Schöne neue Welt

The dialogue, the acting, the camera work, the visual effects, the soundtrack, the sets and costumes, the seamless editing. As a film student, I'm blown away. One of the most engaging series I've ever seen. I was absolutely shocked when I saw the negative reviews. Did we watch the same show? Then I realized: unlike me, these people have read the book. They expected the series to follow the book, and got upset when they realized it didn't. I, on the other hand, had no expectations, I just knew it was gonna be a sci-fi story. And I enjoyed every minute of it. It makes me really sad to see people ruin its rating with 1-star reviews because they can't accept adaptations doing their own thing.

Fans of the book can happily skip this. It might be loosely based on Aldous Huxley's groundbreaking book but it never manages to have the same impact as it. Making a 9 episode series out of a book that has a little bit over 300 pages, while avoiding the most thought-provoking parts of it, also didn't help.

There are things to like: good actors, the sets are gorgeous and the first three/four episodes are interesting enough.

There are also things to dislike: the writing is not always on point, the subject matter is watered down and after a promising beginning it becomes a soap set in a dystopian future. Especially episodes 6, 7 and 8 are just filler with an abundance of (modest) sex scenes and character development that feels forced.

Overall I liked this show. I like how it hit on a lot of political ideals and ideologies that we're seeing today without even trying. I honestly think a lot of people do not like this show because it directly points out hypocrisies that we see everyday in society, and points directly at them and their ideologies. We tell ourselves it will never be like that, it's too far out there. Example, This book was written in 1931 and while it's still not truly real life because our scientific technology isn't there....yet. But, you can bet if it was you'd see a society a lot like this one. It's scary / crazy to think that it is a possibility in the near future and it's even crazier to think that people can't see it coming like a freight train. Either way the show was pretty great. Good acting followed by some not so good directing and producing. Meaning it still felt like a TV show at times. cutting corners on certain things like character development, or simply just trying to hard to be edgy. I do appreciate the fact that they didn't go overboard with the sex and nudity. Not that I don't like those things but at a certain point I just want to watch a good show, not soft core. Hope they make a season 2!

Good production, good acting, great conceptual themes. Pacing is excellent. Sound tracking is excellent. Very binge-able. It's set in the brave new world setting, but its it's own story. Don't expect a re-make of the book.

Many people seem to dislike it for various reasons. My answer to that: they missed the point.Go watch it again. Find the (many!!) clues. It is truly a little masterpiece, disguising as what seems a shallow, empty, simple story with 'dumb' and 'unbelievable' characters.

A Brave New World is a bittersweet story, about people living "their" lives, with true irony at it's centre.

Give it a chance and think big.