The Fear Index

My recommendation: skip this, read the book. If you want to watch a decent Robert Harris adaptation, try "Munich: Edge of War" on Netflix instead.

Ham-fisted direction, limp dialogue, wooden acting, over the top sound track all conspire to ruin what could have been a great thriller.

Having the lead run around pointlessly, full of angst, accompanied by loud thumping music is not a substitute for dramatic tension.

Whereas most series these days try and squeeze 10 hours or more from one story - Netflix I'm looking at you...

This show is done in three. Enough time to keep you guessing without spoon feeding you the explanation.

Josh Hartnett was a much better actor than I'd previously thought and his partner was good value for money too.

Not enough time for the rest of the cast but they really did do some snappy editing.

Use a Latin translator for more enjoyment.

I devoured the whole series in an afternoon. That wouldn't make a dent on some series.

I forgot how much I loved Josh Harnett- greatly missed and underrated actor.

I hope and wish he'd get more roles befitting his fine stage presence...

Strongly recommend seeing this and Lucky Number Slevib - Hartlett is untapped talent...

I didn't expect much having read some reviews, but at only 4 episodes and on an interesting topic I gave it a chance. The first couple of episodes were somewhat entertaining and the story had some promise, although marred by poor acting and overacting from the lead characters. By the final episode though the story had become farcical and cliched, and spoilt by sloppy technical design, such as the lead running a command line script that prompted for a y/n response but the script not waiting for a response and just exiting back to the shell. The AI related dialog is also inaccurate and under developed. Certain aspects of the story line don't hang together and appear to added in for padding, with some of the more interesting possibilities never really explored, and the final few minutes of ending is entirely predicable, silly and once again, technical nonsense.

My fear was when in the final few seconds I found myself saying "please no" at the possibility of the ultimate cliche ending. I'll give it a 3, but there are really no redeeming features of this, and would recommend giving it a pass.

The topic is interesting, it reminds me of Person of Interest, which is a great TV show about a machine gone rogue.

Unfortunately, they tried to squeeze the story in 4 episodes and things escalate very quicly giving the impression of something unrealistic. An 8 or 10 well paced episodes could have made this miniseries great.