User reviews

The reviews and comments on this board are strange. I'm an atheist and I loved the series. I'm also a gay-rights activist, and I didn't see anything blatantly harmful. In fact, the story line was written to suggest that the reason the young priest lost faith was because the church had forsaken him because of his homosexuality, not because he was gay. Claiming this was akin to describing homosexuality as satanic is glib at best; the series is about the Catholic church, and it's a matter of fact that the Catholic church frowns on homosexuality. I think they did a good job of showing how that attitude hurts homosexuals, by making them doubt themselves and their instincts, and ultimately by shutting them out of the faith. Also, ONE atheist was portrayed in a negative light. (And he WAS an atheist, not a satanist, though I can see how he could be mistaken for a satanist, as he was possessed by a demon) How can one make a series about a religious war without defining 'good' and 'evil' and dealing with the resistance of non-believers. This series didn't define atheists and homosexuals as 'evil' anymore than it defined Christians as holy warriors who see possessed people around every corner.

Anyhow, of course it was unbelievable; it was about exorcism. But the story was compelling, the characters were fantastic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would give it a 10, but there are only six episodes, and now i'm lonely.

This is one of the best television dramas I have ever watched. I sincerely wish there were more episodes. The acting is superb. The characters are believable and well fleshed out, even the seemingly unimportant ones come across as real. This show evokes emotion and makes you care deeply what happens next. It also beautifully filmed. The locations and sets are rich and engaging, the use of light and sound to evoke mood masterful. The attention to even small details is astounding.

I cannot fathom why this show did not have a long and rich run. I believe if its creators were to revive it for American audiences it would be a smash hit.

I missed this one because I was out on the Thursday night, but I caught it on BBC's iplayer - and I'm glad I did. Another fantastic performance from Martin Shaw and another thoroughly believable character to add to his repertoire. Father Jacob is played with all the intensity and humanity we would all wish our religious leaders to have. Lots of excellent acting and an interesting - and slightly scary - storyline, keeps the attention. At one point, I actually had to stop the playback and go to make a cup of tea - an old trick to break the tension that I haven't used for several years when watching a TV programme... A good sign. Great start to what I hope will be a first rate series.

My only concern is that it might be a bit of a one trick pony and I wonder how we're going to get past that. But for the time being, thumbs up and all systems go! A success.

Martin Shaw first came to my notice in the Professionals back in the 80's (action cop/spy drama cheasy version of Spooks), he is a very respected and accomplished Shakespearean and TV actor here, of late the BBC have constructed a number of easy on the eye and brain dramas for him eg Judge John Deed and George Gently and I expected this to be another of the same, however I was pleasantly surprised.

It had grit, good acting, a fairly good plot and scampered along nicely, I missed the initial airing and watched it on the BBC's iPlayer facility online, I will tune in next week to watch it live.

Give it a go you might be pleasantly surprised.

This is a 6 part series following Father Jacob, a somewhat maverick priest performing exorcisms against the wishes of his superiors, who believe it is an antiquated practice that brings the church into disrepute. The series develops as the episodes go on, with the introduction of his secretary, Sister Ruth who provides the role of the disapproving sceptic; and with interesting and unpredictable cases that Father Jacob becomes involved in. These are interwoven with the continuing story of Michael, an ex soldier who succumbs to demons. Throughout, the series explores the subject of faith and raises interesting questions, tackling some difficult subject matter without actually imposing any ideal on the viewer. I hope they make another series!

As some one else commented this could be a one trick pony but what a trick .You do not have to be religious or an atheist to enjoy it . This is not in the Linda Blair category of exorcism but subtle with a very dark underlying humour e.g when Father Jacob is listening to a radio ,which is switched off but still broadcasting,after being possessed the sister asks why is he listening to "Satan FM".

It might stretch it to far for another series but would still be one to watch.The plot twists still have you wondering at the end about at least one of the characters which for any series is good.

I think as a producer Martin Shaw would not let the plot lines get out of hand .so lets hope for another series or at least several longer one offs.

An extremely intelligent, well crafted drama series, that produces some very chilling moments. Martin Shaw shows us yet again, why he is one of the finest & most underrated actors of our time. I am desperately hoping that they produce a second series, as we are clearly left hanging at the end of episode 6.

This series brilliantly explores the interplay between the Vatican in Rome and its skeptical view on all things related to Exorcism. The continual struggle between Martin Shaw's character and his obstinate counterparts in Rome, make for a fascinating analysis of the inner workings of the Catholic Church.

I very rarely give a title 10/10, but I must make an exception here...

I was willing to suspend disbelief and accept the premise of the show, and I admire the actors for treating the script seriously, but I can't accept its plot holes and misconceptions. The primary weakness is an inability to understand other points of view. Jews do not believe in the Christian version of Hell, for one thing, and while a Jew might (and many did) lose faith in God because of the Holocaust, he would have no reason to turn to Satan because of the behavior of the Pope. Jews do not recognize the Pope as God's representative. He might become anti-Catholic, but, despite the scriptwriters' misconception, that is not the same as becoming a Satanist. A psychologist would have had no trouble accepting that performing a satanic ritual could have resulted in physical illness for a priest; she would simply have explained it as a psychosomatic illness. Every non-believer is not also rude, aggressive, and confrontational. Minor inaccuracies - a priest would have known that it's "The Revelation of St. John the Divine," not "Revelations." A European Jew would have spoken Yiddish, not Hebrew.

This is an excellent show with superb writing. I just discovered it and was disappointed to find there only seem to be six episodes. I would have given it 10 stars if they had made more! It was probably an expensive show to shoot but is still much better than 90% of television on the air. Here's hoping that someone will want to make more. This is what the recent movie featuring Anthony Hopkins should have been had the writing and story line been stronger. I hope if someone buys it they don't try to re-do it in the US as it will probably be a weaker version. I would hate to see it watered down to the Sc-Fi "Being Human" equivalent.

A fan in Texas

Father Jacob, played by Martin Shaw, is a British Catholic priest who is next in line to assume the Vatican's positions of chief exorcist. As you may guess, he is very talented at exorcising the demons of the possessed. The demons, fallen angles, are eager to take hold of human bodies, since they are tired of the suffering they must endure in hell. Roughly, this is how the story goes. Although the story line sounds quite ridiculous, I must admit that I was intrigued by the show. As an atheist, it took quite the suspense of disbelief to keep watching, but I found myself questioning interesting notions put forth and challenged throughout the show: Father Jacob lives in a world in which both demons and saints can possess people; a world in which Satan acts but God relies on faith; evils is apparent but good only implied. All in all, the show has decent entertainment value, some very nice acting, and an interesting (albeit a tad ridiculous) storyline. Unfortunately many of Apparitions' plot twists are left hanging in mid air, and many things remain unexplained by the end of the 6th episode. It seems like they may have had a little too much faith in their viewers to make sense of all of it.

It is truly a rarity these days to watch, read, listen to anything from the mainstream media that doesn't fuse the Church and Scandal. The negative review by "critical thinker" is the mainstream result of public brainwashing about the catholic church. Furthermore, I wouldn't consider a review being anywhere near honest when its author only watched a fraction of the show.

Unlike what the above mentioned critic claimed, the show actually portrays the Catholic church in its current state. The faith is not an institution, but rather the founding principles that guides individuals, and we see that very clearly in father Jacob's character, and the other side of the coin in Cardinal Bukovak's. They both personify the true nature of the faith in constant struggle with Satan, which can also penetrate the church.

There is no dogma forced down anyone throat, in fact the complete opposite, which is very obvious to anyone who watch the show in its entirety. Father Jacob takes every situation with utter tolerance, slight humor, without an ounce of condemnation or judgement of character, whether it is homosexuality, abortion, convicts, the Muslim faith, even the possessed.

The only shortfall of this show is that it ended.

I looked this up as have just watch the whole series back to back as totally gripped by the storyline, so wanted more. The cast was excellent. Now, it is necessary as a viewer for you to buy into the concept of an exorcist etc. and as someone from a non-Catholic background it was easy for me to just sit back accepting the plot. In my view if you accept that basic storyline of the concept of a Catholic Exorcist rather like the plotline of the movie, The Exorcist then this is amazing escape viewing as a piece of mild who done it/ horror cross over fiction viewing. If you are a deeply devote catholic then maybe you might emotionally fight the concept but if just viewed as a fiction story then very well done.

I watched this series as found by chance on Amazon Prime. What started as an 'oh I will watch one tonight' turned into staying up last and watching the whole series!

Happy to recommend to give this series a go if you enjoy the horror/detective cross over type plots.

I had never heard of this miniseries until Chiller (cable) started announcing it. I have only seen the first two episodes and at the moment I simply cannot find any explanation to it's low ratings when it first aired (as I've read in the internet), except maybe the "timing" was inappropriate(??). Who knows! I have reasons to believe the idea was ahead of it's time, and it is now that it has relevancy. The actors, especially Martin Shaw (whom I had never met until now), are superb. The delivery is excellent. Flaws?? There surely are, but I have yet to ponder the four remaining episodes. I'll surely get back here as soon as that happens.

This is a very odd series that requires a lot of you as a viewer. My guess is that most will not make it through all six episodes. That is a pity, because "Apparitions" is not a TV series with sequential episodes but one long story, told in six parts. And, taken as what it is, it's one of the best such stories ever told.

I don't much *like* the kind of story it is, but I understand it. It's *very* much like William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" and "The Ninth Configuration." Those were Catholic stories, too, about the question of faith, and the questioning of faith. But all three fall into a genre I would call "religious emotional drama queen fiction." That genre is about writers trying to manipulate audiences by showing them over-the-top miracle and possession stories to push their buttons and get them to associate those pushed emotional buttons with having had some kind of religious epiphany.

Ordinary life and ordinary questioning of faith aren't *enough* for these writers. They have to "paint large," and can seemingly only believe in God or attempt to sway others into believing in God by creating larger-than-life situations based in conflict between good and evil, personified as a conflict between the man of faith and Satan. Such stories are IMO the spiritual equivalent of sappy romance fiction and manipulative emotional tearjerkers. There is little about them that could be described as "subtle." That said, I think that "Apparitions" is pretty *good* religious emotional drama queen fiction. It is FAR better than Blatty's "The Exorcist," and FAR more intelligent. The cast is excellent and the writing more so. But it's still religion dressed up like Carmen Miranda. I prefer subtler stuff.

'Apparitions', absent of the dramatically grounded gravitas informed by Martin Shaw, would likely be a whole other dramatic production. Although, in fairness to many other deeply talented and salient actors also involved in this series, likely that is not entirely accurate. Unfortunately, the elephant in the room looms large in this storyline: the inelegant monstrosity which we recognise as the Catholic church.

While the exigency of the story's creative projection demands the audience vest their faith in the Catholic church as a positive actor, striving to see God's will done on earth; unfortunately, the hypocrisy of this premise cannot be understated. Specifically, this is true given that organisation's checked history of complicit engagement in the decades old cover-up of on-going sexual abuse of children under the paroral care of the church.

Even so, Martin Shaw's acting, eminently supported by a multi-talented supporting cast, does deliver performances which are deeply grounded in the humanity of its characters. Luckily, this screen portrayal is rendered mostly absent of the church's own pseudo-religious and political motives or self-serving pontification. Thereby, the story advances through the humanity and pseudo-religious existentialism of the characters without over-emphasising the altruism of the Catholic church, or its inherent self-important bureaucracy.

However, again, the writing struggles with the fervent demand to vest belief in an anti-God, the devil, apparently in legitimisation of the relevance of Christendom, and the Catholic church in particular. Sadly, this is not new, and essentially rehashes the historic storylines of a trove of crass and repetitive tales anchored in horror specific to this genre.

Refreshingly, it is the people, the characters, and the character actors who construct the fabric of this tale, not the writers or the over-arching politics of the Catholic church and its religious self-importance. Believability is thereby informed by the compelling performances of this production's cast, not its premise. In this sense, this production is powerfully successful. However, as an opportunity to retell an old tale, we are stuck with politics, language, vocabulary and religous-social structures which allow little latitude for reinterpretation of an old storyline premise - good versus evil mediated by Catholic rituals of exorcism.

The subject matter takes you on a rollercoaster ride of the two extremes good vs evil with great acting and direction that caputures the essence of the excorcist own battle for the light

I recently found this show on Amazon Prime and I was hooked from the start. I'm disappointed that there was only 6 episodes made. I loved the historical accuracy of the information the plot was based on. And I loved that there was no reliance on special effects to create an at times gripping atmosphere.

Great season wish there was more seasons, but as usual Vatican always complains about TV or films likes these, this series wasn't about spinning heads etc it was more realistic of what happens during one with the background information coming out in the story. Shame this only had one season it was really good

Rating failures denied this series a second season. The story line is good, the writing and directing is well bad. Plot lines make no sense in many parts, where did a blind man get a taxi cab? And a great deal of filler. How many times can a director cut back to a hospital bed and a young girl declaring I want an abortion. Too much blood and gore for me and far too much time spent on gore props until it was mind numbing. Why did the cleric antagonist look at his watch?

It was very difficult to watch the direction as it was the same throughout. You an predict the blurry, the theatrical camera angles and almost here zoom in! When the gore props appear.

Cleaned up, this would be pretty good and worth several seasons.

My perspective on this is that of an American Catholic and I absolutely loved it. I generally don't watch much BBC other than my childhood memories of Doctor Who and more recently Downton Abbey (if that was BBC?). My interest was piqued by the trailer so I figured "What the heck" and gave it a go. I was pleasantly surprised. It lacks the big budget Hollywood production value, but I think it was better for it. The story focused on the psychological thrills than the special effects. The acting was excellent and the presentation of Catholicism was mostly accurate, warts and all. If you enjoyed this, I'd highly recommend the movie Nefarious. Watching that is what got me the suggestion to watch Apparitions.