Following the struggles and adventures of Catherine Cawood, a police woman seragemat, who run a group of officers and has a powerful and leading personality, who runs the Yokshire Valley, where once everything changes, when she begins to investigate in the case of kidnapping a young girl, the thing that turned to be serial crimes.
It was with the bad guys that Wainwright really made things interesting, and again this was achieved though the characters' carefully built-up histories.
In this job, I watch an awful lot of first episodes -- shows I review, deem to be awful and then avoid for the rest of their run. But I can't wait for the second part of Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley.
There's enough depth and complication in the performances alone to buoy the six-episode run, and given the intensity of the criminal specifics, the slow burn feels more like a feature than a bug.
Happy Valley is so effective at what it sets out to do, and so neat in fitting all its pieces together (up to the way the story's climax evokes a much milder incident from early in the series).
It seems like we're constantly taught by the Brits how we could be making better television shows and this has all those lessons rolled up into one neat little package.
Happy Valley is an impressive reminder of the myriad ways good writing, better acting, and, above all, a unique sense of place can make even the shaggiest story feel surprising and vital.
Happy Valley... suggests just how much story can still be found in the life of a middle-aged, female law enforcement official, a less played-out counterpart to the grizzled, seen-it-all-detective.
