Eternal Law (2012) User Reviews (18)

Whimsical law drama with a twist

[eve_dolluk · 5/10 · 6 January 2012]

Its maybe too early to judge but so far so ......

The premise for the show is that Angels come down from... wherever and become Lawyers. Mr Gist is the experience Angel/Lawyer who is blooding in young inexperienced Mr Greening as it is his first time on earth.

That basically sets the dynamics of the show, there are Angel rules that are mentioned and these are quickly broken. There are Fallen Angels who play the bad guys also in this case Mr Pembroke.

We then have Mrs Sheringham who appears to be the Angels boss on Earth and Mr M who appears to be the main man upstairs. All very basic stuff so far. Upon landing on earth they soon find themselves in the middle of a shooting and therefore ( for reasons unknown ) become directly involved as Lawyers for the case. There is also a mystery woman called Hannah English who for again reasons unknown gets involved in the shooting and there is some sort of past between her and Mr Gist. I don't want to give much more away than that and it all happens within the first 10 mins so I'm not giving to much away.

Overall I found the show to be whimsical at best, the mystery surrounding the case is obvious within 10 minutes and the rest of the show is more about setting the foundations for the series. The problem for me is what is it supposed to be. There was little mystery or suspense that you normally find with a courtroom drama. There was little drama or humour ( did it even try ).

The acting was average from the main characters and awful from some of the minor characters. The setting for the show seems to be a small town somewhere in the south of England out in the sticks. Everything in the show was unoriginal and nothing new and seemed like a mish mash of everything we have seen before relating to the subject of Angels.

I understand its early days but as an opener it may have just lost half its potential audience, there was really not enough in this first episode to keep you interested. It may develop into a good series but I've already lost interest, I'll give the second episode a go to see if it improves but I can't see it. The entire dynamics would have to change a great deal to make this even remotely interesting.

I am glad I Sky plussed it and watched Public Enemies instead on BBC1 which is a much better show.

Not too bad at all.

[grahamcoia · 7/10 · 20 July 2012]

OK, so it's not the best thing I've ever seen but it has real charm and wit. The leads are excellent and the stories and dialogue have just enough quirkiness to lift it out of run-of-the-mill.

I am not normally a fan of UK shows being remade but I do feel that this would work well redone for an American audience - maybe we Brits just don't do angels too well - too cynical - and Americans would buy into the premise a bit more.

I'd love to see it get a 2nd series, so long as it takes the characters somewhere and doesn't simply degenerate into the 'case-of-the-week' that just happens to contain angels!

Quirky

[bellapeligrosa · 7/10 · 26 February 2013]

I'm surprised this got such a bad rating. It's the kind of quirky TV series the Brits are so good at. The subject matter is a little off- putting to the first time viewer (angel lawyers, really?!) but shouldn't be as this is a good old-fashioned human drama and the angelic theme is just a good guy/bad guy spin. In fact if you are tuning in expecting to see a 'Supernatural'-esque show you are more likely to be disappointed. It could have just have easily been a courtroom drama and in that respect it delivers. The angelic element adds a little mystery, and the city of York is the kind of backdrop where you can believe mortals and eternals could mix. Whilst it might not be the best-written series on TV, it's also not worth a 5.6 rating.

Doesn't look like it will return for a series 2 but if you can catch series 1 somewhere - on DVD or demand - well worth a watch.

If people are saying Eternal Law has no redeeming qualities, tell them they're completely wrong...

[Loz8 · 9/10 · 20 January 2012]

I admit it, I enjoy Eternal Law an ungodly amount every single week. The episodic plots are rarely good. The occasional weekly supporting actor can be atrocious. There are some dodgy special effects.

But the show has heart. It has a beguiling sense of optimism, hope, and the belief that love - while painful - is worthwhile. The show doesn't take itself seriously at all. It knows it is ridiculous. It's not trying to be Drama. The angel lawyers have gigantic wings that suddenly appear in scenes, with very little rhyme or reason. There are scenes in which angel lawyers smoke cigars on top of York Minster with their wings unfurled! But, and this is important, whilst the cheese is strong with this one, there are also a lot of balancing scenes. There are some good, tasty water crackers being used as a base for the cheese (with maybe a bit of pepper, if that's your thing) so that the taste isn't all boursin.

I adore all of the characters, who are well-rounded, with complex motivations and understandings. This is including the villain of the piece, Richard, who is a fallen angel, rather menacing, and yet completely hilarious every second he's on screen. There are compelling dynamics between the leads, not to mention some fantastic dialogue (after the pilot, which still had stellar lines such as "What happens if we get shot in this world?"/"Hurts to buggery.") Zak has epic angelpain, yet still manages to be wise and witty. Tom is adorably confused and on the steep learning curve that is life. Mrs Sheringham is supportive yet tortured. Hannah is oddly compelled to the craziness that is Zak Gist and his emotional temperature control of doom. It's all golden.

And it isn't merely the characters I have fun with. Apart from the somewhat dodgy SFX on occasion the show is shot beautifully, with interesting yet not jarring camera-work and York shown from every stunning vantage-point. The music and credits are similarly quality work.

I am very much looking forward to buying the DVDs. And whilst I doubt there will be a second series, I will jump for joy if there is one. Eternal Law makes me happy. It isn't High Art, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. It is, in its own, special, way. When it's good, it's wonderful, when it's bad, it's laughable. But I am never, ever bored.

Good Grief

[Sjhm · 3/10 · 5 July 2012]

Where do I begin? Seriously, the idea is a juicy one, lots of potential; the execution deplorable. It's not the cast's fault, and the location is the beautiful city of York, it's the terrible, lifeless, saggy script. It's such a shame. I have to feel that Pharaoh and Graham may have shot their bolt as a writing team. Life On Mars, wonderful. Ashes To Ashes, good, if a little predictable, and the final series somewhat jumped the shark. Bonekickers, an embarrassment both to Archaeology and to Drama. Eternal Law, intriguing premise, badly done. It's almost painful watching Samuel West and Tobias Menzies try to make something of their roles with so little of substance to work with. No surprise there is no second series. A series featuring angels should be magical, uplifting and surprising. This simply isn't.

okay so a bit of a weird concept but actually i think it may fly

[gaiter88 · 8/10 · 12 January 2012]

Okay so I watched the first one of these because I thought with this cast it deserved a look. Was a bit strange and not you traditional law drama but thought I'd watch it again this week (second episode) and I think it's actually quite good. Sure there will be people for whom the concept doesn't fit but I think if you can get you head around it and accept it it's actually a good drama, none the least because of the acting, all the main cast are good and Sam West is superb, that and the random but cool songs they seem to like playing in the end credits for me means it deserves a lot more than the 4.8 its currently rated at on here! If your open minded and like a your drama well-acted give it a try.

Lazy writing, clumsy plot.

[charleshunt257 · 1/10 · 5 January 2012]

Episode 1 was appalling: clumsy dialogue; unbelievable plot; bad acting - even from Sam West; not a sign of a policeman anywhere, even when somebody is shooting on the crowd from the top of the Mansion House (where the Lord Mayor lives); apparent murderer defended by two angels and prosecuted by a devil, and let out of the court unsupervised when his daughter starts shooting out the courtroom windows with the rifle that should have been Exhibit A in the trial... etc etc

The cardboard characters that the mostly highly competent actors were meant to represent were totally unengaging and unbelievable. Even the brawls outside (some of York's posher) pubs were amateurish. Doesn't augur well for the rest of the series.

Interesting to learn that God (Mr Mountjoy) has wings, though.

I'm loving it!

[pandkwarbey · 10/10 · 27 January 2012]

Have watched a few episodes now and think the series is great. People are always saying we do not have any new ideas for dramas and then when one comes along they are over critical, judging by some of the reviews.

Even the opening titles are enjoyable. Being a critic does not mean you only have to criticise.

Just sit back and enjoy a great series cleverly written with a fantastic cast and excellent acting. The stories about the Court Cases are interesting and involved and the back story about the Lawers is intriguing. To explain the concept to someone who has not seen an episode it may appear bizarre and I watched the first episode just to try it out but I was very pleasantly surprised and it is quickly becoming my favourite series.

Worth watching once, just for the acting.

[CoalFyre · 4/10 · 22 February 2014]

So I watched all the episodes in the end, reluctantly at first. Acting was fantastic, absolutely great, not once could I find fault. The script ........ wasn't bad.

Either way, once I got past my scepticism about angels (them been lawyers more importantly) I mildly enjoyed more of the series. While the script isn't fantastic, a few flaws in the stories, it's regularly punctured by moments of genius which make up for the boring fluff and discrepancies.

This series is certainly worth watching once.

Acting 9/10.

Innovative Drama

[strmakr · 8/10 · 10 February 2012]

This show is definitely innovative. At first I thought it might be like "Touched By An Angel"....but it's much darker. Seems the angels have an impossible job, and it's interesting to watch them overcome challenges. The "devil" is also well played. I do think the show endings are borrowed from "Boston Legal" but it's fantastic to see those gigantic wings they sprout during those segments! I'm disappointed that the series is over after six episodes! Admittedly I was less than enthusiastic about some of the episodes, because the some of the story lines didn't quite flow well, resulting in confusion on my part. But now that I know it's over, I'm gonna miss seeing it....unless the writers can somehow contrive to "erase" the ending. Remember how they erased an entire season of "Dallas" saying it was all a dream? Encore, encore...and bravo for this drama!

A drama about earthbound angels which simply didn't fly.

[paul-clarke-261-25259 · 1/10 · 9 January 2012]

Eternal Law, I fear, is going to be this year's TV turkey - in the dubious and notorious wake of Bonekickers and The Deep - all examples of an IDEA - set in a striking LOCATION: York, Bath, or the ocean depths... But you still need a good script - and, frankly, Eternal Law, like those others, hasn't, and is an unforgivable waste of good players: Samuel West, Tobias Menzies, Hattie Morahan, and Orla Brady, who all trying to establish characters that the script fails to give them - tough call!

The idea of heavenly intervention from angels while not original, could and should be magical. Regrettably, Eternal Law is not.

Potentially great moral drama - but needed more development time ...

[brian-monahan · 8/10 · 10 February 2012]

I liked the premise of this short series - but many of the episodes story lines simply "ran out of runway". They needed more time or perhaps more of an arc should have been developed so that episodes always left you wanting to see the next one (as in LoM/A2A). This is, of course, difficult to establish ...

We need more high-concept, intelligent moral dramas like Eternal Law - but they really are hard to justify for a highly commercial, prime time slot like ITV1 which has to constantly bring home the bacon on a number of fronts.

My guess is that a more sympathetic and sustainable audience could still be gained on rerun without the pressure of generating huge audiences - this is not LoM/A2A after all - it could easily establish a solid following if more sensitively positioned. (By the way, we all watched it here unfailingly - even my youngest teenage daughter!)

I will certainly be buying the DVD ... there were some good if occasionally uneven performances and the ideas behind the writing were actually top class (with a number of stunning LOL throwaway lines) - just perhaps a bit rushed and a little too "implicit" in places.

Possibly the worst thing ever created, and not just on TV

[seanferguson13 · 1/10 · 7 February 2012]

As a lawyer, I tried to tell myself it was the oversimplified clichéd plots that are repeatedly stuffed into the "excitement box" of a courtroom until they are misshapen. Endlessly showing good versus evil in a system where sadly black and white rarely exist and there are a billion shades of gray. Couple this with the incorrect procedures and law. But no that wasn't it.

Was it my atheism? Did I object to the winged angels flying down and doing battle with terribly frightful evil on a weekly basis as a further reinforcement of outdated and unscientific beliefs among young audiences? No, it wasn't that either.

The setting then? Bland, mechanical story lines? Truly awful acting? (To be fair there are some good performances). No.

What got me, was that someone was trying to sell this to audiences as entertainment. A prime time slot no less. I would still have grimaced if it was the first attempt at a foray into programme creation by a Year 11 media student.

This programme is as bad as it gets. I may even go as far as to say it represents the final nail in the cultural and creative decline of our society.

It's sad that a TV show can make a 26 year old think this way, but it did. I may throw my TV away now.

Not too clever?

[peenieweenie · 10/10 · 5 February 2012]

I liked that it seems not too clever or complicated. I really like courtroom dramas and it's interesting to have angelic beings acting as lawyers. Reminded me a bit of that lovely old film with David Niven,- A matter of life and death. In Eternal Law the acting is wonderful, if it wasn't they would never have been able to pull this off at all. Because, I sit there all tense, even when the wings are out, until it's all over and I know that clock isn't ticking anymore. The cast are brilliant - isn't Sam West the best actor we have, what a voice:) I love the dry wit that his character has. I love that he is tortured with lustful feelings for Hannah. While I am 'rooting' (sorry) for him to give her one - partly I must admit to see if his ejac would really knock her head off.- I do understand that the struggle he has with these feelings are really what it's all about. The fall. If that old angel hadn't fallen for one of us. We would all still be dancing around with fig leaves on having fun in the garden of Eden. Mr Mountjoy is just so bureaucratic, but isn't that just so true of everything in our world. Our whole existence balances on the tip of his ball point pen. I really loved the latest episode. It was so touching. I love that Zac and Tom are caught in the middle as innocent tools of Mr Mountjoy. I like it that Mr Mountjoy has no compassion and would switch us off at the drop of a hat just because the paperwork was building up and anyway we irritate him. He made a mistake when he made us and he knows it. After all he made us in his own image. The imagery of the Great war hit home to me. After all wasn't that just a bureaucratic exercise devoid of any compassion towards flesh. I hope there will be further series in the future. I love the light and dark. The defence and love towards those who seem wrong and guilty and bad. If it isn't continued I hope the ending is that we all go out in a blaze of glory as Zak has his wicked way with Hannah, blows her head off and shoots his cream so hard and high that it blows a hole in the ceiling, arcs a rainbow, rips the sky into two and hits old Mr Mountjoy right in the eye.

...but it had such promise!

[the-oldgoat · 3/10 · 3 February 2012]

Oh dear. The concept and the location both have a lot going for them, but you need a convincing story arc and much better scripts.

I had actually got over the weird locations used in York for the market (no, St Helen's Square has a road through the middle, and those stalls hid the copious seating and the outdoor café), the hospital (the old Law courts beside the museum, next to the annoying bit of dual carriageway...) and began focusing on the plots and script. Ooops.

Sorry, but when you compare this to some of the major drama series that have come out of Yorkshire in the last few decades - Heartbeat, All Creatures Great and Small, Open All Hours, The Royal - it just doesn't cut it.

Guys, if you're going for another series, you need to seriously up the ante.

Please let us have another series of this

[helenkerr-18360 · 9/10 · 20 August 2015]

This series hit me in so many ways - it had intrigue, Machievellian plots and soul. I really don't think it was promoted enough so that it reached enough people. Perhaps show series one again and see how it goes down. Promote it effectively and see how it goes. The characters were utterly believable despite the whole 'are angels real, or not?' question. It also took in a beautiful location that will appeal to not only the Brits but any foreign visitors to the UK who have visited York. I particularly liked the segue between every day people that the 'lawyers' served and the angelic realm. The end notes of each program where you saw the angels on top of York minster in their true angelic forms, when they hashed over the last case always showed the angst experienced by the angels while dealing with the case. Please just try again with this and promote it professionally.

A Pleasant Stretch of the Imagination

[bobprice101 · 9/10 · 19 August 2019]

I approached this series with few expectations and was pleasantly surprised to discover a genuine golden nugget. Why on earth only one series was ever purchased is beyond me. Eternal Law had all the ingredients for a best TV series award. The writing was superb. Sharp. Witty. The acting was faultless. Utterly convincing. Yet here we are in 2019 without a second series on the horizon. More the pity.

Not renewing this series was a massive error

[hfdileo · 10/10 · 9 August 2023]

Having tried and failed to watch the second series of the unfunny, self-important and frankly baffling Good Omens, we returned to our DVD box set of Eternal Law for some respite and to find something enjoyable, thought-provoking and frankly good for the soul. Oh my goodness, why oh why wasn't this continued onto a second series? The premise is wonderful, the actors are fantastic (Sam West, take a bow), there's a sense of mystery, otherness and hope that doesn't fail to thrill, mankind in all its frailty and splendour is uplifted and chastised as necessary and the choice between good and evil is ever before us. I flippin' love this show. It lingers long after watching and raises interesting questions about one's own morals, beliefs, hopes and fears. I'm so sad it wasn't developed for a further series, when other far less worthy contenders are. Congratulations to all concerned.