YellowGardenFurniture

Just binged this on iPlayer and loved it.

Nothing particularly original about it but was good fun throughout and kept you guessing throughout every episode.

It's a kind of mix of many different detectives/mystery programmes - Holmes , Poirot , Professor T , Jonathon Creek etc but done with a David Mitchel style.

The beauty is that it is not padded out with filler just to drag out each episode - it's the perfect 60 minute mystery so it chugs along nicely and sticks to the plot - with no annoying subplots that go nowhere. Its attraction is its simplicity and humour.

It's a very family oriented show with no violence , bad language , nudity , sexual content - it's just wholesome great TV viewing !!

I wish there was more like this being commissioned by the BBC that was as good a quality as this is. I'm not usually one for overcooking an idea into endless seasons until it becomes a parody of itself - but I do hope they make at least a second series.

Have to admit I actually quite enjoyed this.

Didn't totally understand what was going on some of the time ( I guess if I had read the book beforehand it would have made more sense ) - but I still thought it was entertaining enough.

The production quality was good and the acting was good enough - and they threw in a smattering of humour which I think always helps Too many crime dramas take themselves too seriously and omit any humour - where this one does have the occasional bit of witty dialogue.

There a quite a lot bad crime dramas being produced at the moment and this one isn't a classic - but it's better than a lot of them and does keep you entertained for most of it.

I read the book before watching this TV series so was interested to see what the adaptation was like and whether the plot had been changed for TV.

The adaptation sticks remarkably close to the book and follows the linear timeline. All the little twists throughout are the same ones which did surprise me as quite often the TV adaptations usually put their own spin on things - but to be fair to this one - it stays faithful to the book.

So taking into account all of plot holes and having to suspend disbelief - which I don't have any problem with - as it's entertainment at the end of the day, and suspending disbelief is part of buying into the premise - the main problem is the lack of empathy you feel for anyone in the story.

I read the book prior to watching this and to be fair, the same problem existed in the book - whereby it's hard to feel any sympathy for the main character Fi - mainly because she is portrayed as an entitled, middle class white female living in a plot from a Richard Curtis movie. Obsessed with house prices and always meeting up with the "girls' for coffee or Prosecco to discuss how much their houses are worth or gossip about men etc etc.

So when this gets translated to TV, the adaptation has done nothing to change this. So you end up watching the episodes unfold and you end up not caring at all about Fi at all or what happens to her. She is portrayed exactly as the book describes her.

For all it's flaws , I didn't think the production values and acting was that bad. I've seen much much worse than this.

However, the most important thing in TV, movies or whatever media is to connect with the characters - either love them, hate them, sympathise, empathise....have some kind of emotional investment. Once you buy into the characters and root for them, you can then forgive ropey plot lines and plot holes etc etc - or at least you overlook them to a degree.

But with Our House , you are totally indifferent to all of the characters - even the bad guys.

You don't care either way if the main characters are rewarded or punished for their good and bad actions.

I assume we are supposed to side with the main character Fi and root for her throughout and have empathy for her......but you just don't. And this is the main problem why Our House was a disappointment.