User reviews

Recently caught this on PBS and enjoyed it, although I was miffed that ITV canceled it, so we were left with many loose ends.

Probably inspired by Mad Men, this 2013 series takes place in '60s London, pre-Carnaby Street, and concerns two sisters, Angela (Catherine Steadman) and Jean (Zoe Boyle), both nurses, their family, husbands, lovers, and their lives at the New London Hospital.

The women work in the hospital along with the elegant highly respected surgeon, Dr. Powell (Jack Davenport), his close associate Charlie (Shaun Dingwell), and a young, ambitious surgeon, Richard Truscott (Oliver Chris).

The striking Jean is engaged to Truscott. She's pregnant, which he knows, but she tries to keep other elements of her lower middle-class life quiet. After all, what did nurses want in those days but to marry a doctor. One of the things she keeps quiet about is her demented father. Angela is married to Joe, whom the service has declared missing, and she's attracted the interest of the married Dr. Powell. Powell has a wife (Natasha Little) and a son. Because they're both married, Angela doesn't want to get involved with him.

Powell's wife starts hearing from a sinister police Inspector Mulligan (Iain Glen), and we find out that something happened long ago that has impacted the lives of Elizabeth, her husband, and Charlie. Mulligan clearly wants to blackmail her about it.

This is a prime time soap opera, so you have to like that genre. The series shows the male-dominated medical field, the fact that the wife was expected to quit her job once she got married, and that most women were husband-hunting. It also deals with illegal abortions, which Drs. Powell and Dingwell conduct so that women won't die from bad procedures. One woman in the story found out her husband was having an affair and went off the deep end. Her husband took her to a doctor, and she was given a lot of medication for menopause, including Librium. Jean goes on the pill. So there are a lot of women's issues covered.

After Jean gets married, she stays home. She's shown attempting to cook. It just seemed like such a huge buildup to a wedding and then she's alone all day in an apartment doing work she really doesn't want to do. One night she goes out to help with an illegal abortion and lies to her husband, saying she went to the theatre. He isn't happy because it's so late when she arrives home. It's one thing if you have a child or children, and/or being a homemaker is something you enjoy and wanted to do. But Jean lied about what she really wanted so that she could marry a doctor. She misses her job and her friends.

I read some comments about the '60s clothes - I don't really remember much about the early '60s. I do remember when the Cleopatra big eye makeup came in. I thought for the most part the women looked appropriate. Angela sported a flip hairdo, and Zoe sometimes wore her hair up. There was teased hair. Zoe attends a funeral at the end wearing an Audrey Hepburn get-up. Everybody smoked.

The acting is very good from everyone. Not mentioned yet is Charlie's wife (Joanna Page), a somewhat dowdy looking woman who wants a baby. She was excellent in the role of a woman who puts a brave face on unhappiness and seems on the silly side. On the other hand, that's the "role" she plays in her life.

I would definitely have watched another season; sorry it was canceled.

I loved this show, I just don't understand why there were only 6 episodes. I really hope they make another series. To the reviewer who thinks Zoe Boyle is playing 2 parts, she's not, Nurse Wilson is another Actress altogether. I also agree that there is a look of Mad Men about it, but that's because it's set in the same era and too be fair Otto Powell is far better than Don Draper, who in my opinion is a conceited womanising dolt. All in all this is a very good show and I can only hope it will return, although I felt really sorry for Otto at the end, he was well and truly trapped. With all of the reality rubbish on TV now days, it's refreshing to see something like this. Brilliant from start to finish.

Why is there not more? I WANT MORE!

Jack Davenport is the Dan Draper of the gynecology ward and his gorgeous wife, ethereal and lovely, lives a life with her own secrets. The intrigue and drama was wonderful. I loved the music. I loved the clothing. I loved the sets. I loved the automobiles. I loved it.

I wish there was more.

This show is something completely different and refreshing, finally in a world where everything feels like a rehash of what's been done. It has unfair comparisons to Mad Men because it is set in the sixties, but those who say that obviously didn't bother to watch it. The sophisticated plot explores what it is like to be a woman and a man reproducing in a world of limited options and the moral choices OB/GYN's and their colleagues had to face in that world. From birth control and abortion to treating menopause with lithium, the show touches on many topics most networks treat as taboo. The story is very compelling and, considering its cancellation, too much for its producers to handle.

... why 'Breathless' garnered such poor reviews and such poor scoring on IMDb.

The direction was beautifully fluent, not a moment lost.

The plot line was perhaps a little crazy at times, but kept me guessing till the end.

The sets and the costumes were sumptuous to the eye ...

And the acting was superb. I was going to say, particularly from Jack Davenport as Otto and Catherine Steadman as Angela, but then I remembered how superb also were Natasha Little as Elizabeth, Oliver Chris as Truscott, Shaun Dingwall as Enderbury, Iain Glenn as Mulligan - not to speak of Joanna Page as the increasingly complex Lily Enderbury. In fact, the acting and the script combined to create real people, characters of complexity, not the usual wooden-tops so often found in TV dramas.

And rather than meander on and on as so many serials like to do nowadays, the whole thing wound up beautifully in six episodes.

If there was any justice, 'Breathless' would top this year's BAFTAs list!

In the first instance I likened this to Twiglets not sure if I liked it or not but I just had to keep going back for more and more. But by the end of episode one I was totally hooked and have been totally addicted and am desperately hoping for a second series.

It has perfectly captured the essence of the era and yes other Doctor TV series made at that time, so much so I felt I should be perched on a chair with my TV aerial trying to get a good picture.

It has made a refreshing change from the usual "period drama" yes of course it will be compared to Mad Men, even Emergency Ward 10 and other sixties doctor series but I for one see nothing wrong with this and look forward to enjoying more of this first rate series.

Pros - Fashions are interesting if not always accurate.

Cons - I prefer to know what the mystery is supposed to be when watching or reading a mystery. Three hours into this and the two hints at Cyprus aren't enough. Is it about Cyprus? Isn't it about Cyprus? Who did something at Cyprus? What did someone do at Cyprus? Should we hate them for it or love them for it? Should we understand? Should we be appalled?

This program is mind-numbingly dull. If I don't know what the mystery is 3 hours in, there's not much chance I'll be watching the other 12 hours to see if I can figure out what it is I'm supposed to be figuring out.

This is an awesome series. It has a slow build, but it's well worth the wait (big reveal). There is a lot of suspense and surprisingly, romance. It has good character development. They are not one dimensional and they all have heart. It was beautifully shot. It has great costuming (think Mad Men) and music. The actors are real pros. It has riveting dialog. The ending leaves it open for another season. I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop should they decide to make a second season. I don't understand the negative reviews for Breathless on IMDb; were we watching the same show? I went into watching this series without knowing anything about it. I happen to watch Masterpiece Theatre on PBS and am a big fan of mystery. I can understand why people might think this show is not a mystery based on episode 1, which is why I said it's a slow build. Quite a bit of time is spent setting up for episodes 2 and 3. If you can be patient, I do think it's worth it based on the things I said above.

I loved Breathless, it left me wanting to see more as I watched each episode. It is set in the 1960's and the sets and outfits are well researched and beautifully put together.

The story revolves around Otto, played by Jack Davenport, as the story unfolds we find out that Otto has a dark secret from the past. This secret gradually unravels throughout the series and entwines the other characters.

The acting is fantastic from the whole cast, and the series gives us an in site in to life in the 1960's. We get to see the attitudes of the time and the different roles of the time for both men and woman. I just hope that ITV make a second series.

A visual delight, very stylish, brilliantly cast and well-acted. Stories could have been a just a little tighter, but overall it's a shame there wasn't a second series, I would have loved to have seen more.

I watched the first hour and a half on Masterpiece Mystery last night. Why it is considered a mystery is a mystery to me. Certainly a "period piece", "soap opera" or "melodrama" are better as categories. The presentation / cinematography is good, and the series has a good period feel to it.

The story thrusts you into scenes without any development of the characters before that, and interactions between individuals appear to have a back-story or may be important in the future, but you don't have a clue as to why. Most of the characters are difficult to either like or with whom to identify. Parts of the plot feel forced and heavy handed where the point could have been made without the audience being beaten over the head with it. This far in, I'd expect to have a better framing, direction and character development.

Having wasted ninety minutes already, I'll try to watch to the end just to see if it makes any sense at the end whatsoever. Unlike other period pieces PBS has shown (Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, Mr Selfridge, etc. this one has done nothing for me. Your view may differ just as some of the reviews have. But if you had not yet seen this and asked for a recommendation from me, I'd recommend something else instead.

All these actors/actresses were previously unknown to me. Joanna Page appears in other online photographs to be considerably thinner than she appeared to be in this series. Her upper arms looked as if she really was very heavy. The choice of dresses, the eyeglasses and the hairstyle added to the illusion of weight. Did she put on weight for this role or was she just padded?

With a stellar cast and a story line set in the romanticized 1960s, I was all set to watch! I will admit, the first episode starts off a little slow, but very quickly, I became hooked. The plot builds and thickens as each episode progresses. The characters are well thought out and written with many layers and realistic flaws. The true attitudes of the time period are shown for the good, bad, and ugly that they were. I appreciated the realness of it.

I felt this show would have absolutely taken off in seasons 2 and 3. There was so much potential here. Especially with some of the new characters introduced in the later episodes. The writers were planning for the future seasons. Heartbroken I could not watch more of their work.

Very much enjoyed the episodes that were created. Am left to use my imagination to dream what happens to all the delightfully well written characters. Perhaps someday some producer will look back at the potential of this show and re-gather the cast for a take 2. Probably not, but hey, a girl can dream, right? ;)

If you're looking for a very enjoyable, albeit very quick, binge watch, I cannot suggest a show more!

Stylistically, it captures the 1960s almost as well as Mad Men did but, whereas Mad Men delivered complicated characters, Breathless delivers complicated secrets ... like a soap opera does.

Of course, the Mad Men world was lousy with secrets but the secrets didn't upstage its characters.

But for the natural charisma of its actors, Breathless might devolve into a pretty good daytime soap where you become invested in the characters because of their secrets ... not the other way around.

I really think this series was developed as a rip off of Mad Men. Unfortunately, it is an exceedingly BORING attempt. It seems the only thing they really tried to change was the venue -- it takes place in an English hospital instead of a New York advertising agency. Another problem is that the viewer is thrown into the story line with far too many characters being introduced right off the bat and little character development. You feel like you have been dropped into the middle of the story and must have missed something important, like a previous episode. It's nice to know that the Brits aren't any better at adapting successful American shows than Americans are at adapting successful British shows.

This period drama does well on costumes and sets, and that's about it. The story lines are convoluted - and there are way too many of them. The supposed mysterious background of the main character isn't very interesting, nor are any of the other story lines. The multiple layers aren't done well. Had the writers focused on one or two things, maybe this would have been better. Sadly, a pretty talented cast is left with some pretty mediocre stuff to work with. Additionally, the mess of multiple plot lines has caused me to lose interest in pretty much everyone in the story. For the most part, the characters aren't very interesting, or likable. I'm left with the distinct impression that the producers saw the success of "Mad Men" and tried to come up with a similar period piece to capitalize on it. Put simply, they failed.

This is a really poor way to tell a story. The scenes have little continuity, and the way the plot unfolds is as if someone emptied a jigsaw puzzle on to a table and then tried to reassemble the puzzle, picking up random pieces and trying to see if they would fit. Most times the pieces didn't even match! From the first episode, viewers are provided with little of no context to even understand who the characters are supposed to be. The story then unfolds in a ridiculous non-sequential manner that keeps viewers in the dark. Along the way, there are many subplots, none of which make any sense and add nothing to the series. As others have pointed out, it seems to have been inspired by "Mad Men", but aside from the costuming, share nothing in common with that series. It really deserved to be cancelled......and best forgotten!

The story is crap - I mean no two pieces work- no chemistry, no consistency and no strain on any of the actors skill - they tried to hard without success