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

As a fan of Mr. King for many years --and NOT a fan of most of the TV and movie adaptations of his works-- I have to say I was impressed with the pilot episode. The casting of Brendan Gleeson got me in to watch it and thank God nobody asked him to try an American accent (witness what happened when they asked Michael Caine to try that in 'Mr Morgan's Last Love'). Also, it was nice to see Harry Treadaway pop up again after 'Penny Dreadful'. The whole show spoke of quality and good storytelling. I agree that the opening scene was a little gratuitous but it is faithful to the novel and I would rather see this sort of violence represented honestly than stylistically. No illusions that blood and guts aren't spilled when you drive a car through human bodies. I am looking forward to the next episode and have already added it to my weekly TV viewing list.

I'm a huge fan of Stephen King and have been for many years but I've hated the majority of adaptations of his work. Not because they don't stay true to the books but because sometimes they stay too true and it just doesn't work. There is a huge difference between a book and a screenplay so doing a word for word copy of a book, especially a King book, just doesn't work on the screen. Thankfully with Mr Mercedes this hasn't happened. The characters are there, the plot is there but there are differences and I'm glad there are. Brendan Gleeson is a great choice for Bill and the production doesn't have that cheap feel that a lot of King adaptations have (The Mist TV series, Under the Dome, The Shining mini series to name but a few). I'm two episodes in and I'm hooked. I only hope they don't let it ramble on beyond the source material and spoil it as that would be a real shame.

I'm giving this show a 7. It could have been a 9 or possibly a 10 if they quit after the first season. Please watch the first season. Its amazing. The second season makes you want to kick people in the nuts

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.