Hand of God

Hand of God’s strengths are its elongated scenes, enabling the characters ample time to play off one another.... The wheels keep turning but can take too long to get rolling while the plot hits some ruts in the road.

There are enough flourishes surrounding Pernell’s visions to maintain viewer interest, but after a while the pilot feels like a slog.

Despite frequent predictability and other issues, though, we do get pulled into the story. Even if we don’t always believe the characters, or huge swaths of dialogue, we do want answers, to the crimes, yes, but also to whether the judge is a nutcase or the only sane person in San Vicente.

There’s a much more entertaining but less intensely violent show buried in Hand of God somewhere.

Amazon is currently in the "spare no expense" stage of original-content production, and it shows everywhere but in the story. Perlman is a strong and deceptively supple performer, but he isn't a miracle worker. Even bad crazy guys need a gleam of humanity, and Pernell has none. Delaney is mostly sidelined, as are Royo and Tal.... Dillahunt's ability to show this, to swing KD from brutal violence to soul-searching, is miraculous. It just isn't enough.

Created by writer Ben Watkins, Hand of God has the pace of a pulp novel anxious to keep an audience watching, heedless of believability or motivation.

It looks good. Sadly, that polished exterior hides a filthy, vile interior.