Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Nice effects though.

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.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The most notable defect in the series is a lack of subtitles. The dialects of England are the most difficult for the rest of the English speaking populations of the world to clearly pickup pronunciations, vocabulary, and grammar. Irish and Scottish are actually easier, especially to North American and Aussie ears. It was compounded by uneven audio levels and poor enunciation, thus a lot of important dialogue was missed. Not to mention to those with hearing issues. Most of the one and two star reviewers mention that the Downton Abbey resemblance is misleading and I would agree with that. One of the storyline's core themes is the effect of war, specifically WWI, on the minds of the young men when asked to kill and also face being killed. It is well known, especially for that war, that the personal act of killing created many psychological, moral and military obstructions. The film showed some of that turmoil, but didn't show its scope and depth. Also mentioned in those reviews was the series' excessive emphasis on the discordant, depressing and dark side of village life. True, but maybe not far from the truth. Who knows.

Totally agree with Rickytravis68 & Steve Hewitts reviews. This is one of the worst series I've ever had the misfortune to view. Too many characters with absolutely no personality nor point to their being in the story. After watching the whole 6 episodes I'm still trying to work out who was who and how they related to everyone else. Scenes that made no sense, story lines that have no explanation and I couldn't find one likable character among them! The old guy who does the narration is far too young to be 100+ , they could have at least tried to age him with makeup, and he has nothing to like about him either. I've watched many, many BBC TV shows and I've never come across one so woeful.

Utter tripe. A brilliant cast of known actors with a potentially good story set in a great rural location, totally let down by a poor script, a contrived storyline and abysmal direction.Individually each actor has a great pedigree, but in this dull and dire production they are made to look like amateurs. There are far too many actors with irrelevant "bit" parts creating an incoherent hotch-potch effect without any real feeling, emotion or "heart" to the story which jumps between episodes without explanation of developments. Totally lacking in realism with too many clean faces, clean and tidy houses, uncluttered streets.

Well what can I say about this apart from the fact it has quite nice scenery but hey you could watch Countryfile for that. I fought through the 1st episode and then nearly fell asleep during the 2nd. Boring, depressing, scenes which seem to last a lifetime with no apparent reason. Thank God for ITV and the excellent Endeavour. Once upon a time the BBC outclassed every other channel for it's drama but aside from Paradise which was far superior to ITV's Mr Selfridge they are now lacking in originality. If you like dreary grey drama then this is for you, everyone else I suggest you turn over. I hope the BBC can recover from this mess.