Coldwater

“The petty grievances of marriage are nicely interwoven with its vital practicalities in a way that helps keep the storyline engaging, when it could easily have devolved into complete nonsense. It’s quality hokum.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“There is a daring intelligence about the writing, as well as a scabrous wit, that make this uncomfortable drama oddly compelling. In later episodes the sheer craziness occasionally threatens to overwhelm the dramatic structure. But the taut way in which writer David Ireland mixes believable domesticity with moments of almost grand guignol horror, alongside the excellent ensemble performances, mean the reins are held tightly enough to make this bold and ballsy show just about work.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“During his many years on The Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln spent a fair amount of time fleeing shambling corpses. So he will have felt perfectly at home starring in ITV’s Coldwater – a braindead thriller about a man who is drawn into a deadly conspiracy with his creepy neighbour that lacks a pulse but aimlessly lurches ever forward.”
Ed Power, The i

“It isn’t a drama filled with twists. It’s about the atmosphere. The insularity of a small community is always a chilling feature of this type of horror – the sense of having nowhere to turn because the person you want to report to the police is best pals with the local bobby. The show is let down at the very end by a melodramatic finale, although a thriller like this paints itself into a corner; when you start off so high on a scale of over-the-top implausibility, you can’t wrap it up in a considered way.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Coldwater opens with the playground attack, presumably out of a desire to shock audiences into committing to the show. But it also means we can never fully understand the changes the event precipitates. Despite some interest in examining the issue of violence against women through the prism of the psychological thriller, Coldwater ends up rushed and schlocky, like so much that is carelessly put out on British TV.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent