olilaflamme

I agree with the one star reviewer. This was really off putting. The dialogues between Ellie and the Dina character felt forced and hollow. And the Dina actress was pretty bad. I have difficulty believing people raving her performance. She has no depth and she's written all over the place, everything she does is cringe. Maybe it's the same people saying the Reacher series is better than the movie with Tom Cruise because the actor is more physically like in the books...

I haven't played a second of the game and the first season worked for me. But this first episode is weak sauce. I need more than recognizing things from something else...is that really what people want? « Oh she's like in the game ». These thing never made anything good. This needs to go back to substance, nuances. The girl at the start « I want to kill him slowly »...wow I almost loled.

I didn't fell head over heels for the first season. Strangely I thought they were going too fast through the storyline, and I didn't really care for the interpretation of some characters.

But it was pretty watchable. I imagine even more so for those who hadn't read the books.

The second season though, especially the last 3 episodes, are very poorly paced. We get 1 min. Of Juliet at the start and 1 at the end to act as a forced cliffhanger that has nothing to do with 90% of the episode. This is bad storytelling.

You can't fault them entirely though for the repetitious nature and stagnant narrative, as the book also suffer from this. The books are a good « idea » that is not always well written.

I wished they would have corrected this in the show. Also, it's kind of sad that Robert Sims became a single minded enforcer with charisma to a plain dummy with no brains at all. I hope his wife takes over XD.

Although you do have to be a little bit familiar with the jargon - which will reduce potential viewers - it's on mark and it hits the ground running. The acting is pretty strong right off the bat. I already care about the lead and his struggle.

I don't understand people complaining of not laughing enough. This is not stand up comedy, it's a satirical drama.

Like everything Iannucci touches, it's cringe funny. Not lol funny. The sadness of it all is always lurking in the background. This is what made Veep work on so many levels, those ridiculous characters have some real depth. And I think it's the case here. As it wasn't in Avenue 5 for example (even if I enjoyed it). There's real potential to get deep into pointing out the industry's flaws while showing the human point of view in a rather light vehicule. To me the angle is just right and it reminds me of the political comment in Veep.

I wish more people were appreciative of this kind of craft, as I feel this will get cancelled right out of the gate. Not a lot of series with this kind of beat and style. A Aaron Sorkin meet Mel Brooks kind of thing.

It's on its way to offend super hero fans, and I hope they will realize it's because they're right on point ;)