Between

The first episode of Netflix' new "Between" web series (2015) reminds me a hell of a lot of "Jericho" (2006). It takes a frightening science fiction premise and then generally fails to execute anything terribly scary or thrilling. "Jericho" told the story of a small town surviving a mysterious nuclear holocaust — it looked to be a serialized "The Day After" (1983), but ultimately became a chipper, too-safe family drama that almost seemed to channel "The Waltons" (1971).

The premiere of "Between" introduces us to the small town of Pretty Lake, where a mysterious illness is killing anyone over the age of 22 … which is kind of convenient for the young-adult target audience that this show is going for. The show sounded like an update of "The Andromeda Strain" film adaptation in 1971. But after we see the town quarantined, it seems to borrow a page or two from the television treatment of Stephen King's "Under The Dome" (2013). (I disliked that book, and have heard some pretty mixed things about the TV show.)

"Between" has a few things going for it, like well-scripted characters and capable young actors. But it has problems with pacing and tension. There's a nice flourish here and there, including the shot you see below. But for a TV show about a potentially world-ending plague, it fails to scare. I'd give this first episode a 6 out of 10.

What's the deal with naming the town "Pretty Lake," anyway? Is it intentionally generic for thematic reasons, or just lazy screen writing? Are neighboring towns "Big Mountain" and "Long River?"

First, let me start with the positive; There is some production and budget here. I watched the first episode a while ago and my only positive thought was "how is the writing so bad but there was money for the rest?"

The dialogue is bland and just silly, first brought to my attention when someone kept yelling "grandfather, grandfather..." over and over. Nobody does that and from there the rest was pretty obvious.

The characters try to be believable and relate-able but they seem to just pulled from someone's experience of other shows and not real life. Nerdy kid, troubled sister, the admirable jock, the bad kids, the rich kid...

The characters seem to make decisions that are so, so , so bad that you forget how stupid the overall premise of the show is and stop believing the whole experience.

Worse yet is that this show is really just "the dome". A "mysterious virus" that causes sudden tongue bleeding and bad acting seconds before death causes a town to become isolated and quarantined. The only difference between this show and the dome is that the characters ages are restricted, that and the role of the dome is being played by the military.

What makes this show even worse is that there seems to be a series of stupid shows out now that revolve around small towns and something mysterious happening; Wayward pines, salem, bates motel, sleepy hollow, the dome, haven and more. If you restrict the location and characters in a show you have to elevate the sub-plots to ridiculously unbelievable levels. These shows are becoming predictable and trying to out-stupid each other it seems while adding slight variances.

I looked at the reviews and people are pretty harsh. The show isn't the best but it's far from the worst I watched season 1 and 2(yeah for the people that said it wouldn't make it there looks like it did)and they were pretty good of course there was things you would be like "wtf" to and asked "why didn't you do this instead of that" but it kept me interested. For the people saying why didn't they tell why the virus is happening I mean that is the whole point of the show why would they just up and tell you it doesn't make sense. I never saw the shows that were mentioned to be like it like Jericho and Under the dome but reading the things of saying how similar they were didn't surprise me because nowadays they love making remakes. I wouldn't say that the acting was terrible but it wasn't good. For instance Adam really killed me with how bland he was I was like Where's this dudes emotion and most of these kids are from degrassi which is also funny . But you should really stay tune for what happens at the end of season 2 it's really crazy but at the same time still confusing.

I think the reviews on this are pretty harsh. While it's not going to win any awards, the first episode wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be based on what I read here. It kind of is what it is, an Under the Dome copy with a different scenario. Some of the acting could be better,some of the script could be better but I'm not going to judge it badly based on the first episode. Sometimes these series take a few episodes to bed in properly. I'll come back and do another review a few episodes in which I guess means I intend to keep watching! I didn't really think much of Jericho after watching the first episode but ended up hooked so I guess I'll wait and see.

Yes, it is unbelievable, parts of it could be better, but nonetheless, it retains interest throughout. Watchable drama that does not pretend to be anything other than entertainment. Also, so fitting for the times. An entertaining way of passing the time in isolation caused by the COV-19 virus.