not the abduction, nor the subsequent arrests, but the tireless hunt for Shannon and the seemingly boundless altruism of Julie Bushby. The BBC drama paints a bleak and evocative picture of the small Dewsbury estate [...]. It perfectly captures the collective feeling of anxiety when a crime like that shakes a small community." Harrison found that, "Gemma Whelan is very convincing in her portrayal of Karen as childlike, as someone who is way out of her depth, deluded and who begins to actually revel in the fame of having a missing child. [...] Karen's character is very purposefully presented as stupid, rather than evil. Smith's performance, though, is the tour de force." Writing in The Spectator, James Walton began by noting the difficulties in finding a positive outlook on the drama's underlying events, adding, "The Moorside [...] is having a go nonetheless. Although touching at times, the result ultimately proves a rather awkward watch." He recalled that "Karen made a tearful televised appeal for the return of 'my beautiful princess daughter', but ended up serving four years in jail for being an accomplice in Shannon’s kidnapping. With her chaotic taxpayer-funded life, and her seven children by five fathers, Karen was duly turned into a sort of anti-poster girl for the tabloids. The Moorside [housing estate] itself became a symbol, including for David Cameron, of 'our broken society'". Walton found that the programme "sets out, very determinedly indeed, to stand up for the place", but decided that, "The obvious trouble, though, is that Julie’s version of events was completely wrong — and therefore the programme is essentially a portrait of group delusion. Yet, far from seeing itself that way, The Moorside seems not only to share the delusion, but to want us to do so as well." Reviewing Episode 2 for The Daily Telegraph, Gabriel Tate wrote, "Sheridan Smith has taken the plaudits, and her performance as Bushby in the second episode was if anything even more fiercely convincing than last week, as the extent of Karen Matthews’s deceptions and inadequacies dawned. But Sian Brooke and Gemma Whelan were, in their different ways, her equals". He concluded, "[...] it was the intimate exchanges that really hit home, most notably when Bushby and Brown revealed their histories of sexual abuse to each other, almost by accident. Karen Matthews was a wretch, certainly, but no less a victim. It was hard not to