Is it just me, or is this affair totally unbelievable? It's completley out of context for the character and the situation, and I keep finding myself looking at it thinking it just doesn't work! Anyone else agree?
The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
Bill: Baby, you ain't kidding.
To be honest I can see Jane and Robert as a more believable couple than Jane and Richard. They just seem more similar - quiet, a bit shy, a bit odd sometimes lol. I do agree that it's probably a bit out of context for Jane to actually cheat on someone, but because it's with Robert I can accept it.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." V
That's funny that you think that, because I think the opposite! I just don't see her and Robert as a couple at all, neither are really the type that cheat, and they just don't make a great pairing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the programme, it's just that I think this affair part is completley wrong. They just seem weird together. I prefer Jane and Richard together.
The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
Bill: Baby, you ain't kidding.
Oh no! I think someone like Richard would never be attracted to Jane in a million years if they already had a leggy blonde girlfriend. Jane and Robert make a great couple. I don't think a 'type' of person cheats on someone, sometimes you just can't control your feelings. I'm not condoning what Jane and Robert did, but I think it was always going to happen. It was obvious from the start they liked each other.
I love children. I’m not a paedophile obviously; I just think they’re great.
Nope, sorry, I totally disagree. It just doesn't look right, and it's either a bad job on the part of the writers for making it like this, or it's supposed to be that way, which is totally bizarre. And I also have to say that I think you're opinion that 'someone like Richard would never be attracted to Jane in a million years if they already had a leggy blonde girlfriend' is very blinkered. Not all men are attracted to women who look like supermodels. Admittedly, many men are that shallow, but there are those who actually see beyond the model look and choose women who are attractive for more than just the way they look. I think Jane and Richard make a far better, and certainly more believable, couple than Jane and Robert.
The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
Bill: Baby, you ain't kidding.
I should have explained myself more. I agree that not all men are attracted to leggy blondes, but Richard does not strike me as a deep character at all. He is very concerned with what other people of him, the scene where Jane meets his friends springs to mind. He seems ashamed of her most of the time and I can't understand why he would dump his beautiful girlfriend so early on in the show for Jane. That just didn't seem to gel at all.
As for who makes a 'better' couple, Richard does not approve of Jane's career choice, whereas Robert convinced her to go for what she wanted. Robert would be better for Jane (in my opinion) because he allows her to be herself, whereas Richard wants her to do the things that he approves of.
I love children. I’m not a paedophile obviously; I just think they’re great.
Wow! I am quite surprised that some people think that Jane and Richard make a better couple than Jane and Robert. It's interesting how this has polarised us....
I'm not sure if it's the writing, which is patchy to say the least, or the hokiness of the plot, but I found Richard's almost immediate attraction to "plain" Jane as soon as she arrived extremely unbelievable, especially in view of the fact that she'd known him at Uni and NOT been in a relationship with him then, and that he was already in another relationship when she arrived in London.
On the other hand, I found Robert's lightning fast attraction to her rather incredible too, but we are expected to believe that he has difficulty in making friends and attracting women, so perhaps that puppyish, clumsy over-eagerness was part of this rather crude outline of the character.
It seems crystal clear to me, however, that we are expected (by the writer) to find:
Jane a rather quirky character rebelling against her parents' values,
Richard a smooth, handsome, successful, mainstream type of bloke in a normal, safe, boring job,
and Robert a nerdy, not handsome, but more unusual bloke with an interesting job, -that is to say that he has been awarded moral superiority over Richard by the writer.
Very early on in the plot, we saw Jane reject the opportunity for a safe job with Richard, choosing instead a quirkier one applauded by Robert.
Now this is a very basic plot device which says to me, as it clearly did to iwerewolf, "we are intended to understand that Jane belongs ultimately with dark horse Robert, not obvious Richard" so that the series then will be about her journey to that ultimate destination.
In fact I'd go further, and answer the OP by suggesting that Jane is not even really having an affair with Robert, since she has been seen to be attracted to him from day one, and that she has not yet fully realised (as some of us have) that she is making a journey away from the control of her mother (and her mother's approval of the safe choice, Richard) towards becoming her own woman and making her own life choices. This theory is borne out by the obvious changes in her mother's attitude towards her, as she realises that Jane is growing up. It's a banal plot, I'm afraid, but evidently considered good enough for us.
It could be that I'm doing the writer an injustice, and perhaps she has a whole lot of surprises up her sleeve, and there may be a scintillating and startlingly original denouement in store for us.......but I have my doubts. I have begun to enjoy the story a lot more in later episodes, but I do think that the domestic side of the plotline has been laughably predictable and cliched so far. The other half, ie what's going on at the bus station, is much more interesting and better written.
Come and see the violence in the system!...Help help, I'm being repressed!
Warning - the following paragraph may contain *spoilers*, depending on how dedicated to the show you are.
The writer, Sally Wainwright, in fact based this series upon her own life when she was sharing a house with four other people and worked as a bus driver herself. Richard and Robert are based on real life characters, and Robert is based on the man she ended up falling in love with and marrying in real life. Suddenly makes it seem a whole lot more believable, doesn't it?
I am Big Brother
It makes more sense now, but at least to me, it doesn't make it even a tiny bit more believable. I can only assume that the casting/writing/acting is to blame for it not being believable, rather than the concept. It's sad to say that actually, because I think the actors are really good, but for some reason, it just doesn't seem to work.
The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
Bill: Baby, you ain't kidding.
I agree, it does not work. The cast is stellar, the sets look real, earthy, genuine and costly, and it has been expensively realised, but unfortunately the writing has let this series down. In a six-parter, the first four eps were bewildering and unforgiveably incredible, and while there were undoubtedly some terrific highlights, notably Stephen Mangan's perf. as Robert, (surely this man must go on to conquer the world, comic actor-wise) it was not enough to rescue the series. I haven't seen anything else by this writer, but I'm given to understand that her previous work has been exemplary.
I'm afraid I'm inclined to agree with the critic who said that this programme was a good reason to throw away your television altogether, and that the actors should hastily instruct their agents to expunge any reference to "Jane Hall" from their resumes. It was, in fact, a pile of poo, with a few glittery highlights. I wish all the actors their deserved success, and long, fruitful, fulfilling and happy careers, but it's put me right off watching ITV.
Come and see the violence in the system!...Help help, I'm being repressed!
I actually did like this programme though. Sarah Smart is hilarious and should really be given more work like this, but the direction the series took was totally unbelievable. It doesn't matter to me whether the characters were based on the writers own experiences, if she can't make them believable, it doesn't matter where they come from. I hope there is another series, but I think they need to get new writers in for it to be worthwhile.
The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
Bill: Baby, you ain't kidding.
If another series of Jane Hall is commissioned, let alone broadcast, I will eat my trousers and subsequently buy all here a pint of Morrison's vodka (Morrinov- it's the real thing..)
It ain't gonna happen, this series stank, and deserves to sink into obscurity with as little fuss as possible.
btw <<it ain't gonna happen>>
Sorry. Been conversing with too many Americans.
Come and see the violence in the system!...Help help, I'm being repressed!