Ooh ta! Wish I could afford one

tribpot

I love Anna Chancellor (as Melanie Ackerman)'s coat in the Split.

I have now watched the whole thing and loved reading everybody's comments - so funny, esp about the clothes. Hannah's dress at the wedding/beach was pure Per Una.

I also thought it was unbelievable that the whole family just went "love you Gael" when they found him sulking on the rock. He was acting like an entitled little shit and I wouldn't have been letting him off the hook like that.

Agree that Nathan was very disloyal to his new wife and children - it's like there is a cult of the Defoes!

I have to admit I did have a lump in my throat at the end, I liked Hannah's vulnerability and found it realistic and relatable.

Maybe the coats are essential to the charm of The Split, I found a thread from 2022 which was about 90% coat, 10% tops. Why could Gael not have been from Iceland!

I loved it! Not for the daft plot but the way it made me think about my life years ago, my kids when they were young, where I am now - I was sobbing by the end.
Love Nicola Walker and all 3 sisters together teasing and laughing.

I rewatched S3 the last few days bc I have menopause brain do knew I wouldn’t remember anything/anyone from 3 years ago. S3 was great. So I was really looking forward to this but it was crapola of the highest order.

making Gael a Spanish heir with a huge pile that somehow the rest of the family knew diddly about for 3 years was preposterous. He was an IT student from Argentina in S3!

the clothes were all really meh apart from Gael’s mum. The whole Spanish divorce and mistress showing up thing was weird and ridiculous.

I think it was written by AI.