This drama series, brilliantly written by Stewart Harcourt, is still one of my favorites in its genre of all time. Numerous series are written about groups of friends and I can't really pinpoint why this one stands out. Maybe it's just the normality, the fact that it's all very realistic and not overdone. The people in it are just ordinary people like you and me; a butcher, a hairdresser, a teacher and so on. Magnificent acting by Amanda Holden, Hugo Speer, Damian Lewis, Dervla Kirwan, Sarah Parish and many more gave Hearts and Bones just that extra spark. Especially Sarah Parish, who played the somewhat bitchy Amanda, delivered her lines with verve.
It was great that after a brilliant first series, the 2nd series was a bit more about Michael and Amanda. Also, in the 2nd series, after the unfortunate departure of Mark (Damian Lewis), Lloyd Owen appears as horrible James. Given that you already started to almost care about the group of friends you almost immediately take against James, who keeps saying: "This could be the key to all happiness, it's all about the spin" to almost every single one of the friends. Still, without him it wouldn't have been the same.
It's a shame only two series were made, I think there was still a lot of potential to develop it further. Maybe people didn't like it because of the voice-over, to me it made it even better; it made me feel there were no hidden agendas, you knew what they all thought, how they felt and why they did certain things.
I keep hoping one day a DVD will be released. I know there are more people who would like that because it was great drama and good entertainment!!
It was great that after a brilliant first series, the 2nd series was a bit more about Michael and Amanda. Also, in the 2nd series, after the unfortunate departure of Mark (Damian Lewis), Lloyd Owen appears as horrible James. Given that you already started to almost care about the group of friends you almost immediately take against James, who keeps saying: "This could be the key to all happiness, it's all about the spin" to almost every single one of the friends. Still, without him it wouldn't have been the same.
It's a shame only two series were made, I think there was still a lot of potential to develop it further. Maybe people didn't like it because of the voice-over, to me it made it even better; it made me feel there were no hidden agendas, you knew what they all thought, how they felt and why they did certain things.
I keep hoping one day a DVD will be released. I know there are more people who would like that because it was great drama and good entertainment!!