User:AnemoneProjectors/Episode 1 (Redwater)

"Episode 1"
Kat & Alfie: Redwater episode
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Jesper W. Nielsen
Written by	Matthew Graham
Produced by	Victoria Wharton
Original air date	14 May 2017 (2017-05-14)
Running time	58 minutes

• https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2017/0515/875203-redwater/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2017/20/redwater
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rb4sy
• http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/redwater/news/a828714/eastenders-spinoff-kat-alfie-redwater-ratings-revealed/

Plot

In summer 1994, a boating accident causes the deaths of Iris Dolan (Orla Hannon) and her niece Aoife (known as Mouse). Lance Byrne (Ian McElhinney) rescues the young Dermott Dolan (Eoin Daly), Andrew Kelly (Ryan Burke) and Kieran Harrington (Anton Giltrap). 21 years later, Kathleen Moon (Jessie Wallace) and her husband, Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) arrive in Redwater, as Kathleen believes her son is there. They join a local festival and meet Roisín Kelly (Maria Doyle Kennedy), her mother, Agnes Byrne (Fionnula Flanagan), and son, Andrew (Peter Campion). Kathleen immediately suspects that Andrew is her son and starts asking questions, which makes Agnes suspicious of the Moons and she comes up with theories about them. Alfie warns Kathleen to wait for the right time to find her son and to make friends first, but, after bonding with Lance and Dermott (Oisín Stack) in the pub, Kathleen confides in Lance that her son was taken away from her in 1983 and she believes he is in Redwater. Alfie starts having hallucinations because of a tumour on his brain. Alfie then learns of the Redwater Tragedy from Dermott, who is now a Catholic priest. Dermott is upset that orange juice has been delivered with his milk, despite a note asking for no orange juice.

Lance tells Agnes about Kathleen, and Agnes immediately says she should not be told the truth as it would unravel everything they have built. Kathleen visits the Byrnes' farm and asks Andrew about his life, but Lance warns him to give the Moons a wide berth. Kat and Alfie's son Tommy Moon (Henry Proctor) gets stranded on a cliff but Alfie helps him up; Alfie gets stuck but Dermott helps him to the top. Kathleen returns home, announcing that she visited Andrew and she is sure it is him, not realising that Dermott is in the house. Kathleen admits to Alfie that she is scared of seeing how disappointed her son would be in her. Lance tells Dermott that Peter and Iris are not his real parents, but Kathleen is his mother; he wanted to tell him the truth but Agnes made sure it was kept secret. It is revealed that Iris lost a baby in London and brought Dermott back as her own, and Peter does not know the truth. Dermott says he will think about things. The next day, Lance goes for his morning swim in the sea, and Adeen takes his horse for a ride without him knowing. After seeing another orange juice delivery, Dermott approaches Lance, who says they can work through this together. Dermott offers Lance a sacramental wafer, then drowns him while flashing back to Iris's death, where he lets go of her hand. He prays for Lance and then forgives him.

Reception

• https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/19/kat-and-alfie-redwater-review-the-eastenders-spin-off-still-smells-of-soap
• http://vodzilla.co/tv/the-best-films-tv-shows-on-bbc-iplayer/ (a blog, ok to use?)

Critical response

Before the broadcast of the first episode, David Brown from Radio Times said, "Atmospheric, intriguing and with a primetime sheen that seems a world away from soapland, it'll have you hooked from episode one." Fiona Sturges from The Guardian said, "There is—improbable as it sounds—a degree of suspense here, not to say proper acting. The problem is that whenever Kat and Alfie appear—he the well-meaning idiot, she the wounded fishwife—the spell is broken. The BBC is trying to sell this as Broadchurch meets The Wicker Man, but the reality is more NCSI: Ballykissangel [sic]. I love Kat and Alfie, but the quicker they get back to Albert Square, the better." Sean O'Grady from The Independent said, "it's an un-soapy, unclaustrophobic sort of production, and a storyline about a long-lost son adds the necessary emotional stress."

After the first episode was shown in Ireland, Peter Crawley from The Irish Times said that Redwater "looks like a very British idea of Ireland" that is full of "Irish clichés". He opined that Dermott was "the show’s most unlikely character", calling him "a 33-year-old bearded hipster priest [...] who accessorises his collar with a hoodie and a donkey jacket [and] flies into a rage at the sight of orange juice". He concluded, "it is hard to decide whether Redwater is a silly show redeemed by its seriousness, or a serious show alleviated by its silliness. It is a peculiar crossover, somewhere between Britain and Ireland, soap and drama; but, so far, it is neither here nor there." Keeley Ryan from Belfast Live reported that the episode received a mixed reaction in Ireland, based on tweets from viewers. The episode was criticised by Irish viewers for depicting Irish stereotypes such as drinking Guinness and whisky chasers in pubs, and the Irish cast were accused of putting on "over-the-top" Irish accents. Oisin Stack defended the show, saying, "It's a psychological thriller that's meant to have a sense of suspense. Everything is meant to be heightened. I think if people are giving out about the realism, they're missing the point of the genre. It's meant to be stylised and filled with dramatic suspense."

Daniel Kilkelly (Digital Spy) called the first episode "atmospheric" and "gripping". He said, "While Kat shines in Redwater, it's fair to say that Alfie seems a little bit lost and directionless in the first episode, with even scenes of him experiencing weird visions and nearly dying (twice!) seeming like time-fillers." He said the characters of Agnes and Dermott had "immediately caught our attention" but wondered if the show would appeal to viewers who are not EastEnders fans, saying "surely you have to be an EastEnders watcher to really care about Kat's quest for her son?" but said "for us it's a thumbs up if Redwater can keep up the suspense, surprises, gothic tone and sense of foreboding that sets it apart from EastEnders." TV critic Emma Bullimore from TV Times , speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Afternoon Edition, questioned why Kat and Alfie would allow Tommy to explore on his own when he was abducted from his home as a baby in EastEnders, while Sinéad Garvan from Newsbeat said on the same show that she was "intrigued" in the second half of the first episode and found its ending "exciting", adding that she was more intrigued by the new characters and that Kat and Alfie still had the same chemistry that they have in EastEnders.

Ratings

• Overnights?
• http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-news/redwater-loses-over-100000-viewers-between-first-and-third-episodes-in-ireland-35767028.html Irish repeat

After seven days, the figure had increased to 5.12 million, due to people watching via On Demand services including BBC iPlayer. This made it the 12th most-watched programme that was broadcast on BBC One in the week of 15 to 21 May 2017. After 28 days, it had increased to 5.49 million, the ninth most-watched programme broadcast that week on BBC One.