Really Surprised!

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I think that women may respond to this amazing drama, more than men...more's the pity. It addresses the kind of oppression women, children and the poor have faced throughout time. It takes a moment of one such time and speaks volumes about many others like it. An intimate snapshot into something deeply relatable to many. Even with such a dark topic this story is uplifting, because it is true to human nature. The acting is superb, the writing intelligent and the cinematography gorgeous. It was altogether deeply satisfying.Personally I find it intriguing that most women's history, if not contained within the political arena is considered historical fiction. I suppose this series is a work of fiction but it is based on the true experiences of the voiceless, nameless, brave people who suffered through such hard times. More a fictionalized truth, truer than what may lay in the pages of history books. The people who write history are the victors, the politicians, the wealthy. Mostly if not always educated men. This bias is so deep that few lasting memoirs exist about the lives of common people. And yet most of us are still common, and more then half are women.I have sat through countless media and fiction that centers around the male experience. I find it elating that many new series are giving equal time to the plot development of the lives of women, and women not as victims of violence but of circumstance.I think this story rocks. It is definitely a 10 star series.

This clever Victorian drama set in 1830's England depicts the suffering and hardship of the working person through a time of change. And with great actresses like Kerrie Hayes who plays the role of apprentice Ester Price you can see the hardship those people endured through such difficult times. This drama passes through the events like the abolishment of slavery to the introduction of the poor law and as time moves on in the series we the affects of those events to take hold with the character's and environment. Finally like I mentioned before, this series has some brilliant actors & actresses that reflect hardship and evolution of the way who were poor are treated.

This is a brilliant and very gritty drama. From the moment that I started watching it I immediately wanted to see it again. It gives you a very unflinching image of life during the Industrial Revolution and how the wealth of Britain at the time was made on the back of grinding hardship and poverty. The acting in it is second to none and Kerrie Hayes, as well as being gorgeous, plays Esther Price with such conviction that you could almost be forgiven for thinking that you were watching an actual person as opposed to an actor portraying her. When watching it you really get a feeling for how times were beginning to change and how they were beginning to change for the better in some respects. The main focus of the plot Esther Price's mission to find her true identity is one that makes you really route for her. In the part where she goes looking for her baptism certificate you are sitting there with baited breath for things to work out. The story could be exclusively about her and still be brilliant, it is such good drama.

Synopsis; "The Mill: The Mill is a historical drama series created by John Fay. The series is set in rural-industrial 19th-century England ands is based on the historical archive of Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire. It depicts the country at a time when the industrial revolution began to change the country beyond recognition forever." There might be some reluctance on the part of the viewer to watch this show as the colour scheme and goings on just appear miserable. But for me this is must-watch TV. The hard working conditions of the Mill and the heartless times are fantastically captured. Scenes where feeding the workers is done by dropping a miserly ladle of porridge in their palm and the conditions children worked in is astounding.The cast play their roles exceptionally well capturing these characters restricted by the times and their actions ring true. I can't watch and not be angered by the cruelty and lack of duty of care for the low classes of these time and the arrogance and hypocrisy of the bourgeois that I feel echoes to this day. I watch in hope that the Mill owner would lose his hand like the child he employed to develop some modicum of sympathy but injustices such as these never were answered.This show is an eye-opener and should be compulsory viewing to understand the origins of industry and how far we have come in the industrialized world and how far we still have to go. The themes of exploitation and slavery and the incredible indifference to it by those that profit from such and then conveniently shed their morals regarding fellow man. Incredible watching!!!