MacCarmel

Loved this series. Was sorry to see it go in 2015. Two years later it's been reborn in a decidedly less than incarnation. It's not the cast -- it's the writing. Which is, unfortunately, pretty standard issue Special Forces in desert countries shoot-em-up. Where's the story?

I haven't read the books. That said, this TV series is of marginal interest to mystery fans. The UK excels in mystery scripts and this series is just not up to par. It is barely interesting with the underlying mysteries pretty easy to figure out on your own.

I would give a shout out to Katy Wix who is a stand out as the "helper" in solving the mysteries. Often seeming to be the actual detective in this cast of hapless and helpless villagers.

We're three seasons in and the critics are wrong about this series. If you're watching for the Mad Men appeal of something set in the 50's-60's you're in the wrong place. There are no eye candy sets here, the men are all either unredeemable dicks or hugely patronizing pains and the women are, by far, the most appealing characters and actors. But that said, the writers certainly seem to have taken an interesting series and run it into the ditch by season 3. The characters have pretty much all outlived their viewer interest. The fictional children do not belong in this series based on real people and they are a big drag on the story arcs.

The value to the series is, in my opinion, solely to view the work of Lizzy Caplan, Allison Janney, Annaleigh Ashford, Sarah Silverman and Caitlin FitzGerald. Michael Sheen does nothing with a wholly unlikeable character. There is no humanity in his Bill Masters. The longer this show continues the more awful this character becomes. And he is, ultimately, the reason I can no longer watch the show. I just can't put up with his character that takes up so much screen time to get to the female performances that are actually worth watching.