Christopher Stevens, TV critic for the Daily Mail, described ITV’s new drama Coldwater as "brave" for confronting the theme of male cowardice but said the story struggles to convince viewers.
Stevens said the series opens with a provocative scene in which a father, John, played by Andrew Lincoln, abandons an intervention during a playground assault and flees with his family. That moment, Stevens wrote, sets the tone: John is portrayed as a man who sacrifices others to save himself, a depiction the critic called morally shocking but not persuasive in its dramatic logic.
Stevens noted that writer David Ireland has said the central character is largely autobiographical, but argued the script does not make John’s continued failures believable once children and other people’s safety are at stake. The critic wrote that fatherhood typically triggers protective instincts and that the portrayal of a man repeatedly choosing flight over fight rang false.
The series relocates John and his family to Scotland after the playground incident, where they unwittingly move next door to a serial killer who is married to the local vicar. Ewen Bremner plays the killer, Tommy; Indira Varma is John’s wife, Fiona; and Eve Myles appears as the vicar. Stevens credited Varma and Myles with efforts to lend depth to their characters, but said they are largely defined by their relationships to the men in their lives.
Stevens also singled out elements of characterization and dialogue that he found undercut the drama. He pointed to scenes in which John has panic attacks whenever Fiona tries to initiate sex, and a subplot in which Fiona, the family breadwinner, attempts to write a memoir that John mocks. The critic wrote that those details did not add up to a credible portrait of a husband and father.
By the end of the first episode, the drama shifts into what Stevens called "horror movie mode," with scenes such as Tommy setting a caravan on fire to conceal a body. He added that the series also veers into darkly comic territory at times, citing a scene in which John tells a therapist he has been fantasising about a pop star called "Fergie," leaving the therapist unsure whether he means Sir Alex Ferguson or the Duchess of York.
Stevens concluded that while Coldwater should be commended for addressing a rarely dramatized form of moral failure, the storytelling choices and the central character’s implausible reactions weaken the series’ impact. The review appeared in the Daily Mail on Sept. 16, 2025.