sparqui Not sure this really contains spoilers, but maybe for some people it will... This was a good show until season 3. Not sure what happened...new writers, perhaps? It was funny, fun and a lot of laughs. Then season 3 happened. It seemed to become mean spirited, not fun and had to take on all the 'social issues'.

bashfulbadger I finally gave this show a go, for the last episode in the series, and it's left me completely bewildered as to what all the fuss has been about. I had tried it once previously only to find the credit sequence so annoying that I switched it off.But, having read rave reviews in the press (Guardian, Telegraph, Standard), with columnists dubbing it 'brilliant', feting it as a masterpiece and praising the performances, I steeled myself to try again.I really wish I hadn't bothered.I found Tom Hollander entirely unprepossessing in a vaguely irritating way. His relationship with wife Olivia Colman had no ring of truth – their absurd polite arm's-length behaviour made it seem like they didn't know each other at all but had just been deposited on the same set together that day. She was phonily perky like someone instructed to alter her tone to 'jolly' and 'upbeat' as if talking to a child in need of special encouragement.They are supported by a cast of characters who all have faces that you want to slap.Is it meant to be a comedy? There was no humour in it, not a single funny line, bar the chap professing himself to be very good at humility.I have never had much sympathy for self-indulgent people who lie in bed moping all day after a setback, as the lead did in this episode. After all, he has a wife, child and people who appear to respect him despite the fact that he comes across as a bit dim and self-centred.Thank goodness this wasn't some gem that had passed me by but rather a travesty of a comedy/drama/whatever (I couldn't really tell), purporting to be intellectual and appealing for some reason to the moneyed upper-middle classes.

HillstreetBunz This meditation on how a a Good man might fare as a Priest in modern inner city London is so real that, as in life, it's often almost impossible to know whether you want to laugh or cry. Often I did both. And at the same time. The story arc leads to flirting with the old postulation on what would we do to Jesus if he walked among us today, but the deeper insight is into what it means for us mere mortals, just to try to be good, even Christian, in this world, surrounded by the selfish and the self involved, the deluded and the indifferent. As writing it isn't being bettered anywhere on TV. As a company, all the players are brilliant, as the protagonist, Tom Hollander stakes a claim of such star quality, warmth and truth, as should make every writer and director beg to have him work with them. Along the way to the denouement, guest stars Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neesons involvement points to the richly deserved recognition that this show has received. The end is almost too much to take...but by a God I'm grateful that it got made.

selffamily What a wonderful series; I had heard about it but never seen it and finally the chance to hire it came about. I had my doubts, having been scarred by the rector's wife a couple of weeks ago, but this is a totally different kettle of fish, and funny, serious, and real. Great acting, wonderful characters and gentle humour. And upbeat!! The vicar is a highly likable character and he brings a reality to the fact of a man with faith that many series would scorn. Here he is not a villain, but a man trying to do the best he can with the lot he has chosen. It's refreshing to see a clergyman portrayed as a real human being, not a warped or bitter character, and a normal non-resentful wife.