Very well executed

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I've only seen two episodes, so count me out if you are needing an end run at this series.What I did see is safe horror for romantics. It's not for me, I'm not a romantic, but even so I didn't mind watching it (normally I would) so critically it is working on levels apart from that romanticism. This is not Thomas Hardy, whom treads a line where the central characters are flawed rather than the supporting cast. Here it is the reverse if anything, and in fact any flaws are more the aberrations that tragedy brings. It's the type of horror that sets one weeping for the sadness of it all, and as a period piece I think is authentic for that. This is not a jump out of your seat horror, though it has creepy moments galore. This is a new vision of the age of Thomas Hardy, and if you enter into that spirit, you should come away satisfied. As with all BBC the visage is perfect, the shot framing wonderful, the little touches touching or appropriate or interesting, and overall the concept is reasonably novel. This is like old horror tales you remember having read somewhere, such as ones from anthologies, written well before our time. For me it was too romantic … a sort of we live next door to Wuthering Heights in the summer.The lighting was good, the details and costume very authentic, the characters engaging. The pace was good for television, but a little too fast for me. I would preferred it slower with resolution waiting for another episode, as some of the sub-plot lines require. There is the promise of a deeper mystery here, and rest assured I will be one of the ones that comes back to the show from time to time to ultimately discover what that mystery is.

The story at the beginning like a simmer fire to narrate in detail. Audiences should has patient to taste it. Every detail is matter and hinted the clues for the ending. Especially the ending twist is surprising. The writer,Ashley Pharoah, is brilliant. Every scene has been arranged like painting on canvas, beautiful and natural. Not to mention each actor acting in place. Colin Morgan as Nathan Appleby is a pioneer psychologist who is carrying the pain inside deeply by losing his son. It's a complicated character for him as a big challenge. But Again, he accomplished a perfect job which was so engaged the character and dealing well with this tangle role. Charlotte played his wife also express the delicate feeling to support his husband. Overall the whole crews are connected and played well with sewing a splendid landscape.

The Living and the Dead is a very evocative celebration of rural England. It is powerful because, rather than present a life of twee corn-dollies and doilies, it presents the real struggles of life on the land, and what the agricultural year used to mean to people: i.e. everything. The haunting come across as an expression of this place in time and I think, despite other reviews, are truly original in that they are rooted in deep story. The central characters are mostly real and deep - especially Gideon and Nathan Appleby. I find Charlotte's character a little cookie cutter at times - she is the straightforward one. The acting by Morgan is really rather stop-you-in-your- tracks, but I must also acknowledge that I am a red blooded female with an appreciation for tortured souls in a waistcoat. The twists, and complexities of plot, the imagery of the thing and - most of all I think- the questions it raises about the nature of time, make this compelling TV viewing. Many are super keen for more.

Having just watched the first episode in the series, I suspect this just might be a compelling miniseries. The casting is great, the locations evoke the settings' era justly and background story of industrial change sets a "peasants fear of the unknown" tone well. My main issue or complaint center around the preponderance of terribly annoying "mood music." whenever there isn't dialogue; a trend I see more and more frequently in UK period productions. I am not against music at all, but it should not be front and center in scene after scene forcing the mood; the camera and acting can and should do that with music being an accompaniment.My second issue, and this not only pertains to this series, is the use of "natural lighting" which leaves us in dark interiors where one cannot see anything. I know this became trendy 20 + years ago with Lars Von Darkness, but I really can't stand it. I don't think we need to light like the 40s or 50s, but goodness me, shine a F*#%*ing light on the set; I know it's 19th century and it was dark. I'm giving it a 5 until the end of the series.