Cleaning Up

The story follows a down and out, gambling addicted cleaner who accidentally overhears some illegal insider trading and decides to get in on the action. This throws her into a world she doesn't understand and where she is out of her depth - facing up to corporate types, petty debt collectors and dirty gangsters.

The main character is painted as sympathetic, but she's often obnoxious. She cheats, lies, steals, and often ruins every chance she creates herself. Her journey is frustrating to watch, as she regularly brings her friends and family down with her on the way. She is absolutely an antihero, and if you see her that way, I found her quite interesting. I wish her portrayal was more gritty, as it's clear the filmmakers want us to root for her - but often you don't want to.

She's also quite inconsistent - sometimes helpless and hapless, sometimes a strategic genius. From one scene to the next it can be hard to believe she's the same character.

Instead the side characters really are the heart of the show - her kids, estranged husband, friends, colleagues, and even her local shopkeeper show more heart than her, and it's those you mostly care about.

The whole thing is too long and stretched out - it could have been 3 episodes comfortably. The writers create drama to fill in the extra time, which was unnecessary. But I was interested enough in the central dilemma to not be bored.

The story gets increasingly implausible as it goes, but not more than most TV dramas. I still found it entertaining, even when I had to suspend disbelief. The "normal people vs the 1%" dynamic sometimes showed real promise and had interesting things to say, sometimes was a little shallow and patronising.

Overall, I wish it was shorter, and I wish they had embraced the moral ambiguity of the main character more. But I found the core idea compelling, and am glad I watched it. Still better than most things on ITV or Netflix.

Not the worst series I've ever watched but completely ruined for me by the morally bankrupt, hateful protagonist played by Sheridan Smith (In fairness - actually played very well).

The combination of the complete lack of any sort of redeeming story arc fornthe main character & seemingly endless loyalty / forgiveness by her friends & family made me want to kick a hole through my telly.

Also whoever wrote the final act needs to go to a maths class - unless we're expected to believe that her best friend is willing to just write off substantial sums of money to help her gambling addict friend pay off her debt with the vague hope of a potential future pay off from a quite frankly idiotic business / scam.

A six part series focusing on Sam, a struggling mum, and a cleaner with an addiction.

It is absurd, you need to suspend your disbelief, but it has an important message. Gambling is so often glamorous on TV, smart casinos, lottery wins etc, this shows the true reality of it, the pain, the misery, the lying, affects on family life etc.

Smith is terrific, the character of Sam is diabolical, she's awful, she lies freely, cheats on her friends, and will do anything other than tell the truth. I do see gambling as an addiction, and you truly see its ugly side here.

Some of the characters are a bit stupid, but the message here is an important one.

The one star ratings here are a joke, ignore them, it's not wonderful, but it is a good watch.

Some years back ITV made a drama called Hot Money which starred Caroline Quentin, this is on the same lines.

Watchable for Smith, and the true side of gambling. 7/10.

The concept of this drama is brilliant. A bit different from the usual police drama or rom Com type drivel. My only issue and I will hold off a little until I have watched more is that it's just too slow and the characters are frustrating especially Sheridan Smith! Hopefully the coming episodes will be much better.

To the reviewer highlighting a continuity error, suggesting the girl's black eye changes eye from one scene to the next, I say watch again, the first shot was her looking in the mirror lol. Remained her left eye throughout.