The Couple Next Door (2023)

Watchseries; Poorly directed with extreme overacting and total predictability

By the end of episode three I had grown to detest the main four characters. The acting was over-the-top from start to finish, and it was just too easy to see what was coming next. Hugh Dennis played a good part, as did his wife. Even the nosey neighbour who was one of the swingers in 'Benidorm' was reasonable, but I found everybody else to be quite wooden

There were decent side-plots throughout, but it was so badly directed, and so predictable, that it ruined what could have been a decent drama

I only watched it through to the end because I'd invested time in it and I felt it owed me.

Poorly directed with extreme overacting and total predictability

By the end of episode three I had grown to detest the main four characters. The acting was over-the-top from start to finish, and it was just too easy to see what was coming next. Hugh Dennis played a good part, as did his wife. Even the nosey neighbour who was one of the swingers in 'Benidorm' was reasonable, but I found everybody else to be quite wooden

There were decent side-plots throughout, but it was so badly directed, and so predictable, that it ruined what could have been a decent drama

I only watched it through to the end because I'd invested time in it and I felt it owed me.

The Couple Next Door watchseries. The only reason I don't give this one star is because it's so bad it's almost entertaining.

Slow boring story with terrible acting set in an eternally warm, sunny, tropical location that's apparently in Leeds.

There is one attempt at a Yorkshire accent but Joey Tribiani could do a better job.

It also seemed to be filmed with 80s soap opera effect.

Nothing erotic about it and a very strange time scale, days, weeks and months seem totally interchangeable.

The more I write the more I wonder if this is in fact actually a very clever comedy that I just don't get

Hugh Dennis was the only saving grace but even that was touch and go - non pun intended.

What an absolute waste of good actors.

It was poorly executed, poorly written, poorly directed.

It felt like they didn't want to know which direction to take with the plot. Oh, and what is with the script? Describing it as pedestrian would be an overstatement. It was so flat, so banal, so basic.

I really wanted to like this, I like a few of the actors and other shows they've been in. But this show did them a massive disservice.

I think I read this was adapted from a book? Not sure if that's true but hopefully the book is a better read! :D

Oh- and that location is supposed to be Leeds? Hahahahaha.

Man, with most of the cast this had so much potential. I knew Sam Heughan and Elinor Tomlinson from the few episodes of, "Outlander" that I have seen, so I was on board. Plus the title made it sound intriguing.

Jessica De Gouw is someone I have seen but, she didn't have that instant name recognizability to me, but funnily enough played the best character of this tale.

The story is basically a new couple moves in across the street, from De Gouw and Heughan who are married. They all become closer and "swinging" is in the mix.

Alfred Enoch plays "Pete" who is married to Tomlinson, and boy, is this the worst acting or character briefs he was given with the roll, but by minute seven of a 6 episode series, he is detestable. You couldn't root for him if you tried hard. Props to Hugh Dennis as the creepiest neighbor you've ever come in contact with.

This could been decent at 4 episodes. Still, not bad. It's a good one to watch if you have a lot of laundry to fold.

I watched the original Dutch TV version of this show which ran for 4 series 10x40m from 2014-2019. It was a bit cheesy at times but enjoyable with well-grounded characters and a dramatic storyline full of unexpected twists and some pretty raunchy scenes.

The remake seems to have been drained of drama and toned down and as a consequence comes a distant second to the original (Which was titled 'New Neighbours' but can still be found on C4 Catchup with subtitles as 'The Swingers'. If you haven't watched either definitely seek out the original.

The remake didn't feel authentic if felt tepid with a lot of one-dimensional performances, Hugh Dennis aside. For some reason it was shot in Leeds and The Netherlands and Belgium but meant to be set in Yorkshire, so a lot of it just looked plain wrong.

I'm afraid I very quickly lost all interest, it was naffly made in all respects, including acting, writing and direction.

This is a moderately entertaining amuse-bouche, but best only for filling a 6 hour hole in your schedule that would otherwise go unfilled.

I was drawn to this by Eleanor Tomlinson, but the real revelation was Jessica De Gouw. The latter gave by far the best performance of the piece and her emotionally intelligent character, Becka, was by far the best written. Eleanor Tomlinson also deserves credit for an almost convincing performance, given her character, Evie, was rather unbelievably inconsistent.

All in all, this felt very much plot driven, rather than character driven: certain things needed to happen so the characters were forced to behave in less believable ways. It also suffered from having to tame down the key sex scene. While I understand most actors don't want to appear naked, I'm not convinced that after all the intense anticipation, very vanilla sex is what would have taken place.