Critical Condition: Paula

Paula | TVNZ 1, 8.30 Friday

➢ “We’ve all been there. Call in a pest control company, end up sleeping with the exterminator and embroiled in a deadly revenge plot. This was the opening act of three-part thriller Paula (BBC Two), about a schoolteacher whose one-night stand sends her life spiralling out of control … Hopping between genres with a sustained sense of menace, Paula was tense, unsettling and stylish without seeming to try too hard. I’m not sure where it’s going but I’m intrigued enough to find out.” — The Telegraph.

➢ “The only good thing about Paula, a truly bleak drama about the dire fallout from a one-night stand, is that anything else you ever experience will feel more cheerful than this. You could put on damp clothes and read French philosophy while listening to Leonard Cohen songs and it would put a smile on your face after Paula.” — Daily Mail.

➢ “God, for a woman with a decent job, lovely house and who gets to shag two really quite good-looking propositions inside 40 minutes Paula really is a mardy cow … Every scene is dark, claustrophobic and menacing and the whole thing has a slight air of suppressed insanity about it. Whether this will be unleashed as the revenge element of the thriller becomes clearer or kept in its current simmering form I would not like to guess. The parts have all been dragged into place and I look forward to seeing them hopefully crank into full motion next week.” — The Guardian.

➢ “Tom Hughes, following his triumphant Albert in Victoria, is clearly the next big thing. There is something tawdry and low-rent about his villainy, however. The piece is suffused not with evil, but a minor relative of evil. Badness is the word. Paula is a chilling portrait of badness.” — The Times.

➢ “Paula, the first TV series from award-winning playwright Conor McPherson, isn’t exactly your classic, Guinness-sodden miseryfest but it’s no joy to behold either … Comparisons might have been made to this year’s earlier hit Apple Tree Yard but the only element in common, to be honest, is the extra-marital sex. Apple Tree Yard had charismatic characters, Westminster alleyways, posh bars. This has the school chemistry labs, an infested cellar and the back of some bloke’s van.” — Daily Express.