Yeah that hospital scene is brilliant and so well acted. It actually deals with a lot of the questions that have arisen up until now and I adored the way Niall just unloaded about everything and made his feelings known to Ruben as at the end of it all he's so deep rooted to him.

I definitely wasn't expecting that end scene at all, especially after episode 1's "present day" scenes suggest completely the opposite outcome.

I've caught up on the next two episodes and they were better than episode 2... I'm still not as on board with it as everyone else seems to be though, I'm finding it all a bit gratuitous and contrived. I can see that it's generally well acted though - I can see Haus' comparison to poetry in its narrative in the hospital

I agree it's really good and I'm loving it all so far. Every episode has you chomping at the bit for the next one

The ending of the latest episode actually made me shudder. Omfg.

This is brilliant, started it today and it is brutal but all the better for it. I do agree it’s really important for gay content to not only be saccharine and superficial, I have only watched 2 episodes and have no idea where this is going to go which I love in a show like this.

Just finished this and I ended up hating it. I just didn't like any of the characters whatsoever all so unlikable other than Alby and young Joanna (older Joanna was an idiot too). Ended up feeling no sympathy for Niall and thought Reuban was just vile.

It was incredibly intense though I will say.

You could almost guess the reveal/ending which after 6 weeks of build up fell really flat. Niall coming out to Ruben was actually very heartwarming initially.

I did enjoy it overall, not sure if I'll watch it again though.

The finale was incredible but I agree the actual ending scene was very obvious. I don’t think this necessarily had to be a twists and turns type of ending though in order to be as piercing a watch as it was because it was all about the complex relationship at its core.

A great watch, brutal and a f***ing hard watch but an impactful piece of TV.

Yes I have to agree the ending seemed rather....anticlimactic. Probably only because the actual episodes were all so great and twisty!

Agree the ending was quite anti-climactic and predictable in ways. I still loved the show as a whole and think it was a powerful TV moment that deserves recognition for the acting if nothing else.

We finished watching it over the weekend. I still have similar views to my earlier ones… I didn’t hate it all but ultimately I just found it too stylised and I found it left quite a shallow feeling when it had ended - the reliance on almost play monologues in stand alone key scenes felt less impactful each time that technique was used, and the way that plotlines were retrospectively dropped in for twists meant that I found they weren’t explored properly. For example Reuben’s need to help provide money for everyone would have been better explored if we’d have seen it happen, it’s something I can see as being expected of men in certain circles and would have been good to explore it properly. The shade to his character was only really hinted at in retrospect so he remained thoroughly unlikeable as a character to me and the obvious reveal about him being abused came across in the narrative like it’s not his fault he’s like that which was a bit crap - and on the whole I found Gadd’s portrayal too ‘grunty’ and kinda like an OTT manga version of a character type.

Niall ended up being not much better and I found myself not caring in the slightest whether either or both of them ended up dead. And was relatively happy when both did indeed die. Niall’s plot left me cold because I found elements like having sex with Reuben’s wife to be borderline unbelievable for his character. I also find it difficult to believe he’d spend £60K on conversion therapy - maybe that happens, who knows, but I don’t know of anyone who’s paid for themselves to go, especially not in the era that it supposedly happened in - it was a bit cliche. I also simply don’t believe he’d let his guard down to tell Reuben about his wife and son.

With Baby Reindeer both main characters were flawed but both had moments of likeability. In this both the leads were just impenetrable in their unlikeability.

Worst of all, I saw most of the twists coming a mile off - so the writing style of introducing key things retrospectively just didn’t shock or surprise me. The Reuben plot I mentioned in the first paragraph was one of the few things I didn’t totally see coming which is why it stood out for me. And the premise was set up like the two characters would have represented two halves of men… and I assume that the idea behind the title was they could form a whole man between them? Or that they could be better? But by the end I just thought that even if you took the limited best qualities of both and merged them you’d still end up with a twat.

On the plus side I did think much of it was acted well - and there were moments that made me smile or laugh unexpectedly. I did think some of the ‘set piece’ monologue style bits were effective. I’d probably give it a 5/10 which is sad as I was hoping to like it a lot more than that… but it still did have potential as an idea to be a lot more if things had been portrayed a bit more subtly and plots handled less bluntly.

8 minutes ago, dandy* said:

But by the end I just thought that even if you took the limited best qualities of both and merged them you’d still end up with a twat.

Sorry but this made me burst out laughing. 😂🤣

I agree with it all though.