Channel 4 viewers threaten to stop watching ‘harrowing’ series-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Channel 4 viewers have labelled a new series ‘harrowing’ (Picture: Channel 4)

A new Channel 4 series has left viewers questioning whether to continue watching the story of a ‘vile’ character play out.

This week the four-part series The Gathering premiered, with the show starting with a violent attack on a teenage girl during a rave on a tidal islet.

Set in Merseyside, the drama focuses on a group of teens from disparate backgrounds, each of whom could have committed the crime, along with their parents – who give equal cause for suspicion.

However, after tuning in to the first two episodes, some have said what they watched was ‘harrowing’.

Sherlock star Vinette Robinson, 43, plays Natalie, a woman who is dubbed the ‘mother from hell’, with her daughter, Jessica, played by Sadie Soverall, a talented teen gymnast whose friend Kelly (Eva Morgan) is the one attacked.

Desperate to please her mother and measure up to her strict and overbearing standards, Jessica struggles against Natalie’s demands.

The Gathering stars Sadie Soverall as Jessica and Eva Morgan as Kelly (Picture: Channel 4)

Many viewers said the toxic mother-daughter relationship made the show difficult to watch.

‘Jessica’s mother is controlling manipulative witch,’ user demelcy posted on X.

‘It’s pretty dire so far. I doubt that I’ll bother watching the next episode,’ Carole shared.

She also later wrote: ‘Vile woman. I think that it’s definitely abuse. Pushy parents are a nightmare.

Others called the character ‘toxic’ and ‘brutal’.

Meanwhile some said they weren’t enjoying the show at all.

‘Ok I won’t get the last 45 minutes back, but I don’t need to waste any more of my life. I’m out,’ one posted.

One of the producers said the show was ‘an exploration of toxic teenagers – and their even more toxic parents’ (Picture: Channel 4)

From the producers of Line Of Duty, Save Me and Vigil, the series was written by novelist Helen Walsh, who was behind Brass and Once Upon A Time In England.

She previously said the idea for the show came from a ‘dark morality tale’.

‘I wanted to write a twisty, state-of-the-nation take on Philip Larkin’s notorious ‘they f*** you up’ observation about parents and kids,’ she said.

‘In an era where the micro-managing of children’s lives has become the new normal, The Gathering throws today’s surveillance parenting into sharp focus and asks who is really to blame when our kids f*** up.’

The Gathering is streaming on Channel 4.

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