The story is about a brilliant lady lawyer with a "perfect" family. She has a loving husband and kids. The writers insert so many hyper-affectionate scenes between the family members they could induce vomiting. Some more cynical viewers might label it "family values porn". They are sort of a "Huxtable's on steroids", but with a pomposity only demonstrable by the Brits. The Moms is breadwinner, and the one with most of the brains, and all of the nobility and integrity. She is so righteous , self and otherwise, that it would seem appropriate to make a sign of the cross after each diatribe. Since she is incapable of doing anything wrong, you know the betrayal is coming from somewhere else. She seems to follow the golden rule "she who has the gold makes the rules" because everybody does whatever she says, especially the groveling trophy hubby.I haven't completed the series yet, and don't know if I have the stomach to or not. It has an interesting premise and good acting, so I keep watching. Its kind of like when you start eaating a frozen dish with a bad aftertaste, you know you will regret it, but you keep eating anyway. The storyline re a undercover guy not telling his wife about his job and making up a past could be good, if they had only written them as real people. Seeing a woman who has everything and every body in control have a life that comes undone could have been good, but it looses too much cred to the PC, SYRUPY cringe inducing scenes before it can get off the ground.

I so wanted to like this. The premise sounded promising. Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester are two of my favorite actors. The story started slowly but picked up speed toward the end. Then...there should be a special place in hell for writers who string you along for 6 hours and then give you nothing.

This is a fabulous piece of writing, acting and directing.It is not "pants" or "not believable" as some people are saying- it is based on extensive research into the long history of the Met Police using undercover cops to spy on a huge number of campaigning groups e.g Greenpeace.The plot line may have been dramatised- but this is a DRAMA, not claiming to be a total replica of the truth which clearly people have totally misinterpreted. It is compelling viewing, very well written by Peter Moffat (Silk, Criminal Justice, The Village) and beautifully acted by Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester, in particular.It is one of the only British TV shows to cast the two main characters as black, and I think people are forgetting this.Don't let patriotic, uneducated reviews put you off people!

This show started out pretty well. Some cloak and dagger mysterious goings on, racial tensions, flashbacks to 20 years previous, various threads of story to follow. It seemed promising.Then it really all started going downhill...First, this show must take the award for literally the worst attempt ever (read: no attempt at all) to make actors look convincingly older/younger between two time periods. I know this is going to be challenging and there's only 'so much' that can be done, but at least do some work with hair and makeup, exaggerated fashion choices, etc. to try to convince us that these scenes are 20 years apart. Add a little grey hair and a few subtle wrinkles in the 'later' years, stuff like that. At least make some kind of attempt. This was pathetic. Everyone had the exact same hairstyles between 1996 and 2006... except Adrian Lester, whose hair is *slightly* longer in 1996. Even the restaurants in '96 have modern-day décor, and the kitchens look all glossy white and modern. Really, really poor.Second, in the all-time awards of "most actors pretending to be American who clearly are not American" this show comes up trumps. The accents are laughable. Surely the BBC could find one or two actual Americans to play actual Americans, thus ensuring they sound like actual Americans? Terrible.Third, there are several incredibly sloppy plot points. (Spoilers herein): 1) Adrian Lester's character deliberately breaks his wrist in the jamb of a metal gate. This is so he can get a plaster cast put on it, and use that plaster to hide a recording device to entrap the 'baddies'. Oooooh.... clever! Problem 1: In the scene in question, he closes the gate with all the force of a feather blowing in the wind. It would never be enough to break a wrist. Problem 2: Why would you need to break your wrist in order to have somewhere to hide a recording device? There are tons of other ways to achieve this. Absolutely nothing in the plot explains why wrist-breaking was necessary, nor does anything in the plot hinge on the presence of the plaster cast itself. Problem 3: Immediately after trying to trap the baddies, Lester's character smashes the recording device, claiming that it did no good. WHY? Problem 4: ...Oh God, I can't be bothered. I'm bored now.As for the ending... Well, I can only describe it as completely incoherent. I can only imagine there's another series to come because the major plot twist does nothing to tie up any loose ends and simply leaves more questions hanging in thin air.I have never been left more confused or bemused by a TV show. Thoroughly befuddled and disappointed with this.