The Listeners

It's hard to put this show into words. It doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, part psychological drama, part sci-fi, part cult thriller, yet no real substance at all.

The acting has been criticised on other reviews, but I don't feel the acting is the problem. It's everything else. It's a real "meh" progrramme that is just disjointed, flat and bland. I really don't get what it was trying to do. There is potential in the concept which is interesting, they could have made a good sci-fi show, or an apocalyptic type show, or they could have just focused on the cult angle and made a good thriller there. Yet you don't feel like you get to the bottom of any of that.

Somehow I've made it through all four episodes just to try and see what in the world was actually going on, and it really was not worth bothering with. I would rather have spent the 3 hours waiting for a train.

English teacher Claire starts to hear a humming noise, a sound that nobody else can hear. The hum starts to affect her life, she finds some comfort when a student, Kyle, also hears the same noise, the pair explore the noise, and are drawn to a group.

I've heaped praise on the drama output of both ITV and The BBC during 2024, both organisations have put out some wonderful content. This however, this is the low point, a total dud.

Excruciatingly slow to start, it should have been half the running time, the only time the series offers anything, is in the third episode, which I enjoyed. Episode four is truly one of the most painfully, terrible things I've ever watched, there are no words for how awful it is.

We get such a feeble explanation, we don't even get to glimpse the sound, we should have been given the hum very early on, it made it impossible to empathise with Claire. There's weird, and then there's plain old incomprehensible, and this I'm afraid is that, it leaves the viewer cold.

It's diversity on steroids, as you'd expect, The BBC's world view on things continues to patronise.

Some decent performances however, Amr Waked stands out, the guy has some real presence.

Avoid.

4/10.

Short series about a woman who starts hearing a sound no one else around her appears to be able to hear, and how it deeply affects her public and personal life - shifting her allegiances and tearing holes in her reality.

Rebecca Hall puts in a great performance, and there are some nice details, too - both in cinematography and not least the sound design.

I was mainly drawn to The Listeners by its title and theme, and while the storyline doesn't always evolve in a pleasant way, I did find it interesting in relation to subjective experiences of life and the impact they can have on our relationships to others - both in terms of closeness and alienation.

The eerie aspect is to do with the fact that hearing is subjective - no one essentially experiences the world in the same way - and how this opens up questions around empathy, trust, understanding, support, exploitation, and mental health.

The premise of Listeners - people who can hear a mysterious low humming sound - might feel familiar, but this drama finds a way to make it feel fresh. Rather than focusing on the mystery of the hum itself, Listeners takes a deeper, more emotional approach, exploring how this strange phenomenon changes the lives of those who hear it.

What really works is how the story leans into the human side of the concept. It's not just about the sound; it's about what it does to people, which makes it far more engaging than you might expect.

The acting is solid, with performances that draw you in without overplaying the drama. And the sound design is just subtle enough to make the hum feel like another character in the story, ever-present and unsettling.

Listeners strikes a balance between eerie and intimate, making it more than just another mystery. It's a thought-provoking exploration of how the unexplainable can shape our lives - and well worth a watch.

I have a keen eye for drama. Usually in the first 15 minutes I can work out the quality. This one took me all of 5 minutes. Rebecca Hall is getting far too many duds to be now considered a reliable actress.

As soon as the woke-ness, over-acting and general typical suburbia came to the fore I knew there is only one way this is gonna go, and I wasn't wrong.

Unbelievably predictable the drama offers nothing. BBC has lost its way. Commissioning far too many of these humdrum, no-one will watch dramas which sink without trace.

Where is the grittiness, the pushing of the tension boundaries, the realism in delivery? All is absent. Nothing to see here. Move on.