<P> For Chris Bennion, writing in The Independent, the events of "The 12 Days of Christine" are a life review; the viewer shares Christine's visions of her life as she lies dying . However, like Christine, the viewer does not realise this until the end . For Bennion, Christine does not merely relive key moments of her life, but attempts to "snatch at lost moments" as she longs "for second chances". Julie McDowall, who reviewed the episode for The Herald, also considers the viewer "totally immersed in one character's confused and flawed point of view". She argued that "there was no thunderclap moment when the story's twist is spectacularly revealed . There was just the slow and terrible realisation which we shared with Christine . We were with her, thinking' Oh god no, not that . Don't let it be that!"' Ultimately, claims McDowall, the oddities and confusion in the episode's plot are revealed to be the product of Christine's "brain slowly fading, her memories blinking out, light by light, into darkness". Phoebe - Jane Boyd, whose review of the episode was published on entertainment website Den of Geek, likewise saw the episode as Christine's life flashing before her eyes, with a variety of elements from the scene of the crash--police cars, car sounds, the song on the radio--indicative of "her consciousness...becoming muddled as parts of the car accident crash through into her memories". </P> <P> Andrew Billen argued that the episode used the link between the "breaches of realism" in ghost stories and the "transgressions" of comedy in order "to make a serious statement about the supernatural". For him, the episode was a story about "human memory's spasmodic grasp" and Christine's "friable mental condition". The fact that Christine has forgotten about the death of her first boyfriend--that Christine has a "memory like a sieve"--is, for Billen, "inexplicable". The haunting element of the story, Billen suggests, is indicative of mental illness; specifically, Christine's early - onset Alzheimer's disease . That Christine is afflicted with the condition means that her life has become a "nightmare version" of blind man's buff . The motif of blindness--Christine's mental blindness juxtaposed with physical blindness--again emerges with the recurrence of "Con te partirò", performed by Andrea Bocelli, who is blind . Billen conceded that his interpretation may be incorrect, and that the episode may have been a single "dying dream". McDowall noted that, with Christine's growing unhappiness and increasingly dishevelled appearance as the episode progresses, it is easy to see the story as about a mental collapse . </P> <P> The episode can also be seen as a story of revenge; it can be imagined that Christine has repressed the memory of her first boyfriend, and that he "has come back into her life seeking revenge". On this interpretation, the Stranger is the boyfriend, and causes the crash by stepping out in front of Christine's car . McDowall suggests that the oddness early in the episode suggests that the story may be about "an obsessive ex (or) a stalker". There is also indication that the episode is a ghost story . While Boyd sees this as misdirection on the part of the writers, for Benji Wilson, writing in the Daily Telegraph, the story is about ghosts, "but not in the normal way--by the close you realised everyone's life is a ghost story, it's just that your memories are the ghosts ." </P> <P> "The 12 Days of Christine" was extremely well received by television critics . It was awarded five out of five stars by Billen (The Times) and Wilson (Daily Telegraph), who, respectively, called it a "masterpiece" and "a quiet elegy, terse and polished, in many ways perfect". Comedy critic Bruce Dessau said he could not "speak highly enough of this episode", while McDowall (The Herald and The National) said it was the "best thing (she had) seen all year", and "surely the best thing the ingenious Shearsmith and Pemberton have done". Bennion (The Independent) finished his review of the episode by saying that Inside No. 9 was "one of the best pieces of British television in years", and, in a review in i, the episode was described as "unmissably good". After the conclusion of the second series, Victoria Segal and Julia Raeside, writing in The Sunday Times, described "The 12 Days of Christine" as "emotionally affecting and brilliantly crafted", highlighting it as the strongest episode in the series . </P>

Inside no 9 the 12 days of christine review