Happy Valley series 3

[Haribokart]

Last episode tonight, unfortunately I won't be watching until tomorrow but here are my predictions:

 

Spoiler

Tommy is going to kill Claire, narratively it makes sense with her betrayal of and subsequent rift with Cath

 

Cath will almost succumb to Tommy doing something when she angrily goes to get revenge for what he did to Claire, somehow Ryan will be the one to end Tommy when he sees what is about to happen to his gran

 

Dr drugdealer will get threatened by the nasty teacher and admit all, implicating Rocksteady and Bebop upon pig interrogation by Ann

 

Cath and Richard will end up together

 

Someone will have a cuppa

 

[Fierce Poodle]

I have no idea how it’s going to end, just happy to enjoy the ride.

[Fierce Poodle]

Well. That was pretty much perfect television.

[Kryptonian]

How the plot with the 

Spoiler

teacher/wife/chemist was wrapped up seemed like a bit of a cop out

 

[Triple A]

That was brilliant 🤩 

[barkbat]

It was brilliant, but it did feel like a whole episode worth of B plot was just vaporised into a couple of lines of dialogue because it got in the way of the emotional finale with Tommy. I'm sure they had their reasons, and there's no doubting the power of that main storyline and the brilliance of its telling, but compared to the 2 previous series which managed to tie all story strands up beautifully, this one ended up feeling a bit disjointed and dramatically unsatisfying. The whole

Spoiler

oh yeah those illegal pills belong to my probation officer scene was by easily the worst plotting of the whole three season run.

 

[iknowgungfu]

I thought it was slightly disappointing for the quality of the preceding episodes/series. Relatively speaking, still excellent overall. 
 

Spoiler

I felt like some of the plot devices were repeated.  Tommy getting stabbed and then let rolling himself.  You could argue the cyclical use of setting fire to himself was an effort to come full circle in some sort of poetic sense - if that was the intent I don’t think it came off that way.

 

I don’t think she would have gone in that house alone once she saw the broken window  - they spent the entire series showing us how broken and exhausted she was both mentally and physically.

 

I think I would have preferred it if she begrudgingly saw a tiny glimmer of what Ryan saw in Tommy. A small part of her feeling pity for him alongside the hatred.  Also, there would be huge questions from Police as to what happened in the kitchen between them afterwards!!  
 

The other plot line just neatly wrapped up in the last 2 minutes too.

 

What I did like is the focus on how much of a child Tommy was in mindset  as the series went from 1-3 I think they developed that notion.  
 

Still bloody good though. I’m just judging it on its own impossibly high standards. 

[Mawdlin]

It was excellent overall but did feel like J.J. Abrams was drafted in to finish off the subplot.

[Shimmyhill]

Really liked the ending, the whole series has been a banger - we rewatched the first two after ep1 of s3 and there hasn’t been a dip in quality from the first to last episode!

 

Spoiler

The table scene was brilliant and while other bits were wrapped up a little too conveniently I shall forgive them as overall its been the best thing on ‘normal’ telly for years - its a shame they didnt have a little more time but then its only 6 episodes and its been a hell of a ride!

 

[Stejay]

I was tired and should have waited until tonight instead to watch it, so forgive this obvious question, but what did I miss that made Darius  

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suddenly want Tommy dead?

 

[Fierce Poodle]

3 hours ago, Stejay said:

I was tired and should have waited until tonight instead to watch it, so forgive this obvious question, but what did I miss that made Darius  

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suddenly want Tommy dead?

 

I think that was the plan all along.

[iknowgungfu]

Perhaps but I also think:

 

Spoiler

After the two goons were nicked there too much of a link that might connect to him. Plus he didn’t want the heat of being connected to the potential murder of a police officer.

 

Might have been the plan all along though as a loose end but not sure why they would leave it so long  

 

[Stejay]

Ah, so I didn’t miss anything blatantly obvious then.

 

You’re right, @iknowgungfu. If it was the plan all along, they would have 

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paid someone in prison or done it as soon as he’d escaped.

Fantastic TV anyway, and I’m happy to forgive the 

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throwaway conclusion to the B plot.

 

[Sarlaccfood]

No the conversation they had last ep in the car before he dropped him off at the old man’s was key. Along the lines of “I really think you need to drop it with the policewoman, it will cause me trouble” and then TLR saying basically “I can’t, I’m gonna do it”.

 

He wasn’t far off just saying it out loud tbh. He really gave him a chance to let it go. 

 

[FishyFish]

I think it might have better to drop the B plot in favour of more focus on the Kneževićs storyline.

 

Spoiler

The death of the girl in the flat with the money might have been a better focus as it connects directly to the TLR storyline via the court escape and so on.

The pharmacy murder plotting didn't have enough time to conclude satisfactorily and felt more like a vehicle to showcase Catherine's policing skills and her relationship with Ryan - not bad things to include, and well done, but rushed at the end. The storyline in series 2 felt much better integrated and came to a more satisfying conclusion.

 

The main TLR storyline ended very well though, I thought.

[PeteJ]

A very high bar for British drama. I think Happy Valley is the only UK cop show to compete with some of the US greats. 

 

I like how it all concluded, I agree some of the stories could have been fleshed out but I like the 'life goes on' theme. The drama keeps unfolding long after the show ends. 

[Fierce Poodle]

3 hours ago, iknowgungfu said:

Perhaps but I also think:

 

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After the two goons were nicked there too much of a link that might connect to him. Plus he didn’t want the heat of being connected to the potential murder of a police officer.

 

Might have been the plan all along though as a loose end but not sure why they would leave it so long  

 

Yep, good points. I think I was thinking that they must have had an idea that that’s what Tommy was going to do, hence the conversation in the car just before Tommy was dropped off with “borscht grandad”.

 

Re: the sub plot

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I didn’t have an issue with the way this was wrapped up, the matter of fact way it was dealt with seemed in-keeping with Catherine’s character. I also liked the “twist” that the husband was a paedo (as well as a wife beater) which they suggested with his cosy chat with Ryan a few episodes previously.

 

[Boothjan]

The good news is that the teacher eventually gets sent to The Wall to take the black.

 

[iknowgungfu]

That’s where I recognise him from!

[NickC]

Stuff I found weird and unsatisfying with season 3:

Spoiler

Teacher Rob - so in the final we found out that he was not only an abusive husband, but he also was having an affair with a colleague and a paedophile. But he was not a killer. Woah.

 

Faisal never got his comeuppance with the law on screen. It was dealt with in a few lines of dialogue.

 

Darius never got his comeuppance with the law on screen. Same as above.

 

Faisal getting found out because Alison's probation officer also had a prescription drug habit, also used Faisal to access the drugs and also was careless enough to drop them in a place Catherin could find them when she happened to have an impromptu nap on her sofa. 

 

Catherine's ex and his story about investigating Darius and trying to meet up with him - really it amounted to nothing.

 

Still great TV. They nailed the emotional journeys of Catherine, Clare and TLR in the finale, thank goodness.

[revlob]

1 hour ago, NickC said:

Stuff I found weird and unsatisfying with season 3:

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Teacher Rob - so in the final we found out that he was not only an abusive husband, but he also was having an affair with a colleague and a paedophile. But he was not a killer. Woah.

 

Faisal never got his comeuppance with the law on screen. It was dealt with in a few lines of dialogue.

 

Darius never got his comeuppance with the law on screen. Same as above.

 

Faisal getting found out because Alison's probation officer also had a prescription drug habit, also used Faisal to access the drugs and also was careless enough to drop them in a place Catherin could find them when she happened to have an impromptu nap on her sofa. 

 

Catherine's ex and his story about investigating Darius and trying to meet up with him - really it amounted to nothing.

 

Still great TV. They nailed the emotional journeys of Catherine, Clare and TLR in the finale, thank goodness.

 

Agree with all of that. Series 3 could have done with another couple of episodes to tie everything together, but all those weaknesses are forgiven when the core of the show is so good. Between Sally Wainwright's writing and Sarah Lancashire's performance, they paint Catherine as a total badass, a supercop, yet someone who is also human and emotionally vulnerable. Great television.

 

Spoiler

The way Catherine stalked Clare to a Costa had me on the edge of my seat.

 

The dialogue between Catherine and Royce during their final confrontation was just perfect.

 

[merman]

Superb. Award winning. Great British drama that didn’t try to be flashy and American.it was real.

[PK]

The last scene was perfect

 

Spoiler

a lesser show would have shown her finally at peace after TLR dies, and made a big deal out of it happening - but she's already there, having seen him for the broken nasty little boy he is, any power over her has completely dissolved, and getting that text is just the cherry on top.

 

Agree with other comments in that my initial reaction was that it could've done with one more episode to flesh out the other stories but I think perhaps the way they wrap up are deliberately of a similar theme to the above

 

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because just like Tommy they're men who are stripped of their power over both the female characters and the storyline of the series itself- reduced to footnotes in the fictional world and in real life.