Reviews

I like it, the acting is really good, the visuals are awesome, the paceing is good and the overall story is great, so why does it fall short for me? Because it is an increadibly shallow adaptation of Clavell's book.

Clavell's book is about a stranger in a strange land, meaning understanding cultural differences, and the major themes are about honor, duty, sacrifice, and power. And that is the problem as I see it because besides the acting and the visuals - which are great - the story actually lacks these elements or gloss over them as if they are not important. But they are! It's what makes the book (and the 80's version great). Here's a couple of examples: We don't really get to know why Blackthorne (Anjin) is important, or the role of christianity in Japan, or pretty much any other social aspect of Japanese culture. There is sub-plot about a petulant and reckless son, which I don't remember from the book, and I have no idea what the point of him is, except for the writers to add to the story themselves. Similarly, Mariko from the book and the 80's version is probably my favorite character after Blackthorne, and I don't really recognize her in this version; by making her tougher, they also make her more distant and it diminishes her inner strength which makes her less sympathetic (to me at least).

In a nutshell this is what i see as the problem, when the show sticks to the book's original themes it is awesome, when they they don't you see actions taken where you sit back and say "that was weird why do that?" And here's the kicker, the very best dialogs and scenes are taken verbatim out of the book, so it's not like the writers don't understand that the source material is superior.

Still, the show is absolutely watchable, but I always measure a show's quality by whether I want to rewatch it, and I doubt it, instead I actually feel like watching the 80's version instead - that's not really a glowing endorsement is it?

It's a solid show, but just not much immersion and I honestly don't relate or care about a single character. I expected I would like it - and I don't dislike it - it just does'nt motivate me to watch. A typical episode is that Reeves gets a job, is teleported to his destination, shoots a bunch of bad guys, struggle to get his captive home (and shoots a lot of bad guys) and then is back home. While he's away we follow his family's life, which really is not all that interesting. The show lacks something and I don't have clue what? It has talented actors, so not that. Maybe it's because it's suppossed to be the wild west, the open and endless planes, but instead everything feels small and contained not grandiose, adventurous with beautiful scenery. Anyways, was'nt for me. Too bad.

I liked season 1. Actual history gave it a framework to build a great fiction on, but now, without that foundation it's spiraling out of control and relies on over-dramafication to keep people engaged. The characters, people working for NASA, ergo the best of the best are over-emotional, irrational and disobey orders ALL THE FREAKING TIME!

Again I enjoyed season 1 the second was ok, but I have seen enough Moore series to know that disaster is coming, and I'm jumping ship NOW.

It starts off promising, you immerse yourself in the world and narrative, but by the halfway mark you're stunned by disbelief. It feeds off nostalgia. There is nothing new; It tries to be clever, but in reality it comes off as silly and stupid, and after you're done watching you sit back asking: Why? Why in God's name Why?