The Drowning

 This is a new 4 part TV drama series which turned up on Channel 5. Episodes 1 and 2 were on Monday and Tuesday this week. It concerns, as they say so often on Pointless, a woman who thinks she glimpses her teenage son on the street; this is remarkable because he disappeared nine years earlier, believed drowned in a park lake. 

The trailers promised me Rupert Penry Jones and although he's not one of those actors I will watch in absolutely anything (and I do rather wonder whether there are any of those left these days, apart from Nicola Walker) I'll normally give whatever he's in a look. 

I watched Episode 1.

I did not watch Episode 2. 

 I won't be watching Episodes 3 and 4.

This has nothing to do with the fact that Mr Penry-Jones didn't appear until the last five minutes of an otherwise totally tedious hour. It's because the whole thing suffered from Stupid Woman Syndrome, Non-Credible Character Syndrome  and Look at That Plot Hole: You Could Drive a Tank Through It Syndrome, all of them in spades. 

I find I can't be bothered to go into detail but all of my complaints and many more are entertainingly covered by readers comments on  this Guardian Review If you have five minutes, and would like a smile they're worth looking at.

But honestly if this is the standard of TV drama these days is it any wonder that  I confine myself to property porn, faux craft competitions like the Sewing Bee and  Pottery Throw Down , and DVDs of ER?