User reviews

Glue is an 8-episode whodunnit set in the rural community of the Berkshire Downs in southern England. It concentrates on a group of friends aged ~19 who have discovered sex, drugs and rock n'roll but are only just working out the consequences.

Since some of the group are Roma, the series plays on themes of inclusion/exclusion between the Roma and the "gadjo" (non-Roma) community, and Roma who leave the travelling life to become gadjos. Themes of life and death are also explored through animals, one character works as a vet and two others at a racing stable. But really it's about the dark things that lie beneath a superficially lovely environment, and how things that have happened to families in the past mess things up for the present. In that respect it feels like someone's watched a lot of Stephen Poliakoff and has tried to create a canvas that goes in that direction whilst having rather more action. Unfortunately they're not that good.

A key requirement of a whodunnit is to leave you guessing, and the basic structure of Glue's plot works well in that respect - there's lots of red herrings to keep you on your toes. The cast do a great job too - you can imagine this is the sort of young ensemble piece that will spawn a number of stars of big-budget films in years to come. Charlotte Spencer steals it for me (but I'm a sucker for the ginger freckly look), I can see Callum Turner brooding as the romantic lead in a Hardy or Austen adaptation in 2020, and Jordan Stephens is surprisingly good, he's got a future in acting if the Rizzle Kicks thing doesn't work out. I find Yasmin Paige less compelling in the Miss Marple role as a trainee policewoman, I think it's partly her and partly a character which is trying to present several different faces to the world and ends up falling in the gaps between worlds. I know it's the intention for her to be adrift like that, but I think it needed a better actress to convey such complexity.

It's a shame that a good cast and good plot aren't quite enough to make a fully satisfying show. There's at least one stupid irritating goof in each episode - for instance you are only allowed to shoot pheasants in winter, but a shoot is depicted among bluebell flowers (ie May), and other scenes happen in a field that's close to harvest (July?) or at 8pm in daylight. Older viewers may be put off by the gratuitous yobbishness of the first two episodes - I'd urge such viewers to stick with it, that stuff largely disappears after Glue has shown how down with the kids it is and it becomes a lot more serious. It's fair to say that none of the characters are particularly likable, so if you're looking for heroes to cheer then this isn't really your thing.

And otherwise - it just doesn't quite come together, partly because all those red herrings make for quite a crowded cast list and you get a bit lost between them all (a few blond(e) wigs would have helped distinguish them) - but they have scope to be developed in a second series, the attempts at epic cinematography amount to a GoPro on a drone and the soundtrack is surprisingly sparse.

But I don't want to sound too down on Glue - overall it should satisfy anyone looking for a good whodunnit which tries to ask some questions about society and family, although it may help if you're young enough to have heard of Rizzle Kicks!

I really enjoyed this whodunit, some gaffs throughout the series but overall worth a watch. It kept you guessing until the end which I didn't find very realistic.

Wow is that gripping!! Okay so in parts the acting is a little wooden but it really was nail biting and I consider myself pretty good at guessing the ending but it had me guessing until the last episode!

I still don't understand the upsetting baby calf evening incident....that's not a spoiler, you'll know when you get there. It was never explained and I don't get it.

Brilliant stuff and I loved the comedy house mate! She was brilliant and such a random part but it made it all the more believable and realistic!

Really really really REALLY good!

It's one of those ones I'll keep thinking about... I'm sort of hoping they don't do a second series, leave it where it was. As some dramas SHOULD be left on a high! And that's a very high, high!! :)

Great acting, many faces who have gone on to do some top acting - really enjoyed this series.

Following the finding of a 14 y.o. boy killed we get to explore a beautiful scenery, amazing teenagers trapped in a small village and discover their lives, experiences and feelings.

Although there some parts skippable the whole of it is an amazing experience.

Didn't honestly expected that from a show based on a murder, truly worth your time if you have it.

Sorry but a lot of the acting is poor quality and the characters are not engaging. Didn't warm to them or the series. Also the sound quality was poor so a lot of mumbling. Shame, I like to leave good reviews.

Unclassified because I didn't make it past the first episode, which featured a lot of thoroughly dislikeable, annoying, and implausible brats. In fact the whole thing was implausible and unpleasant.

This series is deeply emotional and gripping. Callum Turner navigates the tragic role of Eli Bray in an intensely compelling manner, giving one of the best performances of his career. Glue showcases much young talent, with every role being believable and enthralling to watch. Heartbreaking and poignant, it is one of the greatest YA mystery series I have ever seen. Great for fans of Skins.

In many ways this was a good series with many strands and mis-directions. However the acting was erratic and not always believable. But worse than that, as usual, everything around the horse elements was very poor. Wrong tack (General purpose not racing saddles), race horses that just stand around for hours without being tied up, the jockey being given her first race in a big race, anyone allowed to wander around in the weighing room but no officials there, no Stewards enquiry 're the pulled race and many other elements. There was so much potential here and I did persevere to the end (just cos I wanted to know the outcome) but it fell very short of what it could have been

Glue started intriguing with the discovery of a dead body and the presentation of the different characters/suspects. You immediately try to figure it out, like in most of mystery movies/series. And that for about four episodes, just half of the series, after that it gets boring, almost childish behaviours of some of the characters. Bad writing towards the end. Okay I was surprised by the culprit, but not surprised enough to find it a good mystery series. For that the acting of some of the lead actors looked just worthy of soap operas like Eastenders and other trashy shows like that. Yasmin Paige, Jordan Stephens, Charlotte Spencer, those three main characters were annoying to watch with Charlotte Spencer and Jordan Stephens as the most likely to end up doing soap operas. It started well to end badly, luckily it's only eight episodes long.

For a start, there was barely enough material here for 4 episodes, never mind 8. I can't recall where I read it but someone from the entertainment business pointed out that films need about 2 hours worth of material whereas on TV, writers seem to believe they can hold our attention for nearly 8 hours.

If you have something like Breaking Bad, then no problem. Here, despite having an award winning writer, the whole thing had a horrible resemblance to a school play.

The main set of characters were 20 somethings, entirely unlikeable and little more than cliches of empty headed kids which is a bit of a travesty. The rural setting for multiple murders was hardly convincing and a pile of non-essential subplots that never went anywhere didn't help.

A waste of effort. We watched it so you don't have to.