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.

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.

I watched this because I liked the premise of it. Three sisters-in-law, on holiday in Malta, turn amateur sleuths investigate the mysterious diseappearance of the fourth sister-in-law from the year before. They are aided and abetted by their niece (the disappeared sister-in-law's daughter) and eventually by the new girlfriend of the diseappeared lady, Turns out everyone has secrets (uncluding the theree wives) and a motive for wanting the disappeared lady out of the way. And who is the myterious stranger, the divorced wife meets via a dating app and how is he connected to the disappearance?

Although billed as a mystery thriller it comes across more as a comedy thriller or a black comedy. This does actually work well. The best part for me is the relationship between the three wives (making wisecracks, falling in and out with each other and bickering and getting themselves into scrapes). Although you're made to initially disike the new girlfriend you do eventually warm to her, especially with her outsiders aspect on the familys relationships and a lot of her out downs towards the others.

A similar attempt is made to create the same kind of relationship between the three brothers (the husbands) but they aren't as good actors and it doesn.t work as well,. Likewsie neither does having one of the brothers perpertually overseas and therefore neer seen.

And then there's the ending which I am going to just decribed as.......poor.

Entertaining, worth a watch.

I actually enjoyed this! Reading the reviews on here would have put me off, but I found it very entertaining. It was a real whodunnit and it kept me guessing until the end. The ending obviously wasn't as tidy as some people would have liked but I felt it left a door open to a second series, which I'd love to see.

The scenery was beautiful and certainly added glamour to the series. I felt the characters were well written with strengths and flaws and the acting certainly wasn't the worst by any means.

The plot had twists and turns and it certainly kept me entertained.

It's a shame is has so many poor reviews because I feel it deserves better.

This is not a perfect series but I loved the acting. Angela Griffin is an underrated British actress and I thought her performance was very believable. Tamzin Outhwaite is perfectly cast as a "cougar". She's beautiful and believable as a 40 plus a woman. I was disappointed with Jo Joyner. I found her acting stilted self-conscious and unbelievable. It's a run-of-the-mill story. Somebody goes missing on a holiday but what's unbelievable is all the friends and family go back and live their lives like it's never happened. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it and I wanted to love it. If you like a story with no conclusion and no promise of a second series, watch it. If you like everything tied up in knots like I do give it a miss.