After the Flood

“After the Flood is about how big global changes play out in microcosmic terms. This message would be depressing enough to cause viewers to desert the show in droves, were it not folded into a good story playing out among even better characters, and made extra palatable by the rare and delightful sense that you are unexpectedly being served something much, much better than it needs to be.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The opening sequence, shot on the River Tees in Co Durham, was grimly striking, as were the scenes in which PC Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle) waded through deluged terraced streets in filthy water wearing plastic trousers. What is slightly less impressive is the plot. But it deserves credit for being a drama that for once doesn’t centre on a raped/mutilated/murdered young woman. It is different, and by no means a damp squib.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Writer Mick Ford has set up a decent mystery here and fleshed out the drama by supplying Marshall with a busy personal life. But, having watched the whole boxset, I can tell you it sags in the middle thanks to an annoying Frenchwoman and a subplot about a housing development. Philip Glenister is in it, but not enough.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“While the premise was strong, the drama itself didn’t quite live up to its potential. It is not fair to compare all Yorkshire-set police dramas with Happy Valley but with Rundle in fluorescent gear, it was impossible not to think back to her role in that superior series which so brilliantly balanced its tonal shifts and felt real even in its moments of high drama. By contrast, After the Flood felt resolutely like a TV drama at all times.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“The potential for a natural disaster to dredge cold cases is a top premise, but one that could’ve been executed, perhaps, without a reversion to thin world-building, convoluted plotting, and didactic sermonising. What remains is a middle-order cop drama which, unlike the remaining denizens of our drowned world, is really neither fish nor fowl.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent