Dreamland

I happened upon this by chance. It's unlikely I'm the target audience as a 46 year old man. I used to enjoy watching Lily Allen's chat show a few years ago so I gave this a watch other than that my only point of reference was Frances Barber ( from amongst other things Rik Mayall presents and the amazing episode of The Street with Bob Hoskins). The trailer for this I watched after all 6 episodes it is really good. The whole show reminded me a bit of the Stephen Merchant show Outlaws. It's not quite as funny as that show or quite as compelling. I'd say that Barber is slightly wasted in her role which I found a bit cliched (maybe it has been heavily edited) . Lily Allen was good in this but I felt that her character wasn't written that well . Gabby Best was good in her supporting role. The character that held the whole thing together was Freema Agyeman's character . I've never seen her before and she saved this from being a little bit mediocre. I enjoyed it. It is worth watching and is pretty entertaining.

I have no understanding why some critics said this show was good. Ok lily allen is in it. She's not an actor but is ok in this. It reminds me of Benidorm. Nothing really happens and it's not really funny and there is also not really much drama. It's massively overrated D it's a "sky original" . How many of those have been good? Promising young woman was good but really their output has been poor so it's not really a surprise to see content like this .lily Allen used to be famous for being.a drugged pop star and flashing her boobs. It doesn't appear there is much too much to her. Marry a stranger things actor ....

I do not think I will be able to manage a six hundred word review but I will try.

I thought it was funny, very English and had a really good cast.

Freema Agyeman was great to watch in a totally different role to the marvellously well put together Dr Helen Sharpe in New Amsterdam.

Lily Allen has totally turned herself around and was very credible as. Smelly Mel.

The rest of the cast were very good as well. Especially Nanna.

My main criticism is that I felt the story could have gone on a lot further and at least 12 episodes were needed. It was all Uber just as it was getting good. I hope there's a second longer series.

There is definitely a market for this type of ""comedy"" writing. Its just not for me. I mean I tried, 6 episodes in and didnt laugh which is fine because we all have different likes but I couldnt connect with any of the characters either. I didnt like, admire or feel sorry for any of them.

The whole point of this show seems to be who is the angriest and who can blame others the most, even blaming strangers...sigh.... I did expect more due to the names behind the scenes and the names in front of the camera but sadly it did nothing for me... I dont give spoilers so I wont here, just to say that some reviewers have said the characters are like real people.....I genuinely would hate to be around so many angry bitter people who want to blame everyone for any problems in their lives.

Like I said, there is definitely a market for this kind of show. Go on twitter,insta, tiktok etc and you will find lots of angry people trying to blame strangers for something they didnt do or say..those people would love this show... If the makers turned down the contrast, called it a drama and eased off the "messages" then it could be OK. But I struggle with the comedy label...

Nothing particularly stands out with this comedy, it's a pleasant watch and makes Margate look quite idyllic. I must admit I got a kick from the nostalgia of many seaside holidays there .

It's not particularly funny nor so many of the main cast gel all that much, with standard EastEnders /soapy plots. .

The cinematography is all over the place though. Lots of lovely shots of the seaside with oversaturated colour and bright vibrant colours give it a pictur postcard look, but the CinemaScope widescreen aspect is totally wasted on everything else. Scenes with characters talking flick between characters and we have full frame closeups instead of wider shots that would look better in the format.

It's clearly filmed for a normal 16:9 aspect and modified in post as the directors just don't take advantage of the format properly .