Reviews

I had high hopes for this having read about it as one of the most underrated movies of 2023 by a Globe and Mail (Canada) columnist.

First of all, it's supposedly set in 2065 and yet, for the first 45 minutes (which was as long as I could hold out for), it appears to be set in 1965 with the exception of a DeLorean copycat vehicle and some references to futuristic concepts.

"Junior" (why the weird name?) is rather shallow and his part is written very unconvincingly. Hen is portrayed very well, as is the mysterious visitor, so there was some enjoyment of the acting to be had.

However, when the visitor and Hen light up cigarettes (in 2065!) that was enough for me; I'm sick of seeing smoking depicted in movies as 'normal', especially when targeted at women.

Too bad you can't review Seasons separately because my experience of watching both was so different. I found the first Season to be well-constructed and compelling and enjoyed watching it.

However, I don't know what happened with Season 2: to me it comes across as badly-written (with far too much clichéd dialogue) and really badly directed (I agree with the other reviewer who said this for s02e01). Its one redeeming feature is the 'secondary' thread but even that is not convincingly handled.

Also, to be honest, I'm giving up on Season 2 after watching 4 episodes - it's just far too long-drawn-out and I think the plot (such that it is) could have been condensed into 2 episodes rather than 6.

Please do not waste several hours of your life watching this. While the plot, when finally revealed, is interesting, it is rushed into a resolution missing all kinds of needed exposition.

As another reviewer has mentioned, there is maybe 2 hours of story here and yet the makers have stretched it out beyond all reasonableness. Endless 'weird stuff' happens over and over; like, get to the point, please!

It also wallows in the usual silly clichés: e.g characters make dumb choices that put themselves in danger.

Even though it does involve a police investigation, it does so in a way that you would never ever see in reality.

I say again, do not waste your time; let my wasted time save yours!

A relatively good new "detective and sidekick" drama with fresh and interesting actors. However, despite my good ears and good sound system, I found about half the dialogue incomprensible and yes, that is partly due to the Scottish accents, but more importantly it's due to the actors' lack of projection or enunciation; too many statements are spoken quickly and almost muttered or swallowed.

In this series, the use of flashbacks is excessive and merely serves to drag out what could have been shown in 2 hours into 4 1/2. Or maybe they are trying to give the viewers a sense of the ponderous and drawn-out nature of police murder investigations? In which case they certainly succeeded!

This could have been so much better!

AND, please, why couldn't we have been given a proper subtitle track instead of one with CC's containing such incredibly irrirtating stuff like 'mug clacks', 'birds squark', as well as 'ominous music', 'accomplished music', etc. (I never knew there were so many kinds of music!!), all of which, I am certain, do not help hearing-impaired people at all. When you select subtitles, you should be able to choose a proper subtitle track OR a 'closed caption' track.

I gave up on this after 3 episodes. The premise is solid and provided plenty of scope of interesting plot material but I found primarily that it was meandering around too much.

Now that Samantha has morphed into a continuous cigarette sucking character - for not other purpose than, apparently, promoting cigarette smoking as 'normal' for young women, I've decided not to watch any more of it.

What is this? It looks more like an extended commercial for cigarette smoking than a real drama. I don't suppose the producers are taking money from tobacco companies? Actually, I'm sure of it, and I'm sure that it's not uncommon at all. Typically this is realized by the obvious ploy of setting much of the action in the past.

Also, the plot is way less interesting than that of Season 1.

The sound is so badly recorded that much of the dialogue is garbled noise. Sound engineers: remember that people who watch shows do not already know the dialogue like you do - so make it intelligible first time please.

On the whole very disappointing and not at all interesting.

I found this show quite interesting and different when I watched the first episode but by the time I got half way through the second episode, hearing the characters say "Oh my gosh" or "My gosh" or "My goodness" was just driving me crazy. I'm sure there's a good explanation for this (Korean censorship?) but, even if they can't use the actual (far cruder) expressions that most detectives use (in Bosch, for example), at least they could mix it up a bit! There are plenty of alternatives. I simply cannot remember the last time I heard a North American adult say "gosh". Maybe I don't move in the right circles!!

Well, I might have liked this more if the actors had been instructed to speak clearly. In some scenes the dialogue simply cannot be deciphered. Even though the actors can be heard to be speaking, they are doing so in such an indistinct manner as to make it pointless. I gave up on this half way through S01E03 when Beth, in the most ridiculously implausible manner, punches her brother in the face and demands that he 'be a man'. That's just one of the many things I hate about modern films: the characters resort to physical violence under the slightest of pretexts which otherwise would lead them to be characterized as psychopaths if that's how they behaved in real life. Yes I know films are not 'real life', however, they should at least have some verisimilitude; which this series most definitely doeso not.

As a previous reviewer said in regard to the episode with the survivalist in Season 3 this show appears to have been 'juiced up' to appeal to a wider audience. Unfortunately the writers seem to think that this audience has a short attention span, requires regular violence, and is incapable of appreciating any sbtlety (as seen in the earlier seasons). Basically it's just been packed with jolts and all the characters are now required to show strong emotions all the time. No more of this for me, thank you very much.

What is going on with this show? It used to be pretty good and now it has descended into implausible nonsense. Most of the plot points in S3 are entirely mined from S2. It's painful to watch. Sorry.