And so it’s come to its conclusion, the ending that everyone would have wanted and yes, it was pretty much a corny feel-good cliché. And the very final minutes where there were massive developments (WARNING: SPOILERS) splitting up/abdication/new successor/coming back together – yes they were hurried, rushed even, in very sharp contrast to the series as a whole and this final series in particular. But it pretty much worked.
By the end of the third episode, I particularly like the steady and thoughtful pacing which allows for the characters to think so that it is not all action/event/action/event. And this is confirmed after Episode 5 where the lack of action is really effective; if you had to summarise what happens in each episode then nit would be very brief – but it is really effective and involving - surprisingly.
The performances by the young cast were very fine, often subtle as they were given time to show emotional responses and development and were not rapidly pushed around by event-centred writing. The whole series was a good example of a thoughtful approach to teen love dramas – and helped, as many have said, by the fact that the actors actually looked their ages and did not have perfect skin and six-pack abs
The only significant flaw was the music; the music was awful. Greatly over-used, musically very dull and uninteresting and invariably is crudely and unnecessarily underling what is being developed on the screen. It is also characterised by what I call the 'drippy' style - one voice/little accompaniment and a very dully meandering quality to the melodic line; no drive whatsoever.Yuk!