Holding

I read in one review that the accents were wrong. Really? Which? Protagonist is from the north east. One PC is Dublin. Several have authentic Cork with natural lilting inflection. Not everyone in a town will be born there y'know.

Brenda Frickers ' monologue', a masterful lesson in unraveling a history. Again, so authentic I could be listening to my mother/aunt/elderly friend.

Woke? Pffft. Wake up and look beyond the obvious and you might find gold.

I'm only up to episode 3 and it's dangerous to review modern thrillers before the final episode because they usually fall apart. One thing that stands out in Holding is that the actors are given the opportunity to act. Episode 3 is worth watching just for the scene where Brenda Fricker's character talks about her past. Better than average (so far).

No ok it's not the best thing ever. But it was a pleasing mystery with great characters and splendid acting from the leads.

I'm wondering what the problem is with some people. So you can't please all the people all of the time and everyone has different tastes. Fair enough. But it appears to me that everyone who complained about 'woke ', 'virtue signalling' and 'shoe horning in characters' were seeing things that just aren't there. No it wasn't all 'white men bad' women all good. Hardly. There were a couple of lovely male characters especially PJ who had his demons for sure but came up trumps at the end. And not all the women were noble and strong. How anyone can come to that conclusion is beyond me.

One reviewer wondered why many high ratings reviews criticised the low reviews. Was it because so many appear to be misogynist, racist or homophonic perchance?

Anything with Conleth Hill and Brenda Fricker has to be worth watching.

You can find faults with every over hyped drama on television these days.

Just keep to simple story telling.

Sergeant PJ Collins has his hands full when a body is uncovered, believed to be that of a man who vanished some years ago.

I can see why many of the reviews are negative, had I only stuck with the first two episodes, I'd have been a dissenter too, however, if you stick with it, and see the last two installments, you'll be pleasantly surprised, it has a massive upturn in quality.

The story does take a little time to come to life, and in the first two episodes, you'll be struggling to understand exactly what it is, however it transforms I to a light hearted, engaging murder mystery.

The acting is the best aspect, Conleith Hill and Siobhan McSweeney are both terrific throughout, both manage to make their respective characters very ordinary, but very real, they really do deliver. Look out for a knockout performance in episode three from Brenda Fricker, she is first rate.

Amazing visuals, if you've ever been lucky enough to travel to Cork, you'll know first hand how glorious it is, it's breathtaking.

Give it a chance, it eventually won me over, 7/10.