I really look forward to your reaction to the next 3 eps!! 
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Well, I knew they were all very strong actors, even if that didn’t always come through in every previous episode. I’m glad episode 6 gave the main cast a real chance to show off their skills.
In a little bit more spoiler-free detail:
P.S. Just for reference, since I asked earlier in the thread about the students’ ages: it’s mentioned in this episode—Tanya is 14, and the others are 17.
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Genuinely the highlight of the series for me, and that cliffhanger is incredible!
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Because episode 6 was so good, I also watched episode 7 today. It didn’t hit me quite as strongly as episode 6, but it was in a very similar ballpark and earned the same rating: 4.5/5 stars.
For my spoiler-free review, read:
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I agree about the cliffhanger! That’s amazing 
(Can’t stand the rest of that episode 
)
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Finished watching Class. I’ll do a write-up about the whole season in the next few days.
My spoiler-free thoughts about the brilliant finale:
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Before I start reading more of the other posts in this thread, here’s my fresh and (for now) uninfluenced take on Class Season 1. As always, this is just how I currently feel—no claim to having the only truth. 
It’s just so uneven. And not so much from episode to episode, but within the episodes themselves—they’re so often torn between brilliant and underwhelming moments. And it’s not just fleeting: both aspects are present in big enough chunks that my perception of these episodes was really split. Looking over the notes I made for my reviews, four out of the eight episodes were like that, with the midseason two-parter being the worst offender, so to speak.
Still, the highs were in every case so brilliant that none of the episodes got less than three stars from me. But it’s definitely a different quality than episodes that are just “mid.” If I had to choose between the two, I’m not sure what I’d pick—probably that third option, where all episodes just have brilliant parts.
A main contributor to my feelings about the unevenness is that I had such a hard time connecting with April. I think, from a story structure point of view, she’s one of the two leads of the overall story—Charlie being the other. The overarching villain of the season is the Shadow Kin, even as some episodes explore the more general theme of dangers through rifts in time and space. Charlie and April are the connection to them: Charlie through his backstory, April through what happens in the first episode. April is the human point of view, Charlie the alien one. All the other characters—brilliant as they may be, and I wouldn’t want to lose any of them—are add-ons to this core aspect.
So April, from my point of view, is immensely important for the overarching plot to work well. The way Sophie Hopkins portrayed her character just didn’t work for me for a long time (more or less the entire first half of the season, with episode 4 being the exception, but episode 5 adding to this impression again). I believe I see what they were aiming for. Heck, this mild-mannered character with bottled-up anger, fed up with only being seen as the nice one, could have been an ideal identification character for my younger self. For some reason or another (was it Hopkins’s acting choices? The direction? The script? My own mental models? A combination of all of them? I don’t know), how Sophie Hopkins expressed this just didn’t click for me way too often and contributed to the low points of too many episodes. Every time she went into what I’d call Big-Doe-Eye-Mode, she lost me. Seeing that I do think she was really good in all the scenes where she showed other aspects of her character, that’s really unfortunate (for me—for others her whole character might have worked perfectly).
Overall, I was impressed by the acting from all the main cast (including Hopkins in the scenes that did work for me). They all got their chances to shine, and when given the opportunity, they took it. There’s some real impressive talent here.
Sorting by “left the most impression in my recollection,” I have to name Katherine Kelly as Miss Quill first. I think there was actually no weak performance from her at all. Most of the time she was just brilliant. And I just like the character’s sharp tongue and wit.
Next up, Greg Austin as Charlie. It took me a little while to warm to his character, which by no means should be interpreted as bad acting on Austin’s side. His portrayal of a (often) seemingly emotionally neutral (<- hard to find the right words, emotionless would be wrong) alien just needed a while to sink in. There’s quite a bit of subtle complexity there, and overall it’s just a consistently good to brilliant performance by Austin.
Thinking about it, next I’d rank Vivian Oparah as Tanya. Oparah got an opportunity to shine early on and had many good scenes overall. But there were also times when what I saw of her on screen was just meh. Maybe because of the script sidelining her character at times? I don’t know.
Next up, Jordan Renzo as Matteusz Andrzejewski. Excellent work, but I often got the feeling he was also at the sidelines.
The most uneven, besides April, I found Ram, portrayed by Fady Elsayed. The script afforded him the chance to show off his immense talent as an actor in episode 2 already, where he was the lead and had to fight with the trauma introduced in episode 1. My first instinct is to say his character got it worst, but then—Quill’s people were completely eradicated by the Rhodians and she was enslaved to the Rhodian prince. Charlie lost all his people and was the only one to escape. Guess it makes no sense to compare trauma. Ram’s was just the one very explicitly shown on screen, and Fady Elsayed acted the hell out of it. At the same time, he got whole episodes where I thought his character was one of the weakest in the episode. His character was also the only one where I felt they really left potential lying on the table—in episode 5 they, very clumsily in my opinion but nonetheless, put in some lines about his cultural background with some potential for going the honorable and wise warrior route. Sadly, they didn’t really do anything with it. Ram just remained the traumatized, angry, at times slightly vulnerable type.
Shout-out to Pooky Quesnel as Dorothea Ames, Chiké Okonkwo as Ballon, and Jami Reid-Quarrell as the Inspector—excellent work.
I won’t go through all the rest of the cast in detail. The recurring cast was at times good, at times not. In the latter case, I often felt like the script and/or direction just let them down (thinking especially of episodes 4 and 5).
The overall story of the season was very well crafted, even as some things for me did not work.
We had episode 1 giving a solid foundation; episodes 2 and 3 establishing the characters of Ram and Tanya; episodes 4 and 5 going back to the main threat and deepening the character of April (<- did not fully work for me, but talking about the structure); episodes 6 and 7 challenging the status quo, giving the characters even more depth and thereby laying the foundation for emotional involvement on the viewer’s side for the great finale; and the finale itself, which skillfully weaves together all the main story threads and feels well deserved due to the strong setup.
Very well made, and my frustration with my less than enthusiastic reaction to the implementation of episodes 4 and 5 stems, I think, in good part from my view that all was there for a thoroughly brilliant mini-series.
Then again, that the last three episodes really worked for me means I will always hold the season as a whole in high regard. Well-made endings tend to heighten my overall impression of stories.
To compare the season to some shows with similar vibes, which in parts may well have inspired the creatives behind Class: it’s way better than Buffy Season 1, on par (if not better) than Buffy Season 2, and on par with Torchwood Season 1. Not quite as good as The Sarah Jane Adventures, which—even in Season 1, where I could see them both in different ways being on par quality-wise—had much stronger consistency in its quality.
Seeing as the show was canceled after only one season, I assume it just wasn’t the right time. It’s very possible it would have been a hit had it aired a few years earlier. Of course, that would have had knock-on effects for other shows. So, it is as it is. I’m just happy we got it at all. 
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Its a real shame honestly! The marketing for the show was really poorly handled, and lacking on all fronts to put it mildly. Not to mention, BBC 3, the channel Class aired on, had recently became online only and no longer aired on “normal” television. A decision which has since been reversed several years later! Though, it did air on BBC one but it was in an awful timeslot, I think during the week around midnight ish or something like that.
I’d highly recommend trying out the audios for Class, as they expand upon certain relationships to help bridge the gaps between the TV episodes, and there are two stories which go beyond the finale, sort of.
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Nightvisiting: pretty good, but didn’t totally capture me. The characters are all pretty good though
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Co-owner of a lonely heart: this episode is weird, the shadowkin are just really odd as villains and I wouldn’t say it was good on a technical level. But I had fun. I like April
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Can’t remember much about the plot, but this title ia one of my favourites! And especially its Chinese translation 共拥孤心, even better than the original imo
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Brave-ish Heart: let’s all be very glad that I am watching this now and not at fifteen years old. Because she would have gone certifiably insane. we need to be giving more teenage girls swords
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Detained: yeah, this is good. really enjoyed this episode. it is very much a show for teenagers though. I can tell it would have really gotten me then. currently it’s less so, but I am very much enjoying watching it
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Stuck on episode two
It’s taking me so long to watch Class.
I don’t really like any of the characters, and I’m still not sure what the show really is
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The problem is: I’m much more interested in Quill than the teenagers 
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Don’t worry. It’s a normal reaction to this show
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Literally yeah I watched it when it came out when I was 17 and she’s always been my fave. Such a good character!
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It’s not like I didn’t like the others but besides from monsters and stuff they are a bit boring Except Tanya , she is my favourite from the friend group. But overall , Quill feels so much more interesting
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The Metaphysical Engine, or, What Quill Did: I see why this is the highest rated episode on here. Love getting a real insight into Quill, and the Headmistress is certainly intriguing
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The Quill centric episodes are the best by far, I love this one so much. I love how the cliffhanger is the same as last week but with an extra added bonus so its not a full on repeat!
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