Illyi

Here I realized how much I was missing Tim Burton of old. Dear writers, thank you indeed for a job wonderfully done. As of season 2, to me, this is easy 10/10.

It's ironic, because usually I'm complaining about bad writing and a lot of the bad ratings here address this particular issue. Yet for me this is pure 10/10. I suppose this again goes to show not only how subjective things are, but also to what extend these ratings can only be an inclination, but cannot be expected to give an objective frame of your subjective experiences... I'd say try the show...

I had to think about how to approach this case. On one hand I could give it lower rating than I think it deserves as to compensate for all the 10s that, by reading them, I can't believe are genuine. On the other hand I could stay true to myself and give it what I think it deserves regardless. I've decided to go with the latter, thus making this review kind of useless, because it can't be used as adequate tool to help someone decide on the series based on overall score alone. I think it's a 4 and this is only assuming it is an experiment on continuous camera shots that Netflix decided to boost up to incredible social achievement. As far as camera work goes, I found it quite impressive. But as the whole plot is moving in real time I would say over 80% of the series is comprised of bloated dialogues that are needed to allow the camera to move from one setting to another. It doesn't help with the story or the characters at all. Even after 4 hours of their lives they are still as hollow to me as if I just met them. Some more politically leaning person might say they are just ideological containers. I might not go that far, but they are not well developed characters for sure. When you think about it in real life not much world-altering events happen in the span of 4 hours. If plot will be moving in real time it needs to be approached in a completely different manner, than a conventional television. Here that's not happening and so this and every other aspect of the production I consider a failure. Most of all that goes for the writing. Yeah, it seems there were SLIGHT race-swapping, which is not the first and probably won't be the last. Yeah, yeah, white man are Satans and all that... even if they are just 13 years old....?! We get it... kinda... not sure about that... By itself this wasn't a particularly big problem for me, because I'm not from the UK and the "actual" story, to the extend there is such thing, is not something I'm familiar with. I'm white and male, but I have not killed anyone, neither did my son, so it's not like I identify with any of these imaginary people. On the other hand the total lack of good storytelling, character development, and generally anything interesting to put your attention into, was a problem. For me realization that this is just BAD production came when 1 hour bottled episode with pure dialogue was not able to provide any clarity or deeper understanding of these characters, not to mention their cultural and social environment, that this series seems so insistent on presenting as a goal. And "bad" doesn't seem to be a result of the limitations on camera work and thus on the tools available to tell the story. It's just a result of a really bad idea with terrible choice for execution and no effort put into writing something meaningful. Unless you are interested in the camera-work, which for me was very interesting indeed, I wouldn't recommend this one. I'd say it exists on marketing alone.

For me this is how you do it. I can't muster a single problem with it, that's worth mentioning, given the end result. It's the type of show that is so original and unique that you either love it or you hate it, but in whatever direction you go, it would be with a fiery passion. It is one of the very few TV series that sets my bar for a great show.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]