The Guest review: Gabrielle Creevy and Eve Myles are electric, but the payoff falls flat

The reason these are so difficult is because of expectation management. If you set up certain rules about the world in which you're operating (in this case, a very down-to-earth, grounded world), you have to follow them.

At the same time, you have to provide enough shocking, confounding and jaw-dropping twists to keep viewers hooked, all while knowing that any mysteries set up are going to have to be paid off by the time the credits roll on the finale.

The Guest, a new four-part series on BBC One and iPlayer, is excellent at the first part. The first three episodes are brilliantly crafted, in that they are filled with well-drawn characters, compelling themes and tantalising cliffhangers.

It's in the resolution that the series falls down. While we won't be going into spoilers here, it's unfortunate that the answers provided fail to live up to the questions that preceded them.

The Guest stars Gabrielle Creevy as Ria, a young working-class woman whose cleaning job is suddenly taken away from her by an unreasonable client.

Not only was she using her salary to support herself, she was also funding the lifestyle of her boyfriend Lee, an unemployed slacker who shows no signs of ambition or understanding of Ria's growing feelings of resentment towards him.

Then, one day, she is spotted in a supermarket by Fran, an enigmatic, intoxicatingly confidant businesswoman who offers Ria a new cleaning job on a dramatically increased salary.

It soon becomes clear that Fran isn't just offering Ria work. She's offering to guide her, teach her how to become successful in the way she did; stop playing by the rules and start looking out for number one.

As the mysteries surrounding Fran escalate, so too does the drama. Shocking events occur, which mean the two women's lives become ever more intertwined, but there's always a question of how much they do – and how much they should – trust one another, and what their real intentions are.

The opening episodes are terrific predominantly because of the characters. The mysteries may be what hook viewers in, and they are plentiful, but the driving force behind the series is the complexity of the two women at the centre of it.

Ria is someone who doesn't really know how to want for more in life, or what the opportunities could be for her. She has never been shown anything other than closed doors, and never been told she could amount to anything, until Fran comes along.

Creevy makes for an endlessly empathetic screen presence. Because of that, Ria is someone we really root for. She also gives her an edge. Ria is smart and, as she begins to get a sense of Fran's mindset, she starts to think in a more calculated manner, meaning we're never quite sure where she will go next. It's gripping to watch.

Meanwhile, The Guest's not-so-secret weapon is Myles as Fran. Fran is an endlessly complex figure and it's easy to see why Ria would be captivated by her, given her forceful confidence. However, she is also terrifying at times, with the ability to switch from sweetness and light to sharpness and insolence at any moment.

Myles is clearly relishing the role, which gives her the opportunity to play so many different shades of a character, even within one scene. She also plays off Creevy incredibly well, with the two actors making for an endlessly exciting on-screen duo.

Plaudits also have to be given to the supporting cast, including TV drama mainstays like Emun Elliott and Clive Russell, both of whom are terrific, and also less well-known faces such as Bethan Mary-James.

Sion Daniel Young is particularly strong as Ria's boyfriend Lee, a character who could be so easy to get wrong. The series keeps viewers on a knife-edge as to how much sympathy they should have for him.

On one level, he is useless, hugely frustrating and emotionally manipulative. On another, he is a predominantly well-meaning figure who has been dealt a rough hand and doesn't have the mental resilience to deal with it in the way Ria does.

It's impressive that Young keeps those two sides of the character in balance, never swinging too far into being someone whose actions we either condone or completely condemn.

Top marks should also be given to director Ashley Way for the style and the look of the show. Travelling between Ria's council estate to Fran's opulent country house, the series has a visual language which is not only sumptuous, but also helps to expand upon The Guest's themes.

And yet, it's not doing anything particularly new thematically. The Guest fits into a specific type of story, with writer Matthew Barry having told Radio Times that he was influenced by '90s thrillers from a "working-class perspective", such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The Talented Mr Ripley.

The ground its treading may not, therefore, be that innovative, but the series does still feel distinct and authored. Barry succeeds in the way that all the best thriller writers do, in wrapping a subject or topic about which he feels personally invested in genre thrills and tropes.

It would be impossible to imagine anyone watching even just the first episode of The Guest without understanding what Barry is attempting to interrogate through Ria and Fran's interactions. It's not exactly subtle, but hey, neither is wealth disparity in the UK.

Then we come to the other part, those genre thrills. Unfortunately, when a show sets up as many mystery elements as The Guest does, it can only ever really be as strong as its reveals – and this is where it all comes apart.

The finale gives viewers plenty of answers, rushing through explanations and exposition in its back half to give some sense of resolution.

It's not that the answers given are abominable, although there are some that strain credulity somewhat, and will leave you scratching your head as to how all of it actually does fit together. It's that they often feel like the most obvious and perhaps least interesting routes the show could have taken.

Sure, there are some emotionally satisfying turns which give the leads some meaty scenes to work through, and they naturally carry them with aplomb. But by the time it wraps up, viewers including myself are likely to find themselves feeling slightly underwhelmed, given the fantastic build-up.

This is not to say that The Guest isn't worth a watch. It is, even if only for Creevy and Myles's terrific performances.

It just feels like it bit off a few more mysteries than it could perhaps chew.

However, one thing that is certainly in its favour is that at least there is a resolution, and there's no sequel-baiting for further revelations down the line – the cardinal sin of TV thrillers.

Given this, viewers will likely enjoy The Guest as a fleeting sojourn to pop in on, but perhaps not a destination they'll want to return to time and time again.

The Guest premieres on BBC One and iPlayer at 9pm on Monday 1st September.

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