User reviews

Beautifully acted - I am becoming a serious fan of Chris Evans. He's not just a pretty faced superhero. He really stood out in Gifted and I'm really excited to see more. Well done. This is a superbly designed series, I think it is a solid 9 - don't listen to the naysayers ... honestly, it's worth watching just to see the incredible segues in the opening credits. Watch it, binge it, worth it 😎👌🏻

A lot of people are saying that the ending was unsatisfactory. I quite disagree. It would have been had this show been meant to be a whodunnit. But it never was that. If it were, it would have been called 'the murder of Ben Rifkin' and nit 'defending jacob'. This show is all about Jacob and his family. This is a show about how the balance of a perfectly normal family can go haywire when faced with an adversity such as a murder charge on a 14 year old. How doubt and suspicion can eat away at seemingly perfect bonds and suddenly make everything fall apart. It's about how we end up externalizing our troubles when the root actually lies deep within ourselves.

I liked every bit of it. As a mother of a 14 year old boy nyself, I would say the "defending jacob" affected me deeply. Couldnt find myself taking sides. Yes, this kind of an untoward incident, if it happens to anyone, will impact their family exactly the way it inpacted the Barber family. Very realistic characterization, awesome acting by everyone. Michelle Dockery disappoints a bit - its as if she forgot at times that she's playing the hapless mum of stoic teenager and not the wooden faced over-bred aristocrat from Downton Abbey.

It's good, but there is just so. much. filler. Especially the last four episodes could have been 10 minutes each and nothing of importance would have been missed. Also, the character of Lori is completely useless and watching her do nothing for minutes on end is agonizing at times.

We were enjoying this series a great deal even if it was a bit predictable. The story telling (script) and acting was on point. Problem with this series was it missed the landing on the last episode. Felt rushed in the end and honestly made me drop my score overall by a point / Honestly the final episode felt shoe horned in with how it was told (did not go along with everything else on the previous 7 episodes) I had to look to see if there were 10 episodes in the season because I could not believe that it just went this route in the end. It honestly could have used a couple more episodes to finish the story off properly.

I'd only read the book a few weeks before this started so the plot was still fresh in my head, I knew there would be changes but I was really hoping they wouldn't make it completely unrecognisable (Virgin River did this). I was pleasantly surprised that for the first 7 episodes the changes weren't too bad at all, Andy and Laurie were much younger than in the book, Laurie was a homemaker, formerly a schoolteacher and Pam Duffy and Joanna Klein were both originally male characters. There was more but nothing that would have made me switch off in a huff.

Then we got to episode 8 where they completely changed a major plot line that was essential to our understanding of both Jacob and Laurie. Then they changed the ending. So the 8 I was originally going to rate it went down to a 5.

Why are final episodes so often a let-down?

Gripping tv series, you keep questioning every episode. My recommendation is - give it chance with only one episode, and you will love that!

A must watch show. I am a big fan of Chris. Loved every second of this show.. amazing thriller..

Thought this was an interesting show with really strong performances all round. However this was more a drama than the psychological thriller I was expecting. I did not like the end at all, it felt unfinished. My score is really for the brilliant acting that was consistent throughout especially from Chris Evans and Jaeden Martell.

Enjoyed the series. Kept me gripped. Thought the cast were brilliant.

I like the start of this show, have watchee a few episodes but its catchy, great storyline, great acting and the characters are just fit for the story. Dont hesitate to give it a try

I felt cheated for having watched this to the end. It moves very slowly, painfully, through the plot, but kept me waiting for the finale. But postmodernists must have made the movie, so in this movie there is no absolute truth. Each character has his or her own truth, and is often duplicitous in action. And we, the audience, are left to invent our own "truths" about the plot as well.

The actors performed well, with a plot that is often illogical. A grand jury investigation is a plot device to foreshadow the end, but such an investigation seems unlikely given the relationship between the witness and subject.

Had I known more, I would not have wasted my time on this series.

The last episode, matters a lot, if not most, in any series. If you ruin it, you ruin the whole series. "Defending Jacob" did the same. A lot of things went quick in the last episode, and rest of the episodes in series move slower than my gradma. If the finale was good, I would have rated it 8. I'm sorry.

It's not perfect, but it's entertaining. Chris Evans does really good as the father; he's believable. He shows emotion and range. Michelle Dockery on the other hand is really bad. The constant, confused wide eyed stares, the overreacting; it makes it really hard to watch any scenes she's in. She looks lost and unsure of how to act, and it's soo noticeable when she's with other actors. I want to enjoy this more but her acting is making that very difficult.