It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Do we really have to be reminded of how disgusting suburban British life can be. How miserable can one place be? I'm from the West-Country and I really. And why is this entertaining? We watched the first episode most of the way through. I was so depressed and infuriated with the horrible characters. There is not one character that could be the shining light in the hell-hole. I was so miserable that I forgot that I could switch it off. I eventually came around and did so. I read the plot on this site and I am so glad I will see no more of this garbage. Suicide, rape, more drugs and more hateful children as well as the horrid adults. I need a good comedy after this crap.

I wouldn't care, except that it makes for a boring predictable story. She is so hell bent to "prove" that people have to use their funds to save others, that it turns me off. Its not that I completely disagree with some of the political points of this "story" . What I do dislike is the idea that we should somehow be saving the Krystals of this world. Krystal's place is not anyone's fault but her mothers, and her own, and not anyone else's. The fact that the council members made mistakes in their lives did not disturb me half as much as the fact that their kids were willing to turn them in, shades of Nazi Germany. The only bad guy in the story seems like the writers, really. Sure, people can improve themselves, but it isn't fair to ask society to bail them out, and that is obviously what the story asks us to do. On top of that whoever wrote the script obviously knows absolutely nothing about Methadone, Heroin, or Opiate addiction in general, and writing about things you know nothing about is tacky. Example; Its perfectly normal and expected for people to relapse. Its generally not seen as a failure until about the fifth time. Most Opiate addicts will relapse four times or so before the treatment takes. The Sheik family really annoys, because it seems like an attempt to make sure that the hero, if there is one wasn't by any chance a white Christian person.

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.

Had to write a quick review to counteract the ridiculous first review from whom I can only assume is one of the privileged snooty characters from the programme. I honestly thought it was a joke outside. The programme isn't particularly crude: it shows a realistic depiction of fairly ordinary life, swearing and sexuality included.Yes, Britain really is like that, and the drama painted a very intimate and affecting portrait of the lives of ordinary people, the hardships they face, and their failings as human beings.Highly recommended. Apparently IMDb wants me to write more, so I'll say that the scenery is also very nice, so if you fancy a holiday somewhere with nice countryside, I believe it was filmed in the Cotswolds...