ThiefHott Too much of everything

Cortechba Overrated

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

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

Jackson Booth-Millard The film was brilliant, and I was praying that the television follow up would be as good, and thank goodness it was, from writer and creator Shane Meadows (Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, Dead Man's Shoes). Basically the story continues where the film left off, three years later, most of the friends still see each other, and are obviously brought together by the big events that take place throughout the series. Teenager Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) getting slightly bullied, missing exams and catching his mother Cynthia "Cynth" (Jo Hartley) having sex with his new employer Mr. Sandhu (Kriss Dosanjh). Lol (BAFTA winning Vicky McClure) has a relationship with boyfriend Woody (Joseph Gilgun), they fail to get married, move into a grotty house together, her abusive father Mick (BAFTA nominated Johnny Harris) returns, and she starts an affair with Milky (Andrew Shim). Gadget (Andrew Ellis) has feelings for Lol's sister Kelly (Chanel Cresswell), but seeing her kissing someone else he starts a fling with older single mother Trudy (Hannah Walters), and in the process changes his appearance and personality. The once violent supposedly changed Combo (Stephen Graham) returns because his mother is dying, Trev (Danielle Watson) is violently raped by Mick, and he is killed by Lol with a hammer to the head when he attempts to do the same to her. At the end of the series all characters reunited for the 1986 World Cup England v Argentina match, that saw the infamous "Hand of God" moment, Shaun has sex with older goth girlfriend Smell (Rosamund Hanson) in the toilets, Combo takes the blame for Mick's murder, and Lol keeps quiet to her sister Kelly. Also starring Perry Benson as Meggy, George Newton as Banjo, Michael Socha as Harvey, Perry Fitzpatrick as Flip and Coronation Street's Georgia May Foote as Gemma. The talented cast are all fantastic, the returning actors and the one or two editions, Turgoose, Hanson, McClure and Harris standing out best, the subject matters and situations are still as realistic and thought provoking for the time setting as the film was, it is a brilliant British television drama. It won the BAFTA for Best Make Up & Hair Design, and it was nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Director for Meadows and Best Editing. Very good!

paul2001sw-1 Shane Meadows is in my opinion the finest film-maker in England today, with his tragi-comic, poetic portraits of the English working class. The prospect of a television spin-off of his movie 'This is England' thus prompted excitement but also reservations - there's certainly enough material for a follow up, and with Meadows' involvement, the quality can only be high - but sometimes a story is told and does not need extending. This series is set at the time of the football world cup of 1986, and there's already been talk of another one set in 1990 at the following world cup: might this all be too much of a good thing? On watching it, there are indeed odd moments when the series indeed feels flabbier, less essential than the original; and the occasional lapse towards 'Shameless' territory. But in the main, this is excellent stuff. Thomas Turgoose, the star of the original, is less central here, but still steals every scene he is in; but all the characters are great, including man-child Woody and Vicky McClure's Lol, around whom the plot rotates. The football link is handled lightly, and the final, Meadows-directed episode cumulates in a horrific portrayal of an attempted rape and its aftermath that is handled with an extraordinary grace (unlikely as that word seems to describe the depiction of such an event). Meadows' films aren't loud, but he cuts to the raw edge of human vulnerability like few others; this is easily the best T.V. series of the year, and an important alternative view to the received wisdom on the Thatcher era.

Capo-idFilm The father/son element took on contemporary resonance in the earlier work: its exposition made clear that Shaun was fatherless due to his father being killed whilst serving in the Falklands War, and though grossly misguided, Combo's anti-war rant to Shaun provokes a great anger and frustration in the youngster because of its essential truths – that the war itself was being fought under false pretences, fed to tame the same working classes that Margaret Thatcher had openly waged war on. The film's release, at a time in which the UK was once again involved in an escalating imperialist war – this time in both Iraq and Afghanistan – gave it an extra political edge.This material, even in the hands of a limited cinematic storyteller such as Shane Meadows, proved quite powerful at points. Meadows himself apparently saw much further potential in the work: "When I finished This Is England, I had a wealth of material and unused ideas that I felt very keen to take further," he said in August 2009. "Not only did I want to take the story of the gang broader and deeper, I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now – recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point. Whereas the film told part of the story, the TV serial will tell the rest." Though these sentiments ring true for the film, the mini-series, we should say before anything else, is a mostly vacant work, with no significant attention paid to a recession, to unemployment, to a sense of political and social upheaval. If the central relationship between Combo and Shaun offered a potentially rich examination of political disillusionment amongst the young in both the England of the Eighties and of the present day, its television follow-up, co-scripted with Meadows by Jack Thorne, makes an industry out of fashionable miserablism, forced humour and a moral viewpoint that can only be described as confused at best.Read idFilm: idfilm.blogspot.comJoin idFilm: idfilm.proboards.com

iamnicksemail This show (Episode 1) was such a great surprise to me. I fell upon This Is England the movie by mistake, and loved it. Just as with the movie, I fell upon the series by mistake as well. After downloading the first Episode (As I live in the US and it's not shown over here), I had very little hope for this show. In the US, movies that then become shows (and usually the other way around too) are done very poorly, with no real connection to the original.Seeing the original cast return was amazing, as I don't think they could find people to replace those actors that would do any justice. I took me a second to recognize the older Shaun, and wasn't 100% sure it was the same Woody right away with his new mop-top hair style he sports in the first episode. The show takes place 3 years after the movie ends, and as another reviewer posted, it's like checking in with old friends. Although (and I don't believe this is a spoiler) there is very to little no action between Shaun and the gang together in this episode, I feel it will get to that point, and with the end of the movie being it what it was, am glad they didn't just jump into "Yay everyone is here, times are great, on with the show" mentality. Over all so far, even after one episode, I give it a 10 out of 10. If you liked the movie, you are sure to love the show!