As someone who has seen all three parts and can actually review what everyone is trying very hard to talk about, I can tell you what I feel about the trilogy. Frankly, I was stunned by not only the grimness of the tale told but, yes, also the representation of the very real condition of the state of our society. The Yorkshire does translate into American all too well as the pinning themes of power, dominance and control take their toll, leading not only to the victimization of the young girls and women at the center of the story, but also all the men who get in the way trying to unmask the well-organized perpetrators of all this misery. Needless to say, the good guys do not do all too well.

The chief distinction of this particular approach to corruption and control in Yorkshire is the pure English thuggery and terror driving it. In the US you will usually get a prerequisite smile and a little nicety before you are shafted by someone and their company on their way to dominance and control.

So anyone still clinging to any myths of democracy existing in the broader sense in our world would feel safer not watching such bare-bones and intriguing stuff. Yes, the mirror to society metaphor is well-suited here.

I recommend watching all three films back to back if you can; there is, as we can only hope in our real life, a little hope left in the end.

I saw all three at the Telluride Film Festival and loved them. I really liked them too, so I'm not going to repeat what's above my comment, which states it very well.

However, just to provide a warning, I'll report some complaints that I heard from *other* people at the film festival.

The strong accents made it hard for some audience members to understand the dialog. Some people who seemed to think very highly of their film school skills complained that the camera work and shots weren't very skilled. So if you're snooty about that sort of thing, you might not like Red Riding.

I loved it though. Gritty is definitely the right word.

Very dark, but extremely well done. I was hoping I'd develop an ear for the thick Yorkshire accent some of the characters have, but after about 30 minutes into 1974, I discovered it was hopeless (for me anyway - and it's a common complaint from American tourists visiting that region of the UK).

I had to download subtitles and read about 40% of the dialogue ("Nowt," for instance, is Yorkshire-speak for the word nothing). Also, the verb to be in the past tense is always the word were. Doesn't sound like a big deal until the sentences are jumbled:

He were fer nowt, he were.

Wha....? But it's an excellent trilogy - moving and alarming. It's a zillion times better than anything an American network would produce about that kind of subject matter, but it sure puts a coffin lid on the notion that all of merry, old England is a quaint little country with gentle folk.

And the storyline is not linear, so you have to stay on your toes. There usually isn't even a hint that you are watching a flashback until well into the scene.