An astonishing cast (who wouldn't enjoy Kili telling off Doctor Who, whilst Jen fawns over, well, Danny Dyer 😁) providing phenomenal performances, wrapped up in a story which, on paper, honestly sounds a bit dull ‒ two toffs in Middle England vie over local popularity and regional TV rights ‒ and yet creates some of the most entrancing, anxiety-inducing, outright absurd television I've seen in ages. It's an absolute rollercoaster ride, and utterly spellbinding.
Key to that is how well it both keeps you guessing whilst also slowly twisting and contorting your opinions on the various characters. Everyone's a villain. Everyone's a hero. At least for an episode or two 😉 It's brilliant storytelling, making you root wholeheartedly for one camp and then flip almost entirely by the end of the season. Total five star television!
However, it's then somewhat let down in the finale. For starters, this doesn't feel like it needed to be multiple seasons. I don't mind a second season, but wrap up the plots you started in the first one. Leaving it where they left it, with absolutely nothing resolved, just felt like a let down. And then there's Tennant. As usual, he plays a brilliant character. He is the show. Sure, everybody else is fantastic as well, but the story revolves around whether his character is good, bad, evil, misunderstood, manipulative, in love ‒ just so many questions. He is the rival. So why finish the first season on that shot. He's dead. They could have left it unknown, but they don't. I have no sympathy for him, but that's not the point. By leaving everything up in the air, and the main character on the floor, I'm not sure I can be bothered to come back.
I mean, what does it leave us with. Cameron's going to jail (even if the blow was justified in self-defence, she's a black, immigrant woman in the '80s: she's fucked); the whole affair is going to come out and ruin both networks; everyone loses. What else is there? How will Taggie and Rupert's illicit romance blossom? Meh. It's been a fun way to show Rupert's character arc, development, and how different perspectives can dramatically shift a narrative, but it isn't that central to anything. Whether Jen and Dyer actually divorce their respective partners and shack up? Possibly, but that's over in one episode.
Maybe I should give the writers a little more credit. They certainly managed seven superb episodes, so perhaps they know how to make another seven. But can I be bothered to sit through that much to risk another lacklustre payoff. Or will he magically survive, breaking all sense of realism. So close, but such a frustrating point to build to.