Pure / Pure O descriptions in the media.

[Ashley]

A lot of press coverage for Pure in the last week, and many of them attempted to describe Pure O and the vast majority (in fact all of them) got it wrong.  Our responses to those - https://www.ocduk.org/pure-o-the-facts/

Thank you again to Gemma for her help compiling this.

[Gemma7]

I watched the first episode of Pure last night. For me it was only ok, i wasn't that keen on it just for drama's sake, by that I mean i wouldn't watch it if it wasn't about OCD.

OCD hasn't been mentioned at all so far which is fine because Marnie doesn't know what is wrong with her. But I didn't think it was depressing enough to be OCD but it's a comedy drama so that's not surprising. Also, it's hard to depict intrusive thoughts on TV so it was very image based, more words and internal dialogue would have made it seem more like OCD.

The whole series is on All 4 so think I'm going to watch all six rather than wait for it to be on TV. Want to see how they handle the diagnosis etc. Really want them to do it well, despite me hating the name lol

[taurean]

Thank you both for putting together an excellent informative feature. 

[Binxy]

Excellent work. Thanks!

[Torsa]

On 31/01/2019 at 14:02, Gemma7 said:

I watched the first episode of Pure last night. For me it was only ok, i wasn't that keen on it just for drama's sake, by that I mean i wouldn't watch it if it wasn't about OCD.

OCD hasn't been mentioned at all so far which is fine because Marnie doesn't know what is wrong with her. But I didn't think it was depressing enough to be OCD but it's a comedy drama so that's not surprising. Also, it's hard to depict intrusive thoughts on TV so it was very image based, more words and internal dialogue would have made it seem more like OCD.

The whole series is on All 4 so think I'm going to watch all six rather than wait for it to be on TV. Want to see how they handle the diagnosis etc. Really want them to do it well, despite me hating the name lol

Yeah, I've watched the first three episodes on All4, so am halfway through now.

I've got mostly positive feelings towards it so far. Like you, it's probably not something I'd watch if I didn't have OCD (it doesn't really tickle my funny bone... not really my kind of humour), but I think it'll really help to raise awareness of this form of OCD.

I found some bits pretty cringe-y when she get's diagnosed with OCD - you'll probably see which bits I mean when you get there! But I also appreciate that they have to make it work as a drama and make things more dramatic than they often are!

My main concern was that it would ramp up the 'comedy' aspect of the intrusive thoughts (we all know there's not much comedy in OCD) at the expense of getting across the real pain of the disorder, but I'm glad they seem to be showing the hardship of it. I think they could go deeper with showing her struggle, but will reserve judgement until I've watched the whole series...

They've ultimately set out to do something which is really, really difficult - visualising someone's intrusive thoughts. The sexual theme probably makes the most sense, as this is something they can be creative with and can actually show on TV. A lot of the time, it does seems like she's having hallucinations rather than 'thoughts', but I can't really think of another way they could have done it. It got me thinking about how something like this would work as a radio play, making the intrusive thoughts auditory instead of having to show them visually.

For me, Rose's book was more effective, but I'm glad they've made this series, and it's never a bad thing that more people will hear about OCD and the concept of intrusive thoughts.

[Gemma7]

Watched the whole series, I'm not sure. What do other people think?

I found myself having more sympathy for Charlie and Shereen then I did for Marnie. Her situation just isn't as depressing as it really would be and I felt like the end didn't go far enough, she wasn't sad enough, she was too easy to talk to, it just wasn't realistic enough for me. 

I'm not sure what I think of there being 'types' of OCD. There are different themes but the fundamentals are common for all, excruciating doubt, extreme distress/discomfort. You would think people who had contamination OCD never had thoughts, the way it is described as completely different from it. But I'm just blabbering now

[Ashley]

On 04/03/2019 at 14:38, Gemma7 said:

I found myself having more sympathy for Charlie and Shereen then I did for Marnie. Her situation just isn't as depressing as it really would be and I felt like the end didn't go far enough, she wasn't sad enough, she was too easy to talk to, it just wasn't realistic enough for me. 

Is that the end, or will there be another series?  

Do you still feel the series was about OCD Gemma, or that OCD was used to promote an series for the sake of using OCD?

[Gemma7]

3 hours ago, Ashley said:

Is that the end, or will there be another series?

It’s set up for another series and as far as I know it was written as such. 

 

3 hours ago, Ashley said:

Do you still feel the series was about OCD Gemma, or that OCD was used to promote an series for the sake of using OCD?

Neither to be honest. OCD was integral to the story but it wasn't about OCD it was about Marnie (Rose). Not sure you can argue it used OCD either, most people wouldn't make the association between pure and OCD, don't you think?