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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
30
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
The Observer (UK)Sep 10, 2024
Season 3 Review:
Once again, there’s a clean, pithy script (“God, you’re hard work”), all-round naturalistic performances, strong themes (family, community, humour, grief, betrayal), and the promise of another full-throated, Old Testament-style battle between good and evil, with the whole topped by that watershed lead performance.
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TV Guide MagazineMay 18, 2023
Season 3 Review:
An instant classic, shattering and altogether satisfying. [23 May - 11 Jun 2023, p.6]
Radio TimesJan 3, 2023
Season 3 Review:
Although Happy Valley is the kind of gripping drama that shouldn’t typically warrant laughter, Sally Wainwright brilliantly manages to weave in comedic lines – yet again – into scenes. ... Lancashire's multi-pronged performance – as a doting grandmother, a sister, a policewoman, a manager, and even a confidante for coercive controlling relationships – never ceases to amaze.
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May 22, 2023
Season 3 Review:
Wainwright knows how to do a proper sendoff that speaks to the series’ many recurring themes, pays homage to its troubled locale, and honors its affecting stories. While there’s not much happiness to find in Happy Valley, there’s the right amount of satisfaction in the glimmer of hope that we get a peek of at the end.
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Nov 3, 2014
Season 1 Review:
Happy Valley is so effective at what it sets out to do, and so neat in fitting all its pieces together (up to the way the story's climax evokes a much milder incident from early in the series), that I'm a bit ambivalent about the fact that a second season has already been ordered. Lancashire is so good that I won't necessarily mind getting to watch more of her in this role, but this particular story is so unique to her in a way that no sequel season can be.
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May 22, 2023
Season 3 Review:
The plotting overall is a bit shaggier, and I had to pay frequent visits to my friend Google to remind myself of events and relationships from seasons past. (Say, that investigative reporter Richard, played by Derek Riddell, is Catherine’s ex-husband and Ryan’s grandfather.) But the work by Lancashire and Norton brings everything into focus despite the long gap. And the final scene they share, along with its immediate aftermath, is everything you would want it to be.
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May 19, 2023
Season 3 Review:
In order to set up a satisfyingly visceral conclusion, Wainwright forces the action and pushes at plausibility a little harder than those viewers will be used to. The story’s focus also is diluted by her indulgence of characters from the first two seasons who are brought back but not given much to do. Those offenses are minor, though. And the mechanics of the plot fade in the face of the prodigious performances by Lancashire and Norton.
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TV Guide MagazineMar 17, 2016
Season 2 Review:
How grim and gripping is life in the valley? Very. [21 Mar-3 Apr 2016, p.19]
The Mercury NewsMay 17, 2023
Season 3 Review:
One of the best mystery/thriller series going delivers the intensity in its third and final season. Unfortunately, it stumbles near the finale, speeding through and forsaking the resolution of a new murder so it can get to the chewy stuff. ... Given this is the final season, it’s not that big of a deal-breaker. ... I just wish there would have been one more episode to wrap up that other crime.
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