The Wives

This is a bargain basement C5 production shot and set in sunny Malta, which is all good. Not so good was the awful script full of stock characters and soapy scenes that we've all seen before umpteen times. This is a murder mystery, problem was I didn't care about any of the characters..

As a show it was quite badly produced and directed. Tonally it veered between comedy, murder-mystery and romcom, it certainly wasn't a thriller. The direction was a bit off with a lot of odd angles and cuts. The cheesy plinky-plonky score added nothing but irritation.

It was dull and the script and acting were well below par. One you can safely give a swerve.

Avoid this series like the plague, absolutely terrible script, unfortunately the acting is even more terrible. At no time does the plot make any sense, it seems to consist of quaffing large glasses of red wine, every other comment being about sex then a big row then everyone all friends again , and so it goes on around and around.

It takes about one minute into the first episode to realise this is a must miss, it made me miss the days of the test card being screened.

Anyway that's enough of the goods points !

The only plus side to it is that as it is a channel 5 production it means it didnt come out of license fee money.

Okay to watch, but there's no end to the story.

For some reason the writers, director, producers, etc think they're far smarter than they are and left it on a whimper instead of a bang. Could have been so much better than it was, if it had contained a start, middle and ending that were clearer about story, characters and point to the whole thing. As it was who had married whom got lost along the way, as did several other plot lines, and whole areas weren't addressed at all (where did the chips come from? Why use them?)

I lost 6 hours of my life for nothing.

If there is a second outing, doubt l'll bother viewing.

The Morgans return to Malta for their tenth annual holiday, minus one member, Annabelle, who vanished a year ago, the three remaining wives, Beth, Natasha and Sylvie carry out their own investigation to discover what happened to her.

It's a decent six part drama series, it's not brilliant, but it's fun nonetheless. At times it verges in Soap opera, and some of the revelations are worthy of Albert Square or the cobbled Streets of Corrie, but there's something enjoyable about it.

The story is a good one, it's definitely got a level of intrigue and suspense, sure the plot is a bit zany, but it represents total escapism, nice to see a bit of sun on these cold September nights, even if Malta does look a little cold.

Nicely acted, expect the usual bunch of seasoned channel five actors, it's only a shock that Sally Lindsay isn't playing Annabelle. Jo Joyner steals the show for me, but then she always does, I am a big fan.

Give it a try, it's daft, but fun.

6/10.

Difficult to be positive with this series - so I won't be. Not good at all. Unnecessary sexual scenes, and foul language. A truly poor production with no acceptable finale (if you can call it that).

PLEASE don't make a follow-up series.

The idea for the series was quite good but very poorly executed. More could have been made of the local area to give a sense of connection. Too many loose ends in the final episode made for a very disappointing end.

Acting was so-so but just acceptable. A single 2 hour production would have suited better.

I've read other reviews, so readers should get the right idea about this programme and thereby avoid it.