Halfworlds

Let me start with what I liked about Halfworlds.

I was excited to watch a show that dealt with mysterious, supernatural beings who have secretly lived alongside humanity since ancient times. The setting (Jakarta, Indonesia) was unique for me, and added to the intrigue. The scenery seemed authentic, and the photography and directing gave the scenes a feel of authenticity. The backstory of these demit as a whole was interesting and made me want to research the mythology. Sadly, there is a lack of historical writings on this subject in English, but that isn't this show's fault. The anime-style introductions were superb, and serve as an example to future film/TV creators. So far it's all about drama, atmosphere, and drawing the audience in to an exotic adventure.

Now to what about Halfworlds didn't work for me.

The characters are all very contrived and two-dimensional. The only thing that separates one from another and lets you distinguish them individually is their style of dress and haircut. They don't seem like people, just stereotypes. Any line of dialogue could have been delivered by anyone. There is no difference in personality. And that brings me to the dialogue. It's more like a list of random sentences designed to sound cool and edgy than to convey ideas and move the story along. The characters say some words, a fight breaks out, bodies hit the pavement, some more random words, rinse, repeat. What is happening? Who is this person? What is he trying to accomplish? What allies him or sets him at odds with the other characters? What is the point of ANY of this? What is The Gift? Why is it so dreadful? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it "The Curse"? You never get any clear idea of any of these things. There is no structure here, either internally or externally. It's just...atmosphere and setting. If anyone asked me "What happens in Halfworlds?" I wouldn't have any idea how to answer them.

In the end, it put me in mind of Wesley Snipe's Blade movies, but with no plot, no sense of who he's supported by or fighting against or why. Just a room full of really cool, really beautiful, stylishly dressed bad asses trying to look cooler, more beautiful, more stylish, and more bad ass than everyone else in the room. In Blade, I learned about the differences between the average vampire (how they live, what they do, what they want) and daywalkers. With Halfworls, I learned that demit are ancient creatures that once coexisted with mankind, but are now enemies of humanity. I think. I'm not really sure. Are they? It's never completely clear. And why? What happened? I waited for the answers to all of these questions and many more, but they never came.

Everything I know about demit, I learned in the first 10 minutes of episode 1.

To be honest, compared to another International TV series, this series doesn't make me want to watch the next episode. I miss the curious feeling when I watched it. However, the mind blowing ideas in the finale episode is quite nice. If you want to watch some unusual series. Then this series is for you. I want to see the next season, hopefully they show us how powerful every creature is. I don't know, they just seems to be too weak for me. Some scary effects to show the strength of each character is okay. The sexual scene is really annoying, why they are doing that too often? The fighting scene is somehow feel strange, but nice. I like the Tara Basro fighting style. Remind me of some game in the past, epic. Great job Joko Anwar.

I am Indonesian and I live in Jakarta. When I first saw the trailer I said to myself at last a good series made by Indonesian. It featured Indonesian supernatural myths and it looked different from other Indonesian made. After all, it was picked up by HBO, so it should be good, yes? No! I didn't see the first episode, but I saw the second, and it didn't take me 30 minutes to change the channel.

To me it was a big no. The story was actually promising but the execution was not. The dialog were somewhat scarce, short, and not really interconnected to one another. The acting was worse. They were not actually acting but only tried to look cool. Trying to be cool was not the same as acting.

In short, the overall look was not really different from other Indonesian horror film.

I knew for the first time about the series from social media then from the HBO advertise. I said to my self, "Wow an Indonesian series, directed by Indonesian top director, broadcast by HBO. Its going to be awesome!". Until I actually watched the first episode. There were so many "wait what?", "why?", "who are you" moments. The flow of the story was confusing, the transitions from one scene to another was odd. There were many flashing scenes jumping from one situation to another situation then back to the previous situation then jump again and so on. The acting were below HBO series bar. The episode was also ended awkwardly leaving me confused. I watched the second and the third eps and the conditions above still occurs. I am hoping so much there will be so much improvements and this series could have second season. I am very proud with this series and the director, cast and crews. Come on Joko Anwar!

the genres are horror, drama and mystery. but the horror did not make the heart beat, even though I think Indonesian ghost is the scariest supernatural creature in the world. the drama is pretty confusing. the mystery? did not make curious and wonder. watching the first episode I immediately said "that's it?". but hey this TV series, show must go on, give a chance, it's a long story anyway. The second episode actually does not improve, along with the appearance of new characters the story even more chaotic. "Hey you can't judge this TV series ugly because it's only second episode without watching the whole episode". OK i watch until eighth episode, I have concluded, "do not waste your time".