I couldn't find a thread for this, so...

The previews were uninspiring, but once I heard it was from the creators of Footballers Wives, I was in.

It felt sort of similar to FW, kind of soap operaish, and it definitely pulled me in by episode's end. Really like the idealistic teacher, the social worker teacher, and the not-over-Tom teacher.

The commercials for this show were terrible. I had zero interest in watching. Last night though I decided to watch a few minutes On Demand and was instantly sucked in. I had no idea it was from the producers of Footballer’s Wives. WR seems totally different in tone and focus but equally entertaining. The show seems universally well cast and I’m curious where things are going. I’m absolutely going to watch tonight.

I tivoed it after seeing commercials -- haven't watched it yet. I'm glad at least one person can vouch for it, but I wonder if anybody else has seen it!

I've seen it and it is quite good. As a teacher in the US I felt it portrayed us in a great but flawed light. The kids were (as the British say) spot on.

Two episodes in and I love this show. It’s a perfect mix of slice of life of the British education system, kids in distress, and soap opera. The characters are just all so messed up and yet really interesting. Half the time I’m angry or frustrated with their choices, the other half I understand them so well. I think the show has a nice mix of drama, humor, romance.

In terms of the soap opera angle I’m weirdly into the mess that is Lorna/Tom/Izzie.
Tom is an immature prat who needs a big dose of grow up pills. And he couldn’t have been more cruel to Lorna. That said I don’t dislike him. Lorna did nothing wrong and yet I do dislike her. I feel like Tom practically telegraphs ‘Stay away from me about half the time’ and she never seems to get it. Of all three of them I like Izzie the most and I like Tom the most when he’s around her. He seems more human around Izzie. I’m curious where WR is taking Lorna. She seems way passive aggressive one second and surprisingly vulnerable the next.

The fallout from Donte’s accident was really compelling. At this point I’m not quite sure how to take Donte. I think we’re supposed to root for WR to turn him around but he’s got a long way to turn. I do like the fact that WR reflects how parents can in loving their children turn them into deeply unlikable individuals.

This is a great show I wish more people were watching.

In the triangle I like Izzy the best -- clearly the other two are doomed due to their inability to communicate. That said - Tom should have called the wedding off ages ago and if long enough ago - then maybe Lorna wouldn't be pregnant. But it was very odd of her to not tell him she was pregnant right away -- like that's not going to affect both their lives!

I thought that they handled the first aftermath of the Donte accident really well. It will be interesting to see where they take it from here.

Rimmer and what's her name? (Is she one of the teachers?) That surprised me! He seemed so uncomfortable 'til the end.

I started the show expecting to hate Donte as I usually can't stand the troubled bad boy characters, but McManus and Chadwick worked to make the character more than a collection of the usual bad boy cliches.

I like Izzy, too, but Lorna and Tom are annoying me silly. Tom really doesn't seem worth the trouble,making Lorna seem pretty foolish for caring so much. They're bothering me like the Wamsleys did on FW.

I've seen the "idealistic teacher comes to troubled school" many times before, but this one manages to dodge the cliches, nicely.

Maybe because he's not that primary focus of the show. . . or at least hasn't been so far.

I wanted to like this show, because it's the lead-in for Hex (which I am completely obsessed with), but I don't. It bored the crap out of me, and the people are very unnattractive. I mean, the whole Hex cast aren't stunners either, but at least the lead woman, and all of the men, are good looking. The Waterloo Road cast is...blegh.

I think they're real-world attractive. As in, if this person worked with me, yes, I'd find him attractive. Which is nice because, frankly, most of us aren't Charlize Theron and George Clooney.

I'm enjoying the show. Not sure about the guidance counselor's character and her silly position on the detention room as if it were Guantanamo (or the silly 180 degree shift in her perspective once she realized that gosh darn it, it.just.might.work!)

Can somebody familiar with the British system explain what a comprehensive school is? Like a charter school? Something up a step from the worst schools (though this doesn't seem to be)?

A comprehensive is a school that takes in pupils of all abilities, as opposed to being selective. Some are pretty bad, others are fine. I think the American equivalent would be a public school.

Hello all...I just came by to say that I love this show...it squashes the whole stereotype of British schools being uppity-posh and shows a realistic view of what life for everyday British kids go through.

So much word on this. I don't know if I'm supposed to sympathise with Tom because he's in love with Izzy and what not, but I don't. He just bugs. All I keep thinking is if you didn't want to marry the damn girl then maybe you should have stuck to your guns and called off the wedding instead of going ahead with it just because Izzy claimed she wasn't interested. Lorna annoys me too, but thus far mostly with her I'm praying she'll get a clue and some self esteem and dump his ass. But I'm guessing that's not going to happen anytime soon. Because seriously having an abortion just to keep a guy who spews the kind of crap Tom did to her, that's just the height of pathetic.

Figured pergnant girl was lying about the baby being headmater guy's or that they slept together (can't remember his name) since he obviously wasn't going anywhere, but he should seriously consider AA if he keeps drinking to the point he can't remember what he gets up to.

I couldn' believe that Lorna didn't get that the problem with the pregnancy thing was the way she didn't tell Tom about it at all. And then she goes and has an abortion also without discussing it with him . . . if both of those things were about Tom -- why didn't she let him in on it?

I don't get her at all.

Lorna doesn’t make any sense to me.

Even Tom who’s indecisive and makes the absolute wrong decisions to me makes a certain level of sense. He’s stuck in a job he openly dislikes. He’s married to a woman he clearly doesn’t even really like or respect. He’s a prat like 90% of the time and an idiot to boot but I at least understand his choices. They are wrong choices but I understand them.

Lorna I’m just not sure if she’s pathetic or passive aggressive. I can’t decide if she’s the weak victim who wants love so badly she’ll do anything to keep it, or the master manipulator who uses her love for Tom to justify virtually any choice she makes. I felt awful for her last week because Tom was so cruel to her. This week though her actions just made no sense. Like Sumik said Tom was mad she didn’t tell him she was pregnant so her solution was to not tell him she was having an abortion. Huh? Izzie’s “This is such a bad idea” didn’t even begin to cut it.

At this point I think Tom/Lorna just need to break up. A decisive no I’ll come home and have sex with you and maybe marry you so you aren’t embarrassed break, just a break up. It’s just all so bad and wrong and hurtful for both of them. I can’t imagine any scenario where they could actually be happy. He’s just not in love with her.

Headmaster is an alcoholic and French teacher is just pathetic.

Andrew and the guidance counselor are interesting. I like how they play off each other. They seem like the only people at the school who actually put their jobs ahead of their personal lives.

I was hoping that would happen this episode, but I suspect there's a few more epsiodes to go before then since I'm guessing it won't be long till he hears about the abortion.




He did say if he'd known before they got married that she was pregnant he never would have married her so I assumed she convinced herself that what he was really saying was that he wasn't ready to have kids even though what he was really saying was the last thing he wanted was kids with her because that would mean that he was even more trapped in the marriage. I was hoping she would take Izzy's advice, but I'm guessing she's not going to get a reality check until he finally dumps her. And maybe not even then.

What constitutes success, ratings-wise, for a BBCA show? I really enjoy this show, but as you can see, not many people (at least on TwoP) are watching it.

I found Footballer's Wives unwatchable, but that's the one getting all the promotion.

Another question -- is this a repeat series that has already broadcast in the UK, or are they airing it pretty much simultaneously?

WORD.

I've only seen one episode (the one with the pregnant student) and while I didn't think it was the greatest show, I didn't think it was horrible either. I do have a question, though: Where in England is this show set? Because for the life of me I can't figure out where some of the accents (Chlo's and Mika's, most notably, at least to me) are from.

Can't remember anybody's accents right now so the best I can guess right now is somewhere up North lol. Probably somewhere like Manchester.

It seems like BBC America follows a pretty typical pattern promo wise. Before a show airs its blitzed heavily. Then once the show starts airing the promotion drops down and either becomes regular but not excessive or simply falls away totally. I mean by the last few weeks it seemed like Rocket Man was getting no promotion at all. FW to me is so over promoed.

I do think however WR is a difficult show to promote. The BBCA ads initially billed it as some kind of Bad Girls type show where the school was so rough and tough. Lately they seem to be playing up the teachers love lives more. The promos to me are never really that indicative of the show.



It's already aired on the BBC. It's been renewed for a second series as well so hopefully BBCA will air the second series.

I love the show but I think the whole Lorna/Tom/Izzie angle has kind of fallen apart. I loved it in the pilot but not so much now. And I just know Lorna still hasn't given up and Tom will continue to behave so passive aggressively and send her all the wrong signals. I'm thinking of starting a drinking game where you take a sip everytime Tom or Lorna does something to prolong their dead relationship.

I really enjoy the show -- the girl who plays Chlo is amazing, all seething naivete.

I do feel an American's need to put braces on much of the cast, however.

What a fantastic ending to a great first series. I’m really hoping BBCAmerica shows the second series next year. I thought the final did a nice job of wrapping up some plot lines; Dante’s arrest, will the school stay open, Lewis’s presence, while also setting up some new threads for next year namely Dante/Chloe’s relationship, and the continuing weird dance between Andrew/Kim. A few thoughts on the season....

The whole Lorna/Tom/Izzy thing started well but boy it quickly became a mess. I think it was the one storyline this season that tanked. The actors all gave it their all but the writing, particularly for Tom was atrocious. Lorna had me with her speech right up till she said she didn’t care what happened to Tom anymore. Bull. I think absolutely everything she did was about trying to win him back.

On the flip side the Donte arc which I expected to be very blah ended up really grabbing me. Also the last few episodes I was incredibly impressed by Chelsee Healy’s Janeece. She’s a real gem I hope she gets more to do next season.

Andrew/Kim continues to be the most interesting dynamic on the show to me. I think they are being handled the way Tom/Izzy should have been. We’ve seen them progress, seen them interact. Even if it never goes romantic we’ve seen an emotional connection develop between them. Friendship, romance whatever its the dynamic I’ve enjoyed the most.

All the characters were so well developed and constantly surprised me. I’ll miss this show. It was fun to visit Waterloo Road.

I enjoyed the show too -- too bad it doesn't have more of a following here. Much better acting than the writing sometimes deserves, but then again, much better writing than most evening soaps, which, of course, this is.

I caught the 1st episode of the 2nd series. I think the pacing is better plus the show is still pretty good. Lots of drama.

Ok, I dunno if anyone started watching series 3 yet. The first episode aired here on thursday. Ok, Firstly, I was so shocked they killed Izzie off, even though it provides really good drama. I'm really intruiged as to where they're going with the whole dante/chloe relationship, now they're married and all. I thought the girl with asperger's syndrom was quite interesting, I wonder if they'll continue telling her story. I'm also really interested as to how they're going to out the new gay teacher. I do have one issue though and that's taking Neil Morrissey seriously. I mean he's "Bob the Builder" for Christ sake!

Season 3 is awesome. Really.

I was really shocked when they revealed that Rachel was a prostitute. Or when Brett and Chlo slept together, leading Donte/Chlo to break up, and also Brett/Mika to break up. A bit happy that Tom is moving on from Izzie. Also: Shut up Mika, you whiny little douchebag.

A great season, which is building up for a great finish.

Did anyone else see the Season 3 finale?

Awesome. One word to describe it. Infact, three: Truly, truly, awesome.

AND I HAVE TO WAIT TILL NEXT WINTER!?

I really liked the season three finale. But I still think it was the weakest season overall compared to the other two. I didn't like Tom and Davina getting together so quickly, it seemed forced. At the beginning, I was annoyed that Chloe and Mika's dad, who was all for Father's rights in season one wasn't even mentioned. I mean if they even acknowledged that maybe Chlo and Mika opted to stay with Tom than their Dad,that would be fine, but no.
I preferred the Jack Rimmer downfall more than the Rachel one. I was more invested in him. I'm just kind of "meh" on the new characters overall actually. Matt had his moments, Eddie was a bit of a drip, and Jasmine just bugged me.
Saying that, there were a lot of great moments. I enjoy Steph a lot, the Janise storyline earlier was good, I liked the way that they treated the Chloe and Dante relationship having them break-up and slowly get back together and now his new girlfriend is pregnant. I also like that they made Grantly more sympathetic, even the quadrangle stuff was was good.
I hope they don't drop stuff coming into the next season like the transition from season 2 to 3. I want to see Dante and Chlo and what's her name deal with the pregnancy, I want them to make an issue of how one of the fire exits was blocked etc.

I have a silly question. Can I assume that you lot who've gotten to see series 2 & 3 live in the UK? As far as I can tell, BBCA has only shown the first series in the US. Is it ever going to be shown where I can see it?

Yeah, I'm watching on BBC UK. I obviously don't have a clue about BBCA's plans unfortunately. They've posted episodes (from the latest series) on BBC's iplayer on the UK website. I dunno if you'll be able to watch it if you're out of the country though.

I absolutely love Waterloo Road, but I really miss Jill Halfpenny. I loved the relationship between Izzie and Tom. It was just so natural. I don't like Davina, and I dislike Tom/Davina pairing; actually, I dislike any Davina relationship because she seems so fake.

Denise Welch is amazing at playing Steph - the love/hate character.

I hope Andrew and Kim are back next series - a cast member (can't remember which one) has been quoted as saying 2 are back for series 4. I'd prefer it to be Izzie, but unless they're planning on doing a return-from-the-dead storyline it's not going to happen. Frankly, I'd stop watching if they did. They shouldn't have killed her off, but I suppose there was no other way to allow Jill Halfpenny to leave the show without taking Mika, Chlo and almost definitely Tom with her...

I've bought the DVD box-sets for both Series 1 and 2 and I have to say that series 3 was the most exciting, but I'm not as invested in the characters as I am in 1 & 2.

Also, has any noticed how hard it is to follow the timescale in this show? They never have exams (which actually does help to scale it, because modules are in January and May/June, with results in March and August, so it'd actually be really useful) and there's barely any reference at all to how long it's been since the previous episode, in some cases it's minutes and in others weeks. This has came from watching series 1 and 2 straight through.

Reviving this thread to see if anyone seen the series 4 premiere last night? I thought it was excellent a great balance of sensational drama (shooting), moments of realism (girls being bitchy about the head girl) and moments of silly humour (Grantley's wig).

The problem family are good new additions. I think that Marli is instantly likeable, I felt sorry for Sambuka (mostly for her unfortunate choice of name) and her first experience in the music class, Earl is a good villain, and I think the actor is really good. My heart was breaking for Denzel, especially in that final scene. He's so easily led and I loved that he was excited about Jasmine helping him with his reading. I think on the whole the introduction of new characters is a lot better than last series.

I do have several nitpicks, though. Firstly, the timeline of the show is all over the place, like CouldxBe said. Secondly, the woman who plays the mother of the troubled family a) does not look like she's had 5 kids, b) does not look old enough to have teenage children and c) Her accent is weird.

Looking back at my last post is kind of funny:



Oh, well. It was still a strong premiere.

Did anyone else enjoy the visit from Andrew?
He made me long for the seasons when Jack/Andrew/Kim ran the school.
I wish he had come back with Kim to begin with.

The food attack kind of surprised me as being rather benign, I've been expecting Phillip to lose it and turn school shooter ever since his character was introduced.

I did. I want him back full time. Time has been kind to him, he's hotter than I remember. I agree about the nice reminder of how superior seasons 1 and 2 are. I mean Jack was still incompetent but he was kind of self-aware. Ms. Mason is completely useless and yet still thinks of herself as the savior of the school. I'm not sure about Kim, though. She's incredibly self-righteous sometimes.

Even though, a lot of this show doesn't make sense because of the timeline: Chlo gave birth after like 2 months etc. I do think the show has moments of excellence. I did love the entire episode where Earl killed Maxine. The writing and performances were fantastic.

I heard rumors that Jenna Louise Coleman (Jasmine from Emmerdale) is joining the show for season 5 along with Tom Chambers. Who judging from the article sounds like a complete douche. He's disappointed to be joining the show?!

OK, I'm probably the only person here watching this but I've written a comment for the past few premieres, so why break the habit.

The idea of merging two schools together is such a TV cliche that I'm surprised that it took 5 series to eventually get here. I do quite like some of the new characters, so far though. Especially Jenna Louise Coleman's character, Lindsay. She's such a good actress. I'm going to call it right now though that I think she is the one that murdered her violent father and the mother is just taking the fall. Although maybe I just think she is being typecast since she was good at playing a murderess in Emmerdale.

It's still early days on the new teachers to form any strong impressions. The science teacher was just there; the H.E teacher seems to be a love-to-hate character; I called the head of languages teacher being a lesbian early on because she looks like a generic TV lesbian with her short hair and clothes that look as though she should front a student indie band and it also seems that she will distract from any complaining about the other gay character disappearing (along with other characters who've disappeared with no explanation); the newly qualified teacher seemed all too realistic to me. Moreso, than all these former prostitutes turned super principals, Ms. Mason. I absolutely loathe Tom Chambers' character. He is such a shit actor. He had the exact same "smell the fart" acting face in all of his scenes. I think he is going to have some fetish for younger black girls or something, since he fancies Kim and it was hinted that he had a thing with Helen the newly qualified teacher and he seemed to pick Michaela as his "special girl".

I think Tom's love interests get worse each year. I loathe Rose and her annoying Irish/Scottish/Gloucester hybrid accent. I do think that the kid who was printing off the picture of him will be revealed to be his son later on. So hopefully he'll get a new love interest who will be better than Rose. Now watch me get proven wrong.

Looking forward to Amanda Burton joining the cast later in the series.