User reviews

Firstly I read some other reviews just now before posting this. Some are very harsh and I think many people just expect too much. This obviously isn't going to be a big budget BBC or ITV drama, it's channel 5. Not saying it should get a free pass but the cast and crew are working on a different scale so it should be kept in mind when reviewing.

Like others I'm a big fan of Jason Watkins and he can't turn in a bad performance in my view. This show has an intriguing premise and as time goes on it does get a big bogged down in stereotypical gangster stuff but it has some decent twists and turns. A solid seven from me.

Mild mannered Simon Henderson, a stressed out family man is harassed by a teenage monster named Jordan, after being pushed to the limits, Simon retaliates, placing Jordan in a coma. Will Simon get away with his misdemeanor?

I swear the people trashing this show haven't watched it, I've read a couple of the scathing reviews, and I seriously doubt some have even watched it.

Without a doubt, this is one of Channel Five's best offerings, and let's also applaud the channel for the format, I am loving having a series panning out over four nights, it makes it much easier to follow.

Had me on the edge of my seat, overflowing with tension and stress, it's one that will have you gripped, as you don't quite know where it's going to take you.

It often delivers the unexpected, it doesn't follow any rules, it's outrageous at times, so over the top, but as a thriller, it delivers.

Trying to make out that it was set in The UK was ludicrous, very much looks like Budapest.

You'll be conflicted with regards to Jordan, part of you will feel sorry for him, part of you will think he got what he deserved, learning the deal between him and his father may sway your opinion.

The acting is spot on, Jason Watkins and Claire Skinner are excellent, I really rated Jonas Armstrong, he had me actually believing he was a hardened thug, awesome performance.

8/10.

A really interesting story with good acting throughout. It really does make you think how you'd react in a situation like the one shown in this series.

I won't do any plot spoilers but there are a lot of twists and turns through the entirety of the series and the biggest one of all happens right at the end of the final episode. I really liked the main character played by Jason Watkins. Paul played by Jonas Armstrong also did a stellar job as the distraught dad.

Episodes 3 and 4 were the best out of the 4 and I recommend this to anyone who likes a good drama. Going into the series I wasn't expecting much but I left glad that I watched it!

I was really looking forward to this drama because of the excellent cast. Jason Watkins has been consistently excellent in everything I've seen him in. The problem with this is the fanciful script. It's too silly for words. The characters aren't that likeable. Jason Watkins' character is a complete "Wally". It's hard to believe his wife would be in a relationship with him as he's so helpless.

The story became more unbelievable with each episode. I was at the stage where I was expecting them to discover Lord Lucan hiding in their garden. It could have been a really dripping story but was let down by the weak script. I love British drama but this was a big let down.

I was looking forwards to viewing this as I liked the three main leads.

However a poor script ;often too repetitive gave the series a lack of drive.

The police were once again portrayed as inadequate buffoons.

The young actor who played the lout showed only a characture of what was a pivotal role ,though again this was the script rather than the actor.

The story could have been told in one episode My version was that Simon should have told Paul that it was his(Simon's) boss who hit the boy.

Then when Paul had dealt with this person,Simon could have anonymously phoned the police with details of the offence. Paul would be arrested and locked up and Simon was off the hook having only to deal with junior psycho.

Coma is a brilliantly tense thriller, over four hours of increasing intensity, there are no loops here just escalations.

It centres around a mild mannered Jason Watkins and a single moment, tormented by just about everything and anyone he snaps and his world unravels. Pretty soon he's sitting uncomfortably in wine bars with petty gangsters and lying to the police.

It is also awful, a great set of core names wondering what they are doing here. It is filmed in Eastern Europe and that doesn't get lost - it simply looks nothing like anywhere in the UK.

Somehow this manages to be enthralling, tense and awful at the same time.

It's 4 hours - it's channel 5 - there are worse things on TV to watch!

I thought this was quite a decent series. Plot kept my interest to the end and cast were excellent - the "baddies" more so than Jason Watkins, whose character was very insipid. Just the right length at 4 episodes and no sag in the final one.

I'm rather surprised by the poor reviews some have given this series. I've seen plenty of series which were stretched to 6 plus episodes when the storyline didn't merit it. Whilst I think Jason Watkins is a good actor he can be rather one dimensional so you know what you're going to get.

Decent script, filming and production so I'd certainly recommend it.

Felt compelled to leave a review after seeing the less than fair criticism given to this. For me the acting was great, the story was decent, it was filmed at a good pace and kept me engaged and watching right up to the end. The young boy Jonas Armstrong was very good and I can see him in lots of dramas in the future. This is not some big budget Hollywood movie with Oscar winning performances and I'm not really sure why everything has to be. It's a good drama, on a low scale budget and much better than Love Rat which was shown on channel 5 the previous week. To me Jason Watkins is always worth a watch and he and the rest of the cast did a great job.

After last weeks excruciately awful Love Rat I was hopeful that with jason watkins heading the cast ,that Coma would break the cycle of successive rubbish being served up by budget broadcasters Channel 5. Lack of finance has never stopped Ken Loach producing brilliant and relevant drama. However Coma could have been so much better in dealing with the problem of low life adolescent criminality. Unfortunately the makers of Coma chose to take the path of allowing actors such as jonas armstrong overact his part as local psycho gangster. Are we really living in the dystopian world portrayed in Coma. I don't believe so. Just remember mr Watkins to strike this one off your cv.

I came here, expecting to see 9.5/10 or even 10/10 for COMA. However, I see the aggregate reviews for this masterpiece are 6.5/10! What were these other people watching? Was it the most riveting tense drama in years? Was it the ingeniously written plot? Or was it the absolutely incredible acting by all concerned, particularly Jason Watkins?

Right from the start, the tension builds and builds as we see an ineffectual harmless man plunged into a nightmare not of his making. His life is literally collapsing around him. The actor who played the main villain was off the scale and his love of fine red wine was such a clever unexpected touch.

Please ignore these other reviews,. There are other programmes entitled "Coma" so maybe they were watching another programme, I don't know. Watkins and Ben Edwards deserve BAFTAs for this.

I haven't watched a whole British fictional drama series for quite a while now. What have I been missing? Absolutely nothing if this series is anything to go by.

One of the many ludicrous aspects of this 'drama' was that it was filmed in Hungary but they tried and failed miserably to pretend it was set in the UK. Hope the actors and crew had a nice jolly though.

Knowing Jason Watkins real life back story I really hate to criticise him, but his acting in this production would have been marked ungraded in O Level drama. He was badly cast. Still it puts meals on the table.

The comical plot and Gangster family stretched the realms of realism until it snapped around Episode 2.

As in all modern day Police related dramas the DS naturally ticked all those 2020s ubiquitous boxes. I realise this isn't real life, but still.

I've given a generous 2 star rating as Claire Skinner really did give it her best despite the best efforts of the scriptwriter.

Lastly my last venture into Channel 5 was to watch The Good Ship Murder. Perhaps it's time I channel hopped a bit more vigorously?

Thoroughly enjoyed this tense gripping series, and engaging mix of suspense and dark comedy at times due to the tight close ups of Simon's expressions when he encounters Paul. The yobs giving this low reviews don't seem to have actually watched this particular show, or just spend their lives finding fault with anything. It's not a reality show for goodness sake, it's fiction -good realistic fiction. The acting was strong and very credible. Who cares that it wasn't shot in the UK.

The gripping part of this series shows how easily a person's life can change on the spin of a coin, for better or for worse, leaving one in a moral dilemma. Someone in their review said, why didn't Simon just go to the police at the beginning. Well, there wouldn't have been much of a story then that unfolds leaving the viewer wondering what was going to happen next. The Jordans of the world could watch this and learn a thing or too.

The standard of acting and direction in this series was like a year 9 drama class improvisation. I wonder if there even was a script as it got so repetitive. Character wise the pantomine villan gangster dad was worst of all. Totally unconvincing and overacting. An absolute characture. The smug boss was abysmal too.

You'll lose all track of any meaningful storyline through pure irritation. It's like watching the same scene and dialogue over and over and over again. Beyond predictable.

Normal people don't behave like this. And normal people don't speak like this, perhaps in the playground, "If you don't give me a sweet I'll tell miss."

If you enjoy being thoroughly irritated and wasting your life then this might be for you. If that doesn't sound like something for you then avoid this like the plague. It was even worse than Love Rat and that saying something.

Don't listen to the negative reviews on here, as somebody else had already said, 'were they watching the same programme as me!'. I watched this with my wife over 2 nights, we were literally hooked on it from the word go, it has a great cast and a great story that grabs you and doesn't let go, it's one of those whereby each episode leaves you on a cliffhanger and you just have to put the next one on. Absolutely frightening how an ordinary day for an ordinary person can suddenly change into an ever expanding nightmare in such a short space of time.

Seriously, do yourself a favour and watch this, you won't regret it.

Well channel 5 have done it again, providing us with another poor quality script, wooden acting and unbelievable story line drama. I am beginning to think that all good drama writers and actors retired in 2020 The only good parts of this so called drama were the advert breaks and the end of the episodes.

I won't do any plot spoilers as the plot is so see through as there doesn't seem to be a plot to spoil.

Are we really supposed to believe that a dodgy old man lives in a house with a open spiral staircase and the cctv never gets explained about. Best to avoid this one and watch the kettle boil instead.

I was gripped from the beginning. So well acted and on the edge of my seat as the tension builds.

I had seen this advertised for ages but never got around to watching it until now.

Jason Watkins acts the part very well, where things just seem to keep getting worse for him. Jonas Armstrong was brilliant as the bad guy who was also very attractive to watch.

I really can't find anything bad to say about this drama, apart from I'm not 100% sure about the ending but I don't go into detail as it would spoil it for people.

Also after watching something this good nothing seems to compare.

Well worth a binge watch.

I thought on the whole this was very well done. The casting, script, performance, and direction were all superb. The five leads - Watkins, Armstrong, Skinner, Meikle, and Barber - were pitch perfect. The tension and jeopardy kept being dialed up with each story beat. I'm in the US but have been to the UK many times and it looked like places I've been there.

My only criticism was the last ten minutes. After so many fantastic twists and turns, I was expecting a real gut punch at the end, but it just wasn't there. The whole story just seemed to deflate and run out of energy. Nonetheless, I would still highly recommend. It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat 99 percent of the way through.

I'm not really into these four or five part drama series. They're rarely well written and tend to lose their way. And they always headline with the same rotating pack of drama actors.

This one however sounded a good premise. God the acting was terrible. From everyone apart from the wife. The 'victim' was the worse. He couldn't act for toffee and we were way better off with him in the coma. The main character had the option to just shrug it off and disappear into his own life.. That would have been great. It could have just built up behind the scenes in two different stories coming together for the finale. But instead, it was he had the classic rabbit in the headlights response. .

I was bored and as I'm old enough to make my own mind up, life is too short to watch a well trodden bore fest. Two episodes was all I was willing to give it.

If the miserable UK TV channels were even half decent instead of 99% adverts and patronising presenters who speak to the viewer as if we're very thick or children, then I wouldn't waste my time on this.

However as there's literally nothing of any interest on any streaming Service, let alone Freeview etc this is passable.

The old lead guy does an ok job of looking worried and stressed, however the star is the dad of Jordan who really acts the part. I haven't heard of him before but he could really go far. Jonas something I think.

I've just got to the end of episode 3 and at the end thought, oh good grief, could this get anymore silly, but I'll watch it until the bitter end.

I really need to get out more.