Mr. Mercedes

Season 1 is so gripping as we gradually got to know all the good and bad characters that Mrs. Shullivan and I just had to binge watch the subsequent two (2) seasons over the weekend. It is a captivating mystery/thriller/sci-fi series which stars the always impressive Brendan Gleeson as a retired homicide detective named Bill Hodges who after losing his wife through an amicable divorce, believes he has nothing else to live for but to drink both day and night and the only one who relies on him nowadays is his fully grown twenty year old tortoise (please do not call him a turtle says Bill) named Fred.

Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) has lost his wife through an amicable divorce and is estranged for a few years now from his only daughter who has suffered from drug and alcohol abuse. Bill finds his solace and a revitalized need to once again feel worthy of his crime solving ability when he gets involved in the investigation of the unidentified serial killer named Mr. Mercedes whose crime was to run down a huge crowd of people standing in line at an early morning job fair in a stolen Mercedes Benz vehicle and then he just drove away and abandoned the stolen Mercedes Benz car after killing a dozen or so people and injuring and traumatizing hundreds of other people.

By season two (2) the serial killer is identified and by season three (3) there is a new story line which is indirectly tied to the first two seasons as some of the surviving victims of Mr. Mercedes who were at the job fair try to get on with their lives. Season three (3) is probably more violent than any of the three (3) seasons but not in a true gratuitous violent manner, but more in a comedic way if murder can be considered comical, Mr. Mercedes pulls it off perfectly.

There is a great supporting cast and an even better Stephen King storyline in which Stephen King supplants himself in one cameo scene as one of the many imaginary murder victims in a restaurant. Mrs. Shullivan and I really enjoyed all three (3) seasons but were glad when the series ended because we were beginning to enjoy all of Stephen King's murder and bloodshed so much so that we quickly next turned to a Walt Disney animated classic to come back to reality and calm.

I give this excellent series a highly rated 8 out of 10 IMDB rating

This show works because Brendan Gleason is such a great character actor . Story is ok pacing is a bit slow in the second season .

After reading up on this, my curiosity was spiked when I learned that Stephen King had wrote the character of Bill Hodges based on Brendan Gleeson. Growing up, Stephen King was my Author of choice and being Irish I have always rated Brendan Gleeson as one of our best actors. I always though a little known Irish film called "I went Down" as one of his finest performances but after watching the first 2 episodes of this, Brendan Gleeson is (as we would say in Ireland) Feckin Brilliant. This is the best thing I have watched in quite a while and I can't wait for the next episode. :)

This is a great show, but the reviews are probably going to be mixed right now as a result of the tragic events that happened in Charlottesville recently. TV doesn't just happen folks. This is a TV series based on an incredibly good series of books by Stephen King, whose trilogy finished up last year. This has been in production, in filming and is now finally coming out. It's not some knee-jerk reaction to recent news in the name of getting ratings or having a political agenda.

Some people just don't think before they post reviews. Just enjoy the show for what it is, great TV, and try not to make everything political. I wouldn't even say it's in "bad taste" like one reviewer did. It's a TV show, and if you follow it long enough you'll see that the attack with the vehicle is only a part of the overall story and that there's a lot of other content to enjoy. People, sadly, get hit by cars every day, some on purpose and some not. What happened in Charlottesville is a tragedy and I absolutely condemn the racist, small-minded person that committed that act, but don't blame this TV show for existing in the face of that tragedy.

Despite the staggering number of morons who ruined this show's Amazon rating by giving it one-star reviews due to a missing episode, rather than it being a bad show, it still managed to pop-up on my radar; a small miracle for which I am very grateful, as it is an outstanding piece of television.

As serial-killer procedurals go, this is one of the finest I've seen, with strong writing, a talented cast, confident director, and master storyteller Stephen King pulling the strings.

It is not perfect. Far from it. But in an overcrowded genre replete with potential potholes, this show managed to avoid most of the common hazards, while remaining generally unpredictable, well-paced, and intriguing. On a few occasions it began to feel a little like the similarly excellent "Dexter", and somewhere around the middle I began to experience unexpected sympathies with the killer, which made me wonder if I should be rooting for him, rather than the retired cop expertly portrayed by the ever likable Brendan Gleeson. But in the nick of time, my own personal leanings toward serial-killer-dom were jogged back to the correct moral course, and the season concluded with a deeply satisfying finale.

On a personal note, and with absolutely no exaggeration, this show also achieved something rather remarkable: Literally every single song featured in the entire series, without exception, was one that I absolutely hate. This has never happened before in 43 years of watching films and TV. I wasn't even aware that I hated so many songs, but apparently I do. And since the soundtrack of any film or TV show is at least fifty percent responsible for the viewer's emotional responses to what they're watching, it is even more impressive that I enjoyed the show so much, despite its appalling soundtrack!

I'm assuming that this is a one-off series, but if not I can't wait for the next one.