The Halcyon (2017) User Reviews (38)

lush soaper

[cherold · 7/10 · 22 February 2017]

I find it interesting that, while the overall rating for this series is near 7, almost everyone who bothered to review it didn't like it.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed the series. The sets are nice, the characters are appealing, and it's all briskly paced.

Certainly, I could pick at things. The plotting is at times not quite logical and at others unrealistically tidy. The band music is not especially true to the period; they sound more like a neo-Swing band from the '90s. Characters are likable enough, but there wasn't anyone I liked to the level of almost any character from Downton Abbey.

But I (and my girlfriend) enjoyed it all the same.

So much potential, sad the doors closed on The Halcyon.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 9 July 2017]

The Halcyon proves how fickle the producers of TV series must be. The Halcyon starts off in a fairly average way I must say, but as it develops it becomes something totally engaging, and rather excellent.

Beautifully acted by all concerned, great performances from Steven Mackintosh, Olivia Williams, Liz White etc, but it was the constant brilliance from Hermione Corfield that I enjoyed most of all, she was superb as Emma.

Lavish production values, the Hotel in particular looked fabulous, gorgeous costumes, and a true sense of realism during the bombing scenes.

The series got better as it went on, the last few episodes in particular were excellent, I hope the petition that's going around encourages someone to take the series on, there are so many more stories to tell.

Excellent drama, 8/10

The Halcyon may have a slow start and highly predictable flow but still it makes a good watch with terrific performances especially Corfield.

[shobanchittuprolu · 8/10 · 11 March 2017]

The Halcyon (2017): When I watched the first two episodes of The Halcyon,it felt like the episodes are so dragging and failed impress me.But from the 3rd episode, The Halcyon improved a lot and for the rest of the episodes it did not disappoint with brilliant performances and engaging drama.

Plot: The Halcyon tells the story of a bustling and glamorous five star hotel at the centre of London society and a world at war. The drama, set in 1940, shows London life through the prism of war and the impact it has on families, politics, relationships and work across every social strata - set to a soundtrack of the music of the era .

What I felt: The major highlight of The Halcyon is the stunning performances from the cast especially Hermione Corfield as Emma Garland.I don't know whether this coincidence is meant to happen but Hermione is may fav character name from Harry Potter and now the lady with the same name gave a charming performance in Halcyon.She is absolutely stunning and she is the main reason for me to watch this series.

Steve Mackintosh,Matt Ryan and Olivia Williams also deserve the applause for their striking performances.

Music of the series really brought up the mood of the 1940's.Opening song is very good..("Raining Down" track) Even though all the episodes are engaging,most of them move in the predictable manner.They have added all the necessary clichés like a Triangle Love Story,A dark past for an important role,a cunning person,a homosexual love and even a Negro-White love.

But still the stunning performances and cinematography never bore us and the ending of Season 1 is very good as we all care for all the characters and their next phase in life after such huge shock.

So,The Halcyon may have a slow start and highly predictable flow but still it makes a good watch with terrific performances especially Corfield.

My rating 7.5/10

A brilliant series!

[carla-godfrey2506-127-805740 · 10/10 · 21 February 2017]

The Halcyon has certainly delivered, it's cleverly written and has brilliant actors - how ANYONE can say that the homosexuality in it is pointless is beyond me when we are talking about an era when it was still illegal! It was beautifully and sensitively written. The characters are brilliant and have great chemistry - here's hoping for a second series!

Excellent!

[cece_411 · 10/10 · 15 March 2017]

I really enjoyed the series: the beautiful sets and costumes, the outstanding music and the stellar cast!

The Halcyon gets better and better each episode with great characters and interesting story lines. If you like period dramas, you're in for a treat!

Let's hope there will be a season 2 :)

Downton Abbey meets Foyles's War meets Night Manager

[rhkennerly · 9/10 · 9 October 2017]

May contain spoilers: Germany attacked London from the air.

I too am puzzled why such high ratings & such negative reviews.

I thought of it as Downton Abbey meets Foyles's War meets Night Manager.

We've seen the entire series twice & love it. Essentially, an 8-hour movie, so it can spool out a bit more slowly & let the viewers revel in the lush videography, near period sepia overtones, & jazz music. Hair & costumes were first-rate.

Sure the story lines are a bit worn, but after 70 years of WWII dramas there isn't a lot of new ground to walk historically, so the characters have to carry the day. The cast are all of the first water, with solid performances. The Halcyon Hotel was as much a member of the the cast as the leads.

If you're a Downton fan, or if you're a Foyle's fan, then you will feel right at home. The show is less intense than Night Manager, but the extreme competence of Richard Garland (Stephen Macintosh) calls NM to mind.

Strong - jawed Yanks,chinless aristos,scarlet women,intrigue....

[ianlouisiana · 10/10 · 4 January 2017]

....welcome to the world of 1950's British movies. Those of us old enough to remember the when we made "programmers",60 minute pictures shot on a shoestring with token American second - raters and chesty English gals who sang in night clubs while foreign - looking types(Eric Pohlman or Marne Maitland usually)followed them with hooded eyes,will gaze fondly at "The Halcyon",a new series starting on ITV this week. Watch it and immediately you are wafted back to the red plush seats at "The Odeon" with your Kia - Ora and Senior Service comfortably to hand casually scouting out "The Talent"(omg can I still say that?) and waiting for "Rebel without a cause" to start. But back on planet Earth in 2017(I don't have to believe it if I don't want to)we are seeing 1940 as a time of certainties,uniting against Germany(sorry,Nazism), the ever - so - slight cracking of the social barriers of the thirties and a time when women were just beginning to find a voice. So "The Halcyon" potentially has a lot going for it,aided no end by energetic performances by all concerned who have the look of actors who believe they are on to a winner. The basic premise is familiar enough;- a family -run business adapting to changes of manners and mores during wartime. We have all been here many times before but seldom with so much musical and visual enjoyment . The music is a clever pastiche of 30's styles by Jamie Cullum and is played onstage by a sextet but often sounds like like the Duke Ellington band with Cat Anderson playing the trumpet an octave above everybody else. Butlers,boot boys,chambermaids,concierges and major - domos proliferate and the hotel manager is satisfyingly menacing,mysterious and melliflous at the same time. With nine more episodes to go I look forward to a winter of content.

Fantastico!! Must see

[mahonono · 10/10 · 23 February 2017]

I absolutely love everything about this series I really didn't know what to expect. I absolutely love Steven Mckintosh. The story is great , cast amazing, hotel/music outstanding. I am hoping that we will have another season soon. Every time I watch the scenes in the bar with music and dance and those beautiful dresses I want to join in.

Without spoiling anything the series sums up betrayal/ sexuality/racial/power hunger

If you love Downtown Abbey and Mr Selfridge with a twist you are definitely up for a treat :)

Thank you so much ITV , season 2 please :)

Massive fan!!!!!

A watchable mega soap,but poorly written for the most part

[coppinpr · 4/10 · 28 January 2017]

Bolstered up by great settings the series is easy to watch but not very demanding. What really annoys me is the obvious lack of research that has gone into the background of the story lines. Its as if the writer has based the plots on two premises, 1. the average watcher is too young to know the facts used are incorrect and 2. the facts don't matter as the whole thing is just a posh version of east enders anyway.

It was clear from the start that reality was out the window (windows that are not bomb shatter proofed I might add) when the mistress of Lord who owns the hotel sat in on a mega secret political/economic meeting and pretty much took over the meeting. Not in unenlightened 1940 she wouldn't have,she would have been lucky to have been seen in public let alone at any meeting other than the women's guild.

It kind of went down from there ,the young lord who inherits the hotel takes every other day off from his fighter squadron to spend the day in bed with his girlfriend at the hotel,well Im sure his mates can handle the German air force. Oh and by the way ,his squadron seems to be made up of pilots from all over the world, one from the Indian sub continent and one from Poland at least, not in a British RAF squadron in 1940 they wouldn't be. The staff officer prejudice at the time meant that even experienced Polish fighter pilots were kept in there own squadron at Northolt and not allowed to engage in fire fights until they took the law into their own hands and proved they could do it What happened to the careful research that used to go into this type of show,how can you relate to a series set in an important historical era when the background is fantasy. It reached the bottom rung last week when four times the hotel staff wished departing guests a safe flight home to the USA. Just how were they going to do that,there were NO passenger flights to the USA at that time!! Even American planes destined for use by the RAF were sent by ship in crates until about 1941.There was only one passenger service prior to 1946 and that was a sea plane from Southampton to New York and that was closed in 1939

Id like to sit back and let the series roll over me as I took a passing interest in it but now I find myself looking for the next glaring mistake, its a pity really as some of the above mistakes would have made good story lines if portrayed correctly

Check-in time

[vicstevinson · 7/10 · 3 January 2017]

The first episode of THE HALCYON feels as though it was created for an American audience -- it feels obvious, not nuanced. As far as origin episodes go, it's packed with characters and sets many balls in motion. A few actors establish with strength, but others seem to be modeling wardrobe. --- There bit of tension and a nice jolt in direction, but the production doesn't achieve the velocity suggested by the music. Although the project is beautifully dressed, it feels very familiar. What might be run-of-the-mill sibling rivalry still has a chance to become much more: sibling teamwork. --- Although THE HALCYON has been compared to DOWNTON ABBEY, the pecking order and their relationships are less precise. A missed opportunity with THE HALCYON was establishing it as an actual functioning hotel before igniting fuses.

Another Great English Series

[bshaef · 9/10 · 19 October 2017]

I liked this from the very beginning. The acting is great, the characters seem real and the story is interesting. An average English series beats anything on network TV. Thank God for the cable channels, Netflix, Amazon, and PBS. I think I watch one network show. The new ones always sound so good but most are complete duds about halfway through the first episode.

Somewhat lacking in substance

[daniele-iannarelli · 4/10 · 5 January 2017]

Very disappointing! What is it they say? "Fur coat and no knickers"...? I'm afraid that describes it to a tee. The ambiance, photography, 'costumes', glamour... all very nice but it lacks any quality substance in the scripting (and in some of the acting too, I'm afraid).

In the first 10-12 minutes, before any real attempt to establish the functioning of the hotel as authentic and the dynamics between the characters/players, I felt bombarded with incessant clichés... literally (and I mean "literally", literally) one after the other.

Although the music was good (and I am myself a jazz-vocalist and jazz fan - particularly of that era), it was hugely intrusive and, I'm afraid, fronted by a - let's be kind and say - less than adequate female jazz singer... whose jazz singing style was far removed from that of the 1940s period and more like a modern vocalist trying to sing a style out-with his/her area of comfort. In fact, in one song she did seem a little... off-key.

Now, I know that this was the first episode and it all needs time to settle in, but - in my opinion - it's a bad (and particularly boring) start.

I'd be surprised (should I indeed bother to watch any future episodes) if it does at all improve sufficiently enough to abandon its early coffin and a pre-emptive internment.

Stinker

[whatithinkis · 1/10 · 3 January 2017]

It ticks off all the boxes and the sets are lush (it's a shame to see them wasted on this turkey). Costumes are good. But the sound isn't quite right, muffled almost like the old daytime soaps, and the first explosion is puny, unconvincing and obviously fake. A joke, really.

The writing is obvious, one cliché tripping over the next. And at the same time confusing: what is a hotel employee doing overseeing a private meeting? What is a Socialite doing in said private meeting and expressing opinions. And using some really awful acting to do it.

Direction, pacing . . . awful. The music busy and annoying.

It all just misses. Sound . . . camera angles . . . just . . . not . . . quite . . .

It's easy to see where they wanted to go, but they seemed to lack the talent in many and various areas, to get them there.

Fantastic series that keeps getting better

[racheloj · 10/10 · 15 February 2017]

It appeared in episode one, to be a war time soap but it's growing up into a sophisticated viewing option. The Halcyon is getting better and better each week. It's a glamorous reminder of how far we have come. The story lines fit snugly together with a smart script and beautifully worked scenery. A real treat on a dark winter night. Roll on commissioning series 2.

Outstanding costumes. Awful writing. Terrible performances.

[maria-ricci-1983 · 5/10 · 20 February 2017]

I basically agree with most of the reviews which deplore of the poor performances, the transgression of the true facts, the singing style not adequate to the 40s, the unbelievable situations along the plot.

In my case, the two things that prevented me from staying with this show were Matt Ryan's performance and the predictable script. There is nothing more embarrassing or off-turning than thinking "Now this situation will go from here to there", and then, scene after scene, boringly confirm that every twist and turn of the script was so helplessly within the anticipated lines.

And Matt Ryan-- his performance feels so phony with all the clichéd facial expressions, American-rogue looks and body language, trying so hard to infuse the show with a climax of heroism. I don't think the actors are bad. I think they are poorly directed and so there is no chemistry or magic, or genuine connection between them.

It is a pity for I would have liked to see a fine show around a similar idea, but avoiding the common places and the deja-vus which exhaust The Halcyon out from the first two episodes.

Brilliant wardrobe though, particularly those of the ladies.

First three episodes were very very good - 4th one was kinda wishy washy

[michaeljtrubic · 6/10 · 24 January 2017]

Interesting characters, good premise but this latest episode seemed to be pulled off centre. Secondary and temporary/guest characters have started to distract me from main plot arc. There has only been 2 directors so far and there is a third untried director next week.

I'm starting to feel that it might become more of a soap than a historical drama. I would prefer more history to histrionics. I can sense something wrong with some of the cast. Can't put my finger on it at this time. Maybe a power struggle in the writers room.

I noticed that the shows creator, Charlotte Jones, had sole writing credit in all the other episodes and that she was second billing in this 4th episode, that could say a lot.

Crash and Burn

[toneybrooks2003 · 5/10 · 23 March 2019]

A couple of episodes into this series and I wondered why it was cancelled. I was hooked. Then, around the fifth episode, I'd had enough of the poor research, lazy writing and contrived melodrama and called it quits. Too bad such an amateurish approach was taken with such a promising storyline that deserved more.

Another flashy ITV Drama

[studioAT · 3/10 · 15 February 2017]

ITV love these big budget Monday night dramas, and much like 'Mr Selfridge' before it this programme is trying to be all style and substance one minute, and then cover big issues the next.

It's entertaining enough stuff though, pushing all the right buttons in terms of entertainment. There is some shoddy dialogue and soapy elements in there though, and I don't think the ratings have been as high as ITV would have liked.

It's got people tuning in though, and talking about it the next morning, so that surely can't be a bad thing. Will it return though, that's the question.

EXCELLENT!!!!

[pjusps-18262 · 10/10 · 4 August 2018]

I just ran across this again last night and realized, OMG is this going to have another season? Alas, from what I see here, the answer is no. Some of us love these period pieces but I guess not enough. Like "Dancing on the Edge" on PBS, or the show about the women working in a bomb-making facility during WWII. These are much more interesting than the violent and pointless stuff that is on now. Everyone knows we pay and ton for a zillion channels, and there is nothing to watch, except PBS. Thank God for PBS.

What the hell is this?

[lesuarez · 1/10 · 5 February 2017]

Just another one. A TV series with a very good plot but very poorly written by someone that seems to know very little about WWII era in Great Britain. Most situations are really corny, somewhat ridiculous and out of context, let alone the music that has very little to do with 40's. In my opinion this TV series is worst than Titanic. Fortunately Charlotte Jones was not the writer of Casablanca. Last but not least, as always happens nowadays, homosexuality is used as part of the plot. In my modest opinion unnecessary in this case and somewhat distasteful to say the least. Put some footage of Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, Downtown Abbey, The 39 Steps and other good movies in a blender. Add some pieces of The Three Stooges and stir for a minute. You'll get The Halcyon. As far as I'm concerned the very end of The Halcyon was Episode 5.

Excruciatingly bad

[Laight · 1/10 · 10 May 2021]

Possibly the worst imitation of Downton Abbey ever made. Bad writing, bad direction, and strangely bad acting from a country that supplies some of the best actors ever on TV. You always know when the guy who plays the American can't even remotely sound like an American that the show has got little going for it. Avoid at all costs.

This is exactly what us time period fans are looking for! Why cancelled?

[asheleygeli · 10/10 · 30 May 2018]

For those of us who LOVE time period shows this is exactly what we like to see.

Give these shows a chance to get off the ground before you cancel them!

Ordinary fare.

[guylyons · 6/10 · 27 February 2017]

The series is simply not busy enough, and the lack of charismatic characters, makes viewing rather boring. We gave up after 6 episodes, and the production smacked of being done on a limited budget. At least a snappy and creative script might have saved our day, but my wife and myself, kept asking why are watching this?

There are some good points..

[wwaigl · 8/10 · 1 February 2017]

Reading the other reviews I find they are a bit harsh, but not completely without merit.

The sets are gorgeous, as is the costuming. I like most of the female characters, they feel less forced and and more nuanced and the 3 female leads: Hermione Corfield, Olivia Williams and Kara Tointon are all to my male eye, easy to watch and credible in their performances.

I have seen some suggestions online comparing Hermoine Corfield to Scarlett Johansson, but Hermoine is much prettier and more attractive physically. I think she is also a better actress in respect of dramatic contexts.

I will also add that I have since seen Kara Tointon inteviewed, and she self-deprecatingly refers to herself as a shower singer, but this is not true, as evidenced by her recent role in the Sound of Music. She has a wonderful voice and fine tonal quality and range. She will be able to do as much theater as she desires in the future. She plays the "minx" role in this show, and she has the figure and the attitude to carry it off with aplumb, and her vocal abilities are the icing on the cake.

As the episodes have progressed, some of the male characters have improved -> Steven Mackintosh is particularly strong, but the complaint that clichés abound in the writing particularly in respect of the male characterizations is regretfully quite true. It makes for some real plodding moments as a result.

Unfortunately, in episode #5 the clichés only got worse as the inevitable gay plot lines to appeal to every fringe audience were introduced as well. It is out of place for the show and just not of any interest to me whatsoever - dull and boring. It was unnecessary and detracts from the show.

Likely that was the final straw and I shall drop my viewership of the show. Its to bad as The Halcyon had potential, but I am honestly not interested in such indoctrination, it was the final straw in a mixed bag of writing, and so I shall have to pass.

Beautiful, moving British period drama much like Downton Abbey

[robertemerald · 9/10 · 18 May 2019]

I've seen four episodes of this startlingly good drama and was hugely impressed by each episode. It really is a worthy successor to Downton Abbey. It has that upstairs/downstairs interaction that comes across as so authentically human. It also delivers that magic that was Downton, in that it employs stars that were at their peak professionally, without yet becoming household names. There is authentic action as well, spitfires and explosions, though that's only superficial to the drama of course. But such inclusion in the budget is incredibly welcome. The players all have gravitas, as they did in Downton or other good period pieces such as Boardwalk Empire. It's really well cast. The script is really good, and there are notable surprises in people's conversations, revealing that the film-makers have genuinely done their historical research. And the episodes I watched were both engaging and, in many places, deeply moving. One really wanted to see how things resolved (or not). The soundtrack is so beautiful that I hope it wins an award. This is superior British drama.