Strong and Moving!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

*** Warning --- spoilers ahead!!****This is my first review, not only on IMDb, but on any site of a TV show. But I had so many thoughts about this that I had to get them out and say something. I discovered this show a few weeks ago on Britbox and for the most part, am so glad that I did! I'm going to sound like so many reviewers on here. Seasons 1-3 were just wonderful. It was delightful to watch them. I actually looked forward to coming home and watching an episode each night, as they were both relaxing but also challenged some of your thinking. What I enjoyed so much about these three seasons is that none of these characters are perfect -- but in essence, they are good. This is very hard to do with TV shows, in my opinion. Dr. Bramwell is a generally well-meaning person who truly wants to help people, but can also be snobbish, judgmental and even unkind. That being said, you can sympathize with where she is in life and what she hopes to accomplish. It was awesome seeing a strong, smart, independent woman doctor here. She made mistakes --- sometimes bad ones --- but for me, that made her character even more relatable and human. The characters on this show are complex and go far beyond being Victorian clichés. The end of season three was for me, the loveliest part of the show. You didn't know what might happen next, but it was handled in such a great way. As other reviewers have said, it's my opinion that the show should have ended there. And then....there was season 4. I just got finished watching and I'm going back and forth between disappointed, angry and kind of sad. I don't really invest that much time or emotion into TV shows, but I enjoyed this one, and to see it come crashing down like that was hugely disappointing. I understand, I think, what the writers might have been trying to do and I appreciate that --- Victorian London could be an incredibly difficult and awful place for some, and Dr. Bramwell's fierce determination to find Dora is commendable. My problem is the complete and utter change of tone, style and intent on the part of the characters. There's nothing wrong with keeping a certain amount of consistency with TV characters. Shows make us think, but they can also provide a sense of comfort. To make such drastic changes was baffling. If the writers had decided from Season 1 to film the show this way, with this different tone, I would have understood. I may not have liked it as much, but at least I would have understood what kind of mood they were going for. Dr. Bramwell, though her cause to find Dora might have been worthy, quite frankly becomes insufferable, and I hate what they did with Dr. Marsham. I felt like I was watching an entirely different show. I think, like others, I'm just going to pretend I didn't see season 4 and imagine that the show ends in season 3. It will leave me with much happier memories of this show!

*** This review may contain SPOILERS ***First of all, seasons 1-3 were very well done, with few disappointments. Characters were well developed, as were relationships.Then came season 4. With all respect to the reviewer who claims Eleanor "dis not go off the rails", she clearly did. And so did the writers, who appear to have little sense of balance or subtlety in season 4. I am inclined to believe that the absence of some characters in the closing season resulted from their having read the scripts and dashed for the door.Major failings include: - no clear sense of the time elapsed since end of season 3 horrible music, intrusive and forgettableloss of characters without explanation (Sidney, Robert, Kate, and others) new characters whose back story only becomes apparent in snatches over time near total suspension of reason on the part of Eleanor, and of morals, as well utterly implausible introduction of Dr. Marsham's moral turpitude (the man worked too many hours to have had time for that) uneven exposition of plot: there are jarring leaps over details which needed explication, and on the other hand, dreary working to death of the details of the search for Dora, which added little to our understanding, or of the plight of such girlsI could write more, but suffice it to say, your time will be spent much more happily on more engaging activities; arranging your books, or doing your taxes, or even a visit to the dentist.

The series started out interesting but very uneven in quality, until (as many other reviewers have also written) the last 2 episodes. These comprise all of season 4, unaccountably, and are nearly twice the length at an hour and 41 minutes as the episodes in seasons 1-3. Season 4 is a debacle.The main character, as written, is a flawed, sometimes impulsive but usually charming woman with a good brain and heart. But all through the series, Eleanor Bramwell's behavior is inconsistent, almost as if the scripts are written by various strangers and in isolation of each other and the character arc. Bramwell's personality is all over the map; selfless yet narcissistic, practical yet silly, gracious yet unspeakably rude and insulting, prudent yet idiotic. However, it was absolutely incredible that any of the other characters in the series could tolerate or forgive the sanctimonious, hypocritical and selfish person she is in the last 2 episodes . Essentially, she goes rogue, morally, ethically and temperamentally. In a show about the difficulties faced by intelligent, professional women of the time, I was quite shocked when one of the characters suggests that she is unhinged not because she is ill, but because she is pregnant! Clearly, something was going on behind the scenes of this series which resulted in such a blunt, clumsy and ridiculous "end" to the story. I'd love to know what it was!

I have followed "Bramwell" since I started watching the mini-series on PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" a few years ago. The depiction of a female doctor in Victorian England is very entertaining and groundbreaking. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in period drama or the history of medical practice.