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Reviews
At Home with the Braithwaites (2000)
Promising idea but let down by the characters.
I am halfway through Series 3 on ITV Hub (can't think why I missed it at the time) and quite frankly it's more through morbid curiosity than any actual enjoyment that I am still persevering with this now.
The plot certainly has merit and promised great things but it is so severely let down by its ridiculous characters. The writer, Sally Wainwright, by indulging her obvious bitterness against men has ensured that none of the male characters - yes none - have any redeeming qualities whatsoever. Now, as a woman I know full well that there are plenty of utter b**tards out there but there are also plenty of good, decent men too and by portraying all men in such a one-dimensional, negative way only serves to display the writer's warped sense of reality.
Strangely, because the acting is so good by all concerned, I did find myself hating the male characters (as we are supposed to, of course) for their over-emotional, irrational and absurd behaviour - that is until I remembered that they were all just the rabid creation of a bitter, angry woman. And it occurred to me that I had never actually seen men act that way - screaming in spitting fury, full of jealousy and rage and intent on revenge. I have seen plenty of women behave that way but never men. Yes men can be complete jerks sometimes but not all men and not all the time, as Ms Wainwright would have us believe.
It really does not help the cause of women to put out this sort of thing. Beyond fishing for cheers from militant feminists and appealing to the lowest common denominator of those vile, men-hating harridans, the series only serves to illustrate its creator's sad self-indulgence and poor understanding of human nature. Women are better than this, Ms Wainwright...at least most of us are and we are not all at war with men.