User reviews

There seems to be a lot of negativity towards this program mainly because it has not remained faithful to the original book or The 1960s film.

The world has changed a lot since 1957 when the book was written. The internet, television, computers ect. Even abortion which would not have been easily available in the 50s. It's by no means perfect and seven episodes is at least one to many.

The cast are all excellent from the ever reliable Keely Hawes and Max Beasley but it's the children who really shine and make this series an enjoyable watch. Don't be put off by the doubters and judge for yourself.

7/10.

The Midwich Cuckoos

As a fervent Sci-Fi fan, I've waited for such a remake for over thirty years. It was great seeing the old town again in a new light, and it was equally great seeing the Easter Egg of the original clock tower from the original movie.

It is interesting to think that Walt Disney was involved in such cutting-edge topics back when the subject matter was taboo.

I wrote a blog on the original work many years ago, centering on where the story's original subject matter originated. It seems UFO abductions were then relegated to skeletons in family closets, privy only to close friends, family, and family physicians. Let's hope this series gives the original work its due Justice. So far, it seems to be off to a smashing start. The only thing missing, of course, is George Sanders' charming voice. Thanks.

I really don't understand why this is being slated as woke rubbish. Why because it has a multiracial cast. Have these people never walked down their own high street.

The original film was 77 mins. This has been stretched out to five and a half hours. Keeps you interested even though you'll probably know the story. Kids are creepy and great, and who cares about the casting being reflected to show diversity, doesn't make it any less watchable. Far better than the Christopher Reeve version, stay with it and remember it's 2022 not 1957 when the book was written.

IF i was only to go on SOME of the reviews here i MIGHT have skipped this one, but the whole hating on the diversity even made me WANNA LOOK MORE so thanks for that, to all the raysist haters.. It is NOT as bad as i read on here, i guess some people just can't help themselves being negatives and all...

Watched it all, and the child actors in it are very good, and the diversity stands for how the world is now, so the makers did a very good job with that!!

Happy i tried it out,... it was a very nice series to watch them creepy kids are very good, not sure if there could be a second season, but the low scores are not telling for how this serie turned out to be!!

John Wyndhams classic novel for the 21st century - brilliant

There seems to be a lot of negativity towards this program mainly because it has not remained faithful to the original book or The 1960s film - which I don't think is a bad thing.

The world has changed a lot since 1957 when the book was written. The internet, television, computers ect. Even abortion which would not have been easily available in the 50s. It's by no means perfect , some dodgy acting, seven episodes was enough.

The children are all excellent and really shine and make this series an enjoyable watch. Don't be put off by the doubters and judge for yourself.

I honestly don't get it, I thoroughly enjoyed the show especially how good the kid actors were, they acted so well, I've never read the book so I can't judge both, all I know is I enjoyed this.

The acting is patchy in places and the pacing's a bit off. I find the sound effects deeply irritating, but otherwise not too bad as remakes go.

Yes, Midwich appears to be quite astonishingly racially diverse, but I don't see how that makes a difference to anyone's enjoyment of the story.

Finally, it's not based on the American film Village of the Damned. Both that and this are based on the Midwich Cuckoos novel by John Wyndham. Read a book.

Up to episode 5 and can't wait to watch the last episodes to see how it pans out. Children are scary as, especially Hannah with her big teeth and hair.

Acting good. Give it a go.

This series gives off a disjointed feeling as if someone heard a really great story and then tried to retell it from memory but messed up on the delivery.

The premise and world building is amazing. One can see that the original version of whatever this was based on must have been very thought out. However, the execution and dialogue is bad at times, and people don't act in logical ways.

They even get UK laws wrong and the police and military procedures seem to be using '80s Hollywood-movie police standards, which really takes you out of the story.

Having seen and read the originals this is both absurd and unrealistic. Plot holes and situations in abundance coupled with poor acting absolutely ruin a classic syfi. A small town/village with a police station let alone a CID section... Yeah right. Soldiers doing drill with loaded weapons! All the characters are stupid and blind beyond belief. Another weak and poorly made Sky production.

Really don't understand all the haters on here. I have used the analogy before, but it is down to the Squid Game Mentality. No one gets slaughtered in the first 10 minutes so it's boring. Back story, character building, and a plot? Heaven forbid! Was a fan of the book, and all of John Wyndham's work. Village of the Damned, a previous adaptation of this story from the 60's was one of the first movies I vividly remember. Still a great movie, albeit a little dated. Which is one of the reasons I love this so much. It drags the story into the 21st century, while keeping the heart and essence of the original intact, which is no mean feat.

A lot of low scores are because the cast isn't all white considering it's meant to be based in a middle England village. One of the earliest scenes is a character going on a date in London, it's not a middle England village but one of the commuter towns. They've basically made Midwich Amersham (where it's filmed). I also pity anybody who's so racist that the second they see a brown/black face they get angry.

The series had enough to start with that it keeps me in suspense throughout, some of the decision making by the people is questionable but then so is the decision making of people in real life.

My biggest gripe is the ending dragged on a bit and then ends abruptly. There were also a couple of minor bits were the attention to detail with how the kids interacted with each other changed with no explanation. Until the last couple of episodes I'd have given it an 8 or 9 rating.

The acting is pretty atrocious, I'll start there. I'll watch literally anything with Keeley Hawes in, but I feel like even she dropped the ball on this one. I don't think anyone stood out as better than anyone else because all the acting was sub par. I stuck on to the very end and boy oh boy. I really hope whoever was responsible for spending the budget on dreadful wigs instead of acting workshops never works again.

The atmosphere, script, story and dialogue were all great. Genuinely creepy. The Midwich Child actors were all amazing at what they did indeed.

The series has moved away from the Novel somewhat. We don't have the pale white haired bright eyed kids here. The kids (maybe the program was trying to be woke?) are no where near as creepy and as uniformed or as one because they've moved them away from the novel. They look like average kids. The village atmosphere is lost too. More a community than a small village that's taken over by blackout.

It's okay for what it's worth but no where near as good as some of the original films that stick to the creepy vibe of the novel.

I found this series riveting. The children were excellent actors and the adults too especially Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley. Well worth a binge viewing.

I haven't read the novel, but this series was less chilling than Wolf Rilla's 1960 version "The Village of the Damned." The children in that version, with their blond(e) hair, were eerily like the Nazis' ideal German youths. That look was out this time round, because London-centric casting directors nowadays insist on populating dramas and adverts with mixed-race couples and children. That may well be what they'd like to see and also the best way forward, since if in future everyone was coffee-coloured there would be no racism, but it's a totally dishonest picture of where we are now. Black people constitute only 3 to 3.5% of the UK's population. That proportion is much higher in London, but we saw Keeley Hawes going to Marylebone station to get a Chiltern Line train, and the announcer mentioned Amersham and Chorleywood: I seriously doubt there are many black people in the Chilterns' towns and villages. The funny thing is we still get black actors saying they're under-rather than over-represented in the UK, and have to go to the US for work.

Keeley played a role filled by George Sanders in the original (another sign of the times, I suppose.) She was excellent as ever, while Max Beesley scowled a lot. Aisling Loftus made the biggest impression, and I certainly want to see more of her work.

I am on episode 4 and I'm hooked. I think it's something very different to other series available right now. The acting is good, especially the children, who are creepy. It reminds me a bit of Village of the damned. I'm intrigued to see how the story ends...

I quite enjoyed this, I haven't read the book so maybe that helps? Keeley Hawes is great as always and the child actors are very good. The story is a bit silly but they do a decent job of stretching it out over 7 eps and keeping the interest up, which a lot of Netflix shows suffer at tbh...(so many Netflix shows are obviously 3 hrs of content stretched over 10 eps and its obvious) a few negatives are that it is a bit 'Dr Who' levels of production, scripts, acting at times and to address the elephant in the room so to speak, the setting and cast choices are rather odd truth be told. A market town (which is just a large village) in Rural England wouldn't be so diverse in terms of ethnicity and that does at times effect the suspension of disbelief. (You wouldn't set a show based in the Bronx or South Central LA and have half the characters as white, middle America types, that would be dumb, same applies here) the mixed race couple escaping the city to the countryside and the Woman from the home office from London makes perfect sense to be POC but half of the population of a small market town in rural England? That's a bit silly tbh...just set it in London or Manchester, Bradford etc if you want a really diverse cast, that would then make sense. Anyway it's not as bad as some say and not as good as some say (Ignore the 2 and 9 star reviews as usual lol)

'The Midwich Cuckoos' was an excellent novel, and very well filmed as 'Village of the Damned' in 1960. That film kept it short at 1 hour 17 minutes and maintained tension throughout.

This version must have lasted about 6 hours overall, and followed the familiar pattern of recent TV series - re-imagining a classic story and spinning it out. Finally it looked just like so many other recent series, completely losing its original charm and impact. Many scenes far too long, and many unnecessary characterizations whilst important characters were hardly developed.

I enjoyed the first episode which set the modern-day scene well, but it got long-winded in episode 2 and continued in that vein to the end. Even the climax, which had some tension in it, was no match for the 'battle of minds' portrayed in both 'Village of the Damned' feature films.

Sadly, many people praised it, showing the effect that countless similar TV productions has had on viewers.

I certainly agree with another reviewer who likened it to a Dr Who series, for these reasons.

A fair attempt at the classic Sci Fi favourite let down by the need to populate the village of Midwich with all nationalaties. I think people are intelligent enough to realise that whatever village in the world is portrayed there will be predominantly one nationality. I found this aspect distracting. The acting is good and the storeyline, although updated to modern times, still intrigueing. The original story had the children all of the same mode, i.e. Blue eyed and scarily blonde but not in this series. I can see why that was changed in keeping with todays attitude in the media that everyone is equal (even though in reaity they're not). Wouldn't it have added a further element of intrigue to keep the aspects of the children similarly uniform ( not necessarily white) in appearance or would that have provoked 'outrage' as is so often the case in these 'enlightened' times ?

Overall an enjoyable series that kept me watching even though I know the story well.

Another mystery is why I can't see Sam West as listed in IMDB's credits as playing the part of the Home Office official, Bernard Westcott. Alien intervention you think? (now corrected..just like his character in the series he's re-appeared.)

I see the bedwetters who think that when something offends them, (usually a non white face) it is 'Woke' are out in force again. Please just go and get in the sea and take your purile prejudices with you.

As for the programme itself, it's OK, dodgy acting in places but conveys an element of suspense at times which smartly reflects the source material. Could've been better but nowhere near as bad as some of the sad reviews suggest.

The storyline doesn't develop because too many artistic background scenes such as the beauty of child birth. I couldn't relate with any character or cared very little for the several leading ones. Finally, the special effects are *meh*.

Sorry but being a fan of books and original movies series extra that this based on could not like this remake as much as wanted to and yes watched them all, just went way to far of original source materials and look...