Viewers of the new ITV thriller Coldwater have branded the series “dull” and questioned whether they can endure further instalments.
The series marks the first British show starring Walking Dead actor Andrew Lincoln for the first time since 2010, when he starred in the Sky series Strike Back opposite Richard Armitage.
The ITV thriller follows Lincoln’s character John as he moves his family to Scotland after a violent altercation in a London playground.
John befriends his new next-door neighbour in the Scottish rural village, only to quickly realise he’s harbouring horrifying secrets when an unsettling series of events unfold.
“I’m not sure I can watch another episode,” one X/Twitter user wrote following the shows premiere.
“All these great actors and this is so dull,” another added.
“Andrew Lincoln's character is totally inconsistent from one second to the next. Fifty minutes in and there's no hint of a story. What even is Coldwater?” a third person asked.
Another person commented on how it was bizarre that Lincoln’s character had decided to go for a run in the middle of the night despite there being an “air of menace” in the local area.
In The Independent’s two-star review of Coldwater, Nick Hilton wrote: “This isn’t the first time, recently, that ITV has squandered a good cast and a primetime slot on a story that doesn’t live up to its pitch.”
He added the series, written by David Ireland (The Lovers, Ulster American) failed to “create compelling, plausible characters” the audience could truly invest in.
“Why should we care about John’s PTSD? Why should we invest in his marital issues? Why should we be concerned about him falling in with a bad crowd, if we don’t, first, feel a stake in him as a genuine human?” he asked of Lincoln’s character.
Hilton concluded: “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.”
Coldwater continues on ITV1 and ITVX on Monday 15 September.
