Douglas Is Cancelled

It starts off slowly and you wonder where it is all going. But I am so glad I stuck with it as it builds to a phenomenal climax.

The cast are fantastic with Hugh Bonneville, Ben Miles and Alex Kingston And really shows off Hugh Bonnevilles's slightly befuddled expressions and Miles being a predatory nightmare.

Karen Gillan is outstanding in a challenging role. You never know how to take her until the very end. A hugely difficult role and perfectly executed.

I absolutely hated her at the beginning and my sympathies were all in the wrong places. And then everything starts to shift and I wound up actually crying. An absolutely stellar performance from all the cast. The writing and direction were excellent.. Douglas and Madeline are brilliant and well worth any awards for their performances.

8/10 Britbox.

I nearly turned off a couple of times near the start (and I see that many other viewers did, their loss) but ended up bingeing all four episodes in the early hours. I have great respect for writer Stephen Moffat and it was a great cast. I confess to being a Dr Who fan and this reunion of Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston in the main female roles and as powerful characters from kept me glued to my screen (other Whovians from and in smaller roles also featured). The third episode is scary, and skin crawling, but wait .... the fourth is the key. Keep watching. There's always a twist at the end. Yes, I know that's Russell T Davies, but honestly, do keep watching or you'll always be wondering. 100 stars to Karen Gillan in this.

Famed and loved TV presenter Douglas Bellowes makes a comment at a wedding, a comment that is deemed sexist. The comment is witnessed by a fellow guest, who posts the incident on Twitter, a media frenzy begins, and Douglas faces cancellation.

Stick with it, I struggled to get through episodes one and two, in episode three however, a switch is flicked, and it transforms into a tense, thought provoking story of control and abuse.

I was expecting a comedy drama, and early on there are snippets of humour, but all of that vanishes in episode three, the tone changes, as does the whole feel. Moffat makes you think, question and try to apportion blame to the various parties, you question who is guilty of what, who's the real villain.

Steven Moffat went for tried and tested, cast members he successfully worked with on Doctor Who, and none of them disappoint, wonderful to see Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston reunited. Hugh Bonneville and Ben Miles are fantastic too.

Please don't quit at episode two, stick with it, I assure you at episode three it will reward you.

8/10.

This show is a strange animal, but also somewhat entertaining, thanks in no small part to its brevity. The plot moves quickly and mercilessly, similar to the way the public internet court can pass judgement on someone like Douglas. As with everything written by Steven Moffat, the dialogues take center stage: they are snappy and spirited, often relying on quick repartees to drive the narrative.

The lead cast is excellent across the board, and I could listen to Karen Gillan's soft Scottish accent all day long. Where the show slumps however, is when the secondary players get any screen time. It's hard to believe that Moffat is the creator of such pointless characters as Douglas' unbearable daughter, or his clueless manager, or Nick the comedy writer, whose lifeless sense of humor is certainly meant to be ironic in and of itself, but really only ends up being discordant.

All in all, it's an interesting project and it's topical enough to generate discussions worth having in this day and age. I just wish Moffat had been more judicious when choosing his characters and a little braver when detailing the actual cancelling.

The whole first episodes are a drag, and they are played like a farce. 3/10. I nearly turned it off. And then the last two episodes are great drama and written far better. 9/10. They should have done it as a two or three episode miniseries instead. Some characters are so overdrawn they feel out of place. And for a series that is (in the end) so squarely in women's corner, why write the wife's character basically as a stereotypical nagging jealous wife? It adds nothing to the point the series makes. There are some baffling decisions in this, so it's quite flawed, all in all, but it was a joy to see Gillan being able to show what she's capable of as an actor.