ShangLuda Admirable film.

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

monesque Yawn, a period piece and a serial killer. Yet, this enchanting miniseries takes that simple concept, freshens it up and makes it all special. The acting is great, the pacing and the writing are excellent, and the plot (where these things most often fail) works, too. There is also a touch of social commentary, which is well taken and happily more obvious from circumstances than preachy speeches. This clever program is one of the best things of its type that I have seen in a long, long while. Don't miss it.

gitwnathan Let's be clear. Suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite for almost all murder mysteries. Somewhat plausible clues need only lead roughly through a series of red herrings before landing somewhere near a killer, and myriad alternate explanations can be left under whatever carpet a viewer chooses to sweep them. They won't be needed anyway, since the murderer always has a chance to confess when confronted in the end. We don't expect realism. It's all about "wouldn't it be lovely if an eccentric, drug-addled Victorian genius, or a potty old lady, or a ridiculously fastidious and unctuous Belgian, or a lonely and cultured detective, or some other such misfit, proved to be right when everyone else got it wrong?" In other words, for most of the genre, it's a story about someone who typically gets even less respect than we do—and really, do we ever get enough? That's what makes it so satisfying when everyone finally gazes in awe at the one they had so little respect for previously. The hero's vindication is deeply gratifying to us. In this case it's women confronted by stifling Fifties sexism; so far, so good. You go girls!However badly constructed, such fiction still depends heavily on viable characters. These characters, especially the protagonists, need to be somewhat true to life and go about their business in a manner reminiscent of real people, because we have to be able to identify with them, at least enough to care about the story. In part this is the job of actors, and in the Bletchley Circle there are some good ones. However, it is also the work of writers and directors, and here something went seriously wrong. Look, if they want their characters to do something crazy, they have got to furnish them with a semi-plausible reason because it's jarring to try to identify with someone who is acting like a complete nut-job for no reason. To see what I mean, consider what a plausible character might do in these representative situations, and keep in mind that's never how it plays out in the Bletchley Circle:1) Plucky gal, you've belatedly discovered that the guy whose name you gave to the police was actually framed for the series of murders. When the cops are too busy and too condescending for an extended chat, do you at least mention before leaving that you are sure he was framed, or do you mumble something unrelated and quietly leave him to his fate?2) The real sex maniac killer and evil genius is stalking you and has just indicated that he can get to you where you and your husband and little girl live. Before leaving home, do you mention something about that to your unsuspecting husband, or instead worry about the Official Secrets Act, which clearly doesn't apply since you wouldn't actually have to spill any official secrets in order to warn him? 3) You encounter your mass murderer in his preferred killing environment, and he's obviously got a special plan just for you. You have your Loaded revolver trained on him. For some reason he has attached a grenade to the wall behind him and tied a string to its pin. It must be for some ingenious and nefarious purpose. Suddenly he threatens to pull the string and blow up the room if you don't put your gun down and give in to his perverted will. Oh no! Do you weepingly do everything he tells you, or step back out of the doorway you're standing in, and let him blow himself up after you've left?And so on and so forth. Surely there are acceptable limits to British fiction, and then there is beyond the pale. I'd place Bletchley Circle somewhere beyond the pale's pale. It gets pretty wild, that far out.

Ian Ker Interesting concept, but facile execution.Like Foyles War, this can't get its transport history right. A routemaster bus features from both outside and inside at various times - but this program is supposed to be set in 1952 and the Routemaster wasn't introduced in London until 1956. Susan's husband's car is a 1954 Morris Oxford.Sorry if this sounds pedantic, but it does rather destroy any sense of historical context.I'd also like to know where, in the days before the internet, the intrepid ladies managed to get hold, so easily, of so much information on trains, work rosters and the like. It's as though the writer/director think that the only difference between the internet age and the 1950s is that information was only available in hard copy in the 1950s. Information in the 1950s was very much harder to come by, especially as it even predates the photocopier.Continuity is very poor, especially given low level of lighting for many scenes. The viewer has no time to process the end of the previous scene before the next is upon us - often involving the same character arriving in a different location.

Raymond (Reviewing Season 1) I like British detective stories, I'm interested in problem solving, code breaking, crypts and logic reasoning. I'm interested in ww2 and post-ww2. Still wasn't too excited about this.Why not then? There is very little of the actual code breaking, reasoning etc. They kind of jump to conclusions when it comes to viewer. They talk about code breaking, but there's never a real moment you'd feel like you/they actually figured out something relevant. It felt kind of dumbed down. The story in general is quite interesting, but the script around it is quite yawning.The cast.. well the leading lady in my opinion wasn't very likable. She was OK, but the same thing with Gillian Anderson in the recent "The Fall", as a character I felt she was quite uninteresting. The youngest of the circle had a more solid background written in the script, but I'm not sure if I could even distinguish the two remaining women from each other, they were bystanders at best.And even tho one of the ladies had a more solid background written in the script, I'm not sure if it was relevant really. It was kind of a sub plot without a proper conclusion. Maybe flesh for the second season.So. Not crap, but nothing special either.