Why so much hype?

Better Late Then Never

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I don't believe there are so many negative reviews of this brilliant series. There is nothing as comparable in today's TV fare - mostly crime and police series! How refreshing it was to have a series so well scripted, directed and acted about PEOPLE for a change. The USA is lucky in that practically everything seems available on DVD. I wish this series were to be released on Region 2 DVD! How lucky we are though to have 4OD where i was able to see this series again. There is a rich vein of archive material in the vaults of our TV and film studios which should more easily be accessed. In Britain we are not even getting the very best films from the MGM archive on DVD.

I started to watch this - I rented it and I'm not sure that I'm sorry. It is unbearably slow to start with, and as a previous comment has said, the mother-in-law was excruciating, so much so in fact that I started fast-forwarding her by the third installment; it didn't affect the story. (It's not as though there are no older women in the British film or television industry, who could act. The story was simple but silly - hard to imagine a middle-aged woman in such circumstances simply moving back to the marital home after five years; hard to imagine a hard-core black baptist church in Croydon (am I wrong? have I been away too long?) and hard to imagine a daughter as this one is; also that there was no autopsy on the old man? Well knitted all together, it begins to work by episode 3, to the extent that I wanted to see what happens. The ending is so improbable it's lovely. You know from discussion that it may not last, but she doesn't care. And neither did I. I think by then I was numb. This production was a bit of a conundrum - all these very clever people doing something so mediocre.

I didn't have high expectations for this series to begin with. While it is true that the pacing is slower than As Time Goes By, and I didn't grapple too much on the dialogue as much as I did with ATGB. I found the pacing to just fit the storyline. The plot is not in a hurry to tell a dozen incidences of comic nature but rather delves on the inner psyche of a lonely person and how she is coming to terms with the reality and fighting her unhappiness. The storyline is simple, a middle-aged woman is divorced by her husband for another woman. She tries to make her single life work but is just too lonely to be alone. From moving in with her ex-husband and his lover and a very naggy mother-in-law to camping in her daughter's flat along with 4 other people to falling in love (or simply fancying the thought of "love") to a much younger man. In 4 episodes, we will see that it's not only Brigette (Judi Dench's character) that behaves badly. This little dark comedy series gives warmth and compassion to those who had been neglegted and had risen up to fight loneliness. And don't miss Joely Richardson who is absolutely incredible from her Nip/Tuck-sultry persona to playing this gawky, hypochondriachal pansy. A blast!

Behaving Badly: 1/10: I have a very high tolerance for cinematic pain. I'm willing to sit through almost anything. Heck forget Jar Jar Binks that's child's play, forget got some undubbed Japanese ghost story sans subtitles… cakewalk, forget some sixties experimental film feature two characters in a white room for six hours.Behaving badly broke me.I kept watching all the way through and it kept getting worse. I like Judi Dench but she is simply unwatchable in this. She plays a dowdy church mouse whose husband leaves her for a younger woman and she decides to think for herself. The choices that she makes are insane and distinctly unfunny.Ah the pain. Joey Richardson as the younger husband stealing harlot suffers from theater acting disease common in BBC productions but it's the grandmother/mother-in-law (Gwen Watford) that did me in. Gwen plays the most painfully irritating stereo type in television history. (Overbearing Jewish shrew that performs voodoo) Oh and the series features "kids" each more banal than the last. (The girl under going a nervous breakdown may send you to your own she is that contagious) Why the kids are even in this series is beyond me. (A younger demographic perhaps?) They are a Real World episode gone horrible wrong. Why is there a black American preacher/love interest? Why would anyone steal Judi Dench's husband? (He is such a wimpy cad and come with more baggage than the Howell's on Gilligan's Island.) In four episodes there is not one laugh. There is only confusion and pain. It is like a Mike Leigh sitcom.