Cassandra

I was skeptical at first... Another AI robot vs the hose, family, husband... whatever.. Not a M3GAN, SUBSERVIENCE or T1M.. Not quite on a Black Mirror level, but more Jetsons meets The Hand That Rocks the Cradle... meets Frankenstein.. I like the 70's appeal, decor and style, at first it didn't make sense, based in a iPhone era time.. but it comes together well.. kind of keeps you guessing.

But it actually has an engaging storyline... And the acting is good.. Dubbed sound and speech is good.. Definitely worth a multi-day binge.. but the episodes run together smooth and easy to keep the next one playing..

The premise had potential. The design of the robot was interesting to look at. The writing was terrible: again, yet another show where people don't do anything normal people would do, make the most terrible choices at nearly every turn, don't say the things normal people would say. There were a few times where it seemed the writing got better, maybe that episode was written by different people, then everything went downhill yet again, then right off a cliff into absurdity. It's one of those shows where we sent most our time yelling at the screen, "Oh my god, why would anyone do that??!!" "That's so stupid, what an idiot!! Over and over. By the last episode we were begging for it to end. Please end.

I'm writing this as a German who wants to support German movies and series without Til Schweiger or Matthias Schweighöfer.

Cassandra is an above average series by international standards and a super good series by German standards which tells two stories: one of Cassandra in the 70s and one of a family moving into a new home after a tragic loss.

The quality of acting is mixed, especially the father of the family and the young girl cannot fully convince; their acting stays bland with no profile. The actresses of the mother and Cassandra however do a very good job. I wanna see more of them in the future please!

The set and the atmosphere were super good, every episode made me want to keep watching but the last 2 episodes in particular had too many moments I couldn't enjoy because it was too far from the logic set up the episodes before or because the characters suddenly started acting stupidly.

If you are okay with that, please give Cassandra a chance. It's also a nice series to learn German because of the clear pronounciation.

Overall the plot was fairly interesting and unpredictable, at least as much as this idea of out of control AI house can get. It's basically two sub plots that intersect, and the real plot is the Cassandra's back story.

My main issue was how much I had to suspend disbelief. The 70's vibe is cool but just don't make sense. I'm not sure why this couldn't take place further in the future. I also think the power of the AI was unrealistic in that the humans should have easily been able to overcome it. Basically most of the characters are just really dumb and you need to buy into that for it to work. Technology aside, you know the situation that is unfolding would never happen in real life and that inner voice is telling you that the whole time.

The show starts out quite tropey and leads one to believe it'll be like many of the other AI film/show flops. Initially it felt like it could have been a movie instead of a limited series but the plot does diverge from the usual "AI turns evil due to a technology issue". Since there's more of a backstory to how this "technology" came to be, it makes the overall show much more watchable and adds the missing human element that many others fail to deliver. The plot holes are tired tropes are still there but there's enough meat on the bone to keep you interested to see how it ends. Recall the Black Mirror episode "Black Museum" as the basis for whether or not you think you'll like the show. Black Mirror was still better but you get an idea of what this is gonna be.

It's not a show I'll be telling everyone about, but it's a fine show to watch when you can't find anything else.