Diddisnap This was a really good mini-series. It left me wanting to see more and I was very disappointed it was over. I didn't realize when I first started watching it on BBC in the US that it was only a mini-series. I thought it was a regular show, and at first I wondered when the next episode was coming! It's a true drama, and terribly sad in parts, with no feel good happy ending. It showed the realities of the struggles of different people. There is no sugar coating. With all this, why even bother watching it ? Because its so well done. It's as simple as that. It has a story that draws you in, characters that connect, and very good performances.

The_late_Buddy_Ryan Good but not great BBC/HBO series, should appeal to fans of Penguin Classics—there's a bit of Trollope (many pairs of knickers in a twist over a parish council election), Dickens (broad social satire, mostly aimed at the snobbish, hypocritical bourgeoisie), all the way up through Margaret Drabble and Jane Gardam (class conflict and social pathology in a microcosmic village). The script has the usual problems of a long, populous novel that's been sliced and diced for television. The first two eps were quite involving, the third kind of rushed; prob'ly should have had a fourth to fill out the backstory and tie up some loose ends. I felt sorry for some of the minor characters, like Gaia and Sukhvinder, who had to hang around forever waiting for their one or two tiny scenes. Good work by the usual suspects—Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, Rory Kinnear as the goodhearted lawyer whose death creates the casual vacancy (on the local council—it's complicated…), Julia McKenzie as a real-life Miss Marple (i.e. sneaky Thatcherite grandma). Abigail Lawrie is amazing, in her first professional role, as the series's secret heroine, a tough girl called Krystal. Haven't read the book, but I agree that what another reviewer called the "water downed" ending was not very satisfying.

Prismark10 JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, a grim adult novel which she wrote under pseudonym looks at life in a small market town of Pagford dominated by grotesque characters like they stepped out of an updated Dickens novel. I have heard it said that the book is also inspired by the play, An Inspector Calls, where various characters in the village are in effect the Birling family who have been responsible to the ruin of a young girl's life.Michael Gambon is the power mad, money grabbing parish councillor who wants to turn a community centre into a wellness spa. Julia McKenzie plays his malicious wife and Keeley Hawes is the flirty but brittle daughter in law. Rory Kinnear is the one who has fought against the closure of the community centre and whose sudden death create the casual vacancy in the parish council and Gambon wants his spineless son to stand and others also wish to contest the seat but a ghost writer on the internet is revealing some home truths.Yet Pagford is not a place just for the haves. Poverty is rife as well as drugs, drink, teenage sex and domestic violence. This is also the story of teenager Krystal Weedon, living with a drug addicted mother and looking after a baby brother with social workers hot on their trail.The three part drama series is a world away from Harry Potter. I know my daughter, a Rowling fan attempted to read The Casual Vacancy but gave up, it was not her kind of book. The series has a bittersweet and grim tone. It is political in context between the haves and haves not, the latter who are getting the rug pulled from under their feet.However the series was not wholly a success, maybe lacking humour, satire and maybe some comeuppance against some horrible people. I believe the ending was changed and softened to make it less tragic from the novel. However I felt that the series would had worked better as a two hours television film and maybe done with being less star studded, Emilia Fox for example was wasted.What is not in doubt is that Abigail Lawrie was outstanding as Krystal.

linnet100 What a gem of a drama from the BBC. What makes this, and what it is at root all about, is a study of human nature, or rather natures. The characters are beautifully drawn: subtle, complex and deep. Relationships are intricately woven and multi-faceted.There is a delicious comedic element that only adds to the bite over real issues. The PCC meeting in episode 1 and the library scene in episode 2 will live long in the memory. Colin's comment about the Philosophy section and Kierkegaard was a moment of genius.The tension between the village and the neighbouring estate is a microcosm of life that seems very pertinent in today's Britain. For 'estate people' read almost any group of undesirables that the established residents don't want. Many of the settings, for example the secondary school, could be straight from almost any comprehensive: yes some kids really do speak to teachers like that.The Casual Vacancy is a fabulous drama which is all-too- rare these days. Human nature painted for television. Superb.