Disturbing yet enthralling

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I think that one of IMDBs headline pictures is actually a spoiler. It was for me. I could sort of guess that they would find the mother in that lake. Because IMDB posted a picture of a bodybag at the lake.

We watched this thinking that if it is HBO and BBC it must be good. Not one bit. It was a total waste of time. The husband threw out his phone once he knew his wife was missing (Wouldn't he want his phone in case she tried to call him?). If you waste time finding out why (do they even say?), just that alone shows why this is a bunch of poorly written bullshit. I hate to leave bad reviews but this was so bad and a waste of five hours of my life that could have been entertained by a plethora of other shows that would have been better. There are so many choices of stuff to watch.I would rather I never saw this. I hated it. It will only get three stars because there are a few good actors in it.

I looked forward to this series immensely after having followed the gorgeous and supremely talented actress Suranne Jones since Coronation Street, Vincent and Unforgiven. The trailers made it look really good. But what a disappointment! Suranne was good in it, as was most of the cast (special mention for Anne Reid and Bernard Hill). However the writer Gwyneth Hughes(?) had totally over-egged the pudding to a ridiculous degree. How could it be that so many people on the train in the first episode were connected not only to each other but the incident? There were far too many plots and sub-plots and while it was never confusing it was irritating. The intimation of a terrorist element was a complete red herring and seemed to me to serve no real purpose other than to muddy the waters. Another thing I disliked in this was the background guitar music trilling away and just annoying the hell out of me without adding anything to the atmosphere. I recorded the whole series and watched it over 3 nights and it felt like a chore (I did want to see how it panned out). Quite liked the surprise death of a main character-a brave move. Overall though -must do better and a lot more succinctly.

This five part BBC drama is a bit like it's other flagship drama The Streets. That is well made, well acted with some interesting story lines but is confined by the Show's premise that all the characters live in the same street which limits what happens to them.Five Days is similar in so far as limiting the action to five days it gives little room for the story to breath. And the title implies that the action takes place over five consecutive days but it doesn't, so why bother? But what a disappointing story it is. Like the last series it starts off well with the discovery of an abandoned baby in a hospital and death of a young girl who jumped in front of a train. Was she pushed? Is there a connection between her and the baby? And we meet various characters who are on the train whose lives are connected in more ways than one.But as the episodes progress it becomes more apparent that they are going to have a hard job successfully tying up all the loose ends. It's it a bit far fetched to believe that the driver of the train is in a relationship with a woman who is seemingly responsible for the death of the person who jumped of the bridge. Also there is a lot of stodgy stuff about the Muslim faith and a couple of young men who have been to Pakistan for terrorist training. All this bogs down the plot rather than enhancing it and it's hard to see what message the writer is trying to convey. We get to the last episode expecting answers to all the questions raised earlier but a lot of these are mentioned almost in passing and you are likely to loose concentration waiting for something interesting to happen.The most unbelievable part of the last episode concerns the baby's Grandmother and her confused motives. She snatches the baby and takes him to the baby's mother who is a hopeless drug addict. Her plan seems to be that seeing the baby will force her to give up drugs and become a proper mother to the child. But the grandmother is also an ex-junkie and would know how difficult it is to come off drugs and anyway the girl dumped the baby in the hospital because she didn't want it. Also considering how manipulative the grandmother is it's hard to see why the baby's father would be so comfortable in her presence when they are both at the shopping centre with the social worker. She is the key to the whole story but her actions are explained in a few mumbled sentences at the end.All-in-all a great pity because the series has a good cast (especially Surrane Jones and David Morrissey) but in its attempt to be too clever it failed leaving this viewer with a slight feeling of being cheated.