Absolutely brilliant

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As a Uni lecturer I had heard about this so call 'drama' series and most of the comments were, not to understate the desperation of the writers, so absurd as to be dangerous. OK it's fiction, the land of make believe, problem is it is being screened to impressionable youth. Some of these will believe what they are seeing and hearing. Others will see an outlet for fantasies. No school I know of and and I meet teachers and pupils from many, none come even close to this rubbish. That the UK education authorities and Govt go along with the portrayal of teachers and pupils in such a bad light is astounding. Bullying, homophobia, bad classroom behavior is already far too prevalent in classrooms and school grounds, this over emphasis of it and the blasé' approach by some teachers in this 'drama' is an indictment on the level TV Executives will go to ensure profit. Any writer worth their reputation wouldn't touch this trash with a barge pole, the actors!! obviously the scrapings from the barrel. Research shows teachers having multiple affairs with colleagues, Principals rorting school funds, being blackmailed, on drugs and one would be sex (aging) kitten, flaunts not only her over mature parts to fellow teacher but students as well. This is TV at its worst, to average 4 million viewers steadily shows there is a dedicated number of kids living in a non existent world divorced from reality.

Here in Australia we are now being treated to four episodes of WR a week. Perhaps it is this rapidity of going through the series (we are now well into Series 3) that reveals the major problem with this offering.The characters don't seem to have memories; at least they can never learn from their mistakes! I suspect this may be due to the plethora of writers and directors - I haven't really checked, but there seems to be about eight of each. There seems to be no "book" outlining the major characteristics of the characters.Consequently the characterization by the actors is all over the place, as apparently different writers and directors have different views of how some characters should behave. Some have more personalities than Tara! (As in United States of). The rapidity with which the Tom/Izzy/Lorna triangle formed and reformed in Series 2 - when seen one episode each day - was just mind boggling.Rimmer seems to have a memory problem. When will he ever learn that Steph is a problem for him - perhaps never as every writer seems to want to do a Jack and Steph get together one last time.There are also major gaps in the storyline which seem to defy logic. In what world is Lewis Seddon - would-be thug and general waste of space - going to suddenly (but without any explanation) going to pop up as a kitchenhand in the very canteen his family tried to destroy only two or three days (as we see the show) earlier?

I like the BBC, a lot of my favorite shows over the years have been broadcast on BBC America. One of my favorite aspects of BBC productions (At least those broadcast here in the U.S.) is a series season is short, and rarely does a show outlive it's time, lingering on because the characters have become a part of our routine.Another aspect I enjoy is the character development. With such short seasons, the pace of shows are generally much quicker and the characters fleshed out early on. However, in the case of Waterloo Road, I fear there is little direction as to what the show is about, who the characters are, and surprisingly the staff appears to be more dysfunctional then the student's. This isn't meant as a criticism of the actors, but rather of the writing and concept of the show. Were it not airing during the bleakness of U.S. summer reruns and never ending "reality shows" I'd have probably quit watching some time ago. However, unlike great BBC shows like SPOOKS *MI5) or many of the "Mystery Monday" line up like Wire in the Blood, or Night Detective, which require my attention, Waterloo Road allows me to serve the internet, check google news, or play spider solitaire while it plays in the background.The situations of the kids, are their moronic thought processes are easily waived off, as let's face it, kids always think they are much more clever then they really are. (I know I knew more at that age then I know now)Part of adolescents is learning just how much we still have to learn.The teachers however are another story. One would expect they would have outgrown both their hormonal imbalances and emotional insecurity. The old adage about "not dipping your quill into the company inkwell" seems to have been a missing component of their education. Having your own kids in the school you teach certainly doesn't seem to be a very good idea.The silliness and absurdity far outweighs the occasional dramatic moment or insightful instance which stumbles off the tepid script.

Difficult to say whether this series set in an under-achieving inner-city comprehensive is meant to be a comedy, a drama or a comedy-drama as there are elements of all three. Jamie Glover as Andrew plays the ex fee-paying school English teacher who comes to Waterloo Road as Deputy Head and initially he's coming over as a cold fish though with indications that he will develop into the saviour of the school. Ex Coronation Street actress Angela Griffin is the pick of the bunch as the very human and humane humanities teacher and in fact the show seems to be a haven for ex-Corry actresses with Jill Halfpenny, Denise Welch and Judith Barker (the second Mrs Ken Barlow) joining Ms Griffin and I see from IMDb that Chloe Newsome will soon make it 5 unless she was in the first episode and I missed her.This kind of drama is really done much better by US producers these days though enough was going on for me to tune in and see how it progresses.