Coma

Firstly I read some other reviews just now before posting this. Some are very harsh and I think many people just expect too much. This obviously isn't going to be a big budget BBC or ITV drama, it's channel 5. Not saying it should get a free pass but the cast and crew are working on a different scale so it should be kept in mind when reviewing.

Like others I'm a big fan of Jason Watkins and he can't turn in a bad performance in my view. This show has an intriguing premise and as time goes on it does get a big bogged down in stereotypical gangster stuff but it has some decent twists and turns. A solid seven from me.

I'm not really into these four or five part drama series. They're rarely well written and tend to lose their way. And they always headline with the same rotating pack of drama actors.

This one however sounded a good premise. God the acting was terrible. From everyone apart from the wife. The 'victim' was the worse. He couldn't act for toffee and we were way better off with him in the coma. The main character had the option to just shrug it off and disappear into his own life.. That would have been great. It could have just built up behind the scenes in two different stories coming together for the finale. But instead, it was he had the classic rabbit in the headlights response. .

I was bored and as I'm old enough to make my own mind up, life is too short to watch a well trodden bore fest. Two episodes was all I was willing to give it.

Coma is a brilliantly tense thriller, over four hours of increasing intensity, there are no loops here just escalations.

It centres around a mild mannered Jason Watkins and a single moment, tormented by just about everything and anyone he snaps and his world unravels. Pretty soon he's sitting uncomfortably in wine bars with petty gangsters and lying to the police.

It is also awful, a great set of core names wondering what they are doing here. It is filmed in Eastern Europe and that doesn't get lost - it simply looks nothing like anywhere in the UK.

Somehow this manages to be enthralling, tense and awful at the same time.

It's 4 hours - it's channel 5 - there are worse things on TV to watch!

I thought this was quite a decent series. Plot kept my interest to the end and cast were excellent - the "baddies" more so than Jason Watkins, whose character was very insipid. Just the right length at 4 episodes and no sag in the final one.

I'm rather surprised by the poor reviews some have given this series. I've seen plenty of series which were stretched to 6 plus episodes when the storyline didn't merit it. Whilst I think Jason Watkins is a good actor he can be rather one dimensional so you know what you're going to get.

Decent script, filming and production so I'd certainly recommend it.

I came here, expecting to see 9.5/10 or even 10/10 for COMA. However, I see the aggregate reviews for this masterpiece are 6.5/10! What were these other people watching? Was it the most riveting tense drama in years? Was it the ingeniously written plot? Or was it the absolutely incredible acting by all concerned, particularly Jason Watkins?

Right from the start, the tension builds and builds as we see an ineffectual harmless man plunged into a nightmare not of his making. His life is literally collapsing around him. The actor who played the main villain was off the scale and his love of fine red wine was such a clever unexpected touch.

Please ignore these other reviews,. There are other programmes entitled "Coma" so maybe they were watching another programme, I don't know. Watkins and Ben Edwards deserve BAFTAs for this.