Mayday

Through the first four episodes of this five-parter, it seemed like any of several characters could have killed the May Queen. That the solution eventually comes through some mystical nonsense throws the previous four hours into the dustbin. What a disappointment.

The premise was quite good (although a girl murdered in the woods is hardly a new story idea) and in the first couple of episodes it was interesting to see how the various males were suspected by their family members. Max Fowler was convincing in his role (which was however seriously undermined by a ridiculous revelation in the last episode).

As is usual with these over-consecutive-nights serials, there was a lot - and I mean a lot - of spinning out to fill the time. For example, the police knock on the door. Then we have a long drawn out scene of the occupant hesitating about opening it - for about two minutes, I'd say. Then she opens it anyway and no one minds about the pointless delay. Was this necessary to the story? Did it add excitement and tension? Nope.

The police involved themselves only minimally in the murder enquiry and as for the media circus that would descend in such cases - it wasn't there at all. Most people lived on a housing estate, but somehow, the minute they stepped out of their houses they were in the woods.

The conclusion, as already indicated, is weak. All those stones - presumably inserted to add a touch of spookiness.

Forget it.

Fun mystery/whodunit with just a hint of druidic magic. Packed full of great actors all possibly guilty of something if not murder. If you like Brit murder mysteries, you'll love this.

As others have noted, this has a Twin Peaks vibe, which is a good thing, but it also has big script problems. After taking four hours to build up the story and cast suspicion on everyone, the final hour wraps things up by introducing at least two major plot points that came rather unfairly out of the blue (the villains's motive and a supernatural bent in the finale). Had the story played fairer with the viewer, I would have liked this more. There are virtually no likable characters, and even the ones who might seem to be moral centers are not, and spending five hours with people you don't really care about is a real test of the viewer's constitution. Decent acting, certainly, and a nice mood is set throughout, but overall not satisfying.

On the day that she's meant to be crowned May Queen, Hattie Sutton vanishes without a trace, all manner of village secrets are forced out into the open.

It's a decent five part series, it jumped on The Broadchurch bandwagon, where that succeeds on every level, this one falters, for two reasons, pacing and characters.

It's very slow, it seems to take an age for anything to happen, and when it does, your concentration may have dipped somewhat. The characters are too overdone, everyone is suspicious, sinister, and seems to have a motive, none of them are plain old fashioned nice either, you wait five hours for one singular act of kindness.

It's a gorgeous looking series, very well presented, beautifully shot, they make full use of the idyllic location too.

I've read a few reviews, where people have commented that the ending spoils it, for me it's perhaps saved by the ending, the first three episodes are quite slow, the last two, ridiculously fat fetched, but at least there's some entertainment.

It's worth seeing, but it's not as good as I remembered it being. 6/10.