At first I found this quite an enjoyable, interesting watch, as I do often enjoy period dramas/stories. However, I just found I simply couldn't watch anymore, as while this is very subjective to my own personal feelings and perspective, it just made me too angry seeing how Matron Bottomly frequently abuses the girls, especially Hetty who she has it in for of course, and the way Sheila (who is a lot meaner than she is in the books) actually sinks to a new low when she snitches to Matron that Ida is Hetty's mother, which results in their tearful seperation of course, and doesn't even appear to feel guilty about this as she still continues to snitch to Matron about it in the next episode when they're in correspondence with each other. Yet of course both these characters are made to reform/redeem themselves in some way, despite the fact their actions were just simply unforgivable and irredeemable.
The whole romance arc between Harriet and Mathias was really annoying too, with them seeming to have an official romance going on at the age of presumably 12 or 13, and I just didn't see the need for it at all, at least not at that stage, for it to be dragged out and focused on as much as it was anyway. I also found the scene where Ida and Hetty are painfully seperated to be really annoying and infuriating, not just because of how sadistic Matron was, but how her "friends", or at least Harriet and Mathias and one or two others, just suddenly hold hands and go "We'll remember this" like what on earth do you mean by that, like it was just a desperate attempt to make a statement and come across as all strong, but just came across as weird and cringey to me, and yet none of them except for Gideon (who is probably the only one of that gang who's truly loyal to Hetty) even goes to comfort her. It just made me find Mathias and Harriet all the more annoying, and like it was just trying to further emphasise them as a couple rather than focusing on their friend Hetty's painful situation. Even when Hetty is in the tench, all Harriet and Mathias seem to care about is their ridiculous budding romance.
What also annoyed me is how Hetty always has to be the only one to get into serious trouble, as she seems to be the only one who ever gets put in the tench (okay I'll admit I have only watched series 1-2 but I get the feeling this is the case). Like literally anything that goes wrong among the kids, it's only ever Hetty who has to get into trouble and scrapes, like it just becomes so repetitive and like a desperate attempt to make a point of how unfortunate the protagonist is, despite is being an ensemble cast, meaning that at least some of the other characters should have been shown suffering similar experiences and consequences to Hetty, like why does Hetty always have to be the bearer of the brunt?! For example, when Blanche snitches on Hetty, getting her put into the tench, why does she (Blanche) help Mathias and Harriet get out of trouble, after having got Hetty into serious trouble?! I mean you should spread things out a bit more when it comes to the adverse experiences the foundlings, rather than just letting Hetty be the bearer of the brunt, especially when it is supposed to be an ensemble cast. It therefore just gets too repetitive, like we're supposed to actually enjoy watching Hetty get into all the trouble yet the rest of the characters enjoying their romances and getting off scot-free?! The fact that Hetty even gets thrown in the tench due to covering for her little foundling sister, who while tries to get Matron's polar opposite sister to help her, is a little brat to her in the next episode, does just not seem fair that Hetty should get into trouble like this for something she didn't do, as usually the actual suspect would come forward.
That's another thing, every episode was just far too repetitive to me, with the same thing happening each time: Hetty (and sometimes the rest of the gang) doing something reckless that could get her into big trouble with Matron, Sheila finding out and snitching on her to Matron, Hetty trying to foil Matron's conniving schemes only to fail, thus leading to her getting punished by Matron; like it all just becomes so annoyingly predictable that I just got beyond fed up, like they just couldn't mix things up for a bit could they?!
That brings me to what should be my final point too; the ridiculously dragged out, prolonged foiling of Matron, with three seasons of Hetty trying to foil Matron only to keep failing until season 3, with the rest of the staff at the Foundling hospital and the governors not believing her, despite the fact that they had been initially suspicious of Matron and that Hetty had tried foiling her several times already was just beyond ridiculous and unrealistic. I mean even without all the technology that they were obviously completely lacking back then to investigate a person's crimes and misdeeds in reality they still would have surely become suspicious to the point of investigating Matron and her behaviour themselves, and I mean more than just simply asking the girls if they were happy there when actually with the Matron herself (or one of the other staff). It just annoys me when storylines like this are dragged out for this long, especially when it involves a horrible person not being found out for their horrible actions and behaviour, as it just doesn't seem very realistic, especially when they'd already been initially suspicious of this horrible person's behaviour too, yet continue to ignorantly praise them, which is exactly what they did here with Matron. It would have made more sense if they'd gone down a similar route to Mr Brocklehurst getting busted for his abusive practice in Jane Eyre, which was somewhat more realistic.
I guess makes me realise that this would have been better as a film or mini-series as opposed to an actual full-blown TV series.
The whole romance arc between Harriet and Mathias was really annoying too, with them seeming to have an official romance going on at the age of presumably 12 or 13, and I just didn't see the need for it at all, at least not at that stage, for it to be dragged out and focused on as much as it was anyway. I also found the scene where Ida and Hetty are painfully seperated to be really annoying and infuriating, not just because of how sadistic Matron was, but how her "friends", or at least Harriet and Mathias and one or two others, just suddenly hold hands and go "We'll remember this" like what on earth do you mean by that, like it was just a desperate attempt to make a statement and come across as all strong, but just came across as weird and cringey to me, and yet none of them except for Gideon (who is probably the only one of that gang who's truly loyal to Hetty) even goes to comfort her. It just made me find Mathias and Harriet all the more annoying, and like it was just trying to further emphasise them as a couple rather than focusing on their friend Hetty's painful situation. Even when Hetty is in the tench, all Harriet and Mathias seem to care about is their ridiculous budding romance.
What also annoyed me is how Hetty always has to be the only one to get into serious trouble, as she seems to be the only one who ever gets put in the tench (okay I'll admit I have only watched series 1-2 but I get the feeling this is the case). Like literally anything that goes wrong among the kids, it's only ever Hetty who has to get into trouble and scrapes, like it just becomes so repetitive and like a desperate attempt to make a point of how unfortunate the protagonist is, despite is being an ensemble cast, meaning that at least some of the other characters should have been shown suffering similar experiences and consequences to Hetty, like why does Hetty always have to be the bearer of the brunt?! For example, when Blanche snitches on Hetty, getting her put into the tench, why does she (Blanche) help Mathias and Harriet get out of trouble, after having got Hetty into serious trouble?! I mean you should spread things out a bit more when it comes to the adverse experiences the foundlings, rather than just letting Hetty be the bearer of the brunt, especially when it is supposed to be an ensemble cast. It therefore just gets too repetitive, like we're supposed to actually enjoy watching Hetty get into all the trouble yet the rest of the characters enjoying their romances and getting off scot-free?! The fact that Hetty even gets thrown in the tench due to covering for her little foundling sister, who while tries to get Matron's polar opposite sister to help her, is a little brat to her in the next episode, does just not seem fair that Hetty should get into trouble like this for something she didn't do, as usually the actual suspect would come forward.
That's another thing, every episode was just far too repetitive to me, with the same thing happening each time: Hetty (and sometimes the rest of the gang) doing something reckless that could get her into big trouble with Matron, Sheila finding out and snitching on her to Matron, Hetty trying to foil Matron's conniving schemes only to fail, thus leading to her getting punished by Matron; like it all just becomes so annoyingly predictable that I just got beyond fed up, like they just couldn't mix things up for a bit could they?!
That brings me to what should be my final point too; the ridiculously dragged out, prolonged foiling of Matron, with three seasons of Hetty trying to foil Matron only to keep failing until season 3, with the rest of the staff at the Foundling hospital and the governors not believing her, despite the fact that they had been initially suspicious of Matron and that Hetty had tried foiling her several times already was just beyond ridiculous and unrealistic. I mean even without all the technology that they were obviously completely lacking back then to investigate a person's crimes and misdeeds in reality they still would have surely become suspicious to the point of investigating Matron and her behaviour themselves, and I mean more than just simply asking the girls if they were happy there when actually with the Matron herself (or one of the other staff). It just annoys me when storylines like this are dragged out for this long, especially when it involves a horrible person not being found out for their horrible actions and behaviour, as it just doesn't seem very realistic, especially when they'd already been initially suspicious of this horrible person's behaviour too, yet continue to ignorantly praise them, which is exactly what they did here with Matron. It would have made more sense if they'd gone down a similar route to Mr Brocklehurst getting busted for his abusive practice in Jane Eyre, which was somewhat more realistic.
I guess makes me realise that this would have been better as a film or mini-series as opposed to an actual full-blown TV series.