babyned

I was drawn in by the intriguing premise and the atmospheric Reznor/Ross soundtrack. Two isolated characters, separated by a vast, ghostly chasm, have to prevent an un-known threat from emerging out of The Gorge.

The excellent first half of the film shows how the two guardians defy the rules of their employers and the physical barrier between them to form a relationship.

Just when you start to wonder how they will both cope with the dangers that we know lie in wait for them, the film makers decide that they didn't want to make that film, and so for the last hour we get a bog-standard zombie movie, which isn't terrible, but it felt like someone just switched the channel over just when it was getting good. I expect one day I'll be able to get an AI app to generate what the second half should have been, but until then it's a 6 from me. (But a 10 for Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Yeah Yeah Yeahs on soundtrack duty)

Despite good performances and an intriguing premise, I felt the focus of the series was misplaced.

Most of the running time was spent on the main couple's marital, professional and First World problems. And then there was a pointless sub-plot about Austin parent's bizarrely flying around the world to sit in a car.

In fact, it wouldn't take a huge rewrite to make this show not about a person on the autistic spectrum.

Perhaps that was the point. Maybe we shouldn't make a big issue out of autism. But it seems a wasted opportunity to create a character like Austin and then not explore all the positive and challenging aspects of being on the spectrum, especially nowadays when so many people could potentially relate to it, learn from it and even benefit from it.

Don't get me wrong, big battles and CG Dragons flying about blowing stuff up is fun to watch.

But for me, the best episodes of GOT are the talky ones. I love all the political manoeuvrings, the twisty plotting, the slow burn plot development, the foreshadowing. Many of the first seasons of GOT were like this.

People forget, there were no on-camera battle scenes in series one. Mostly just a whole lot of talking. What would all these down-voters make of that!?

And this episode does deliver two classic GOT style scenes concerning dragons. And some deliciously dark character development as we start to decide who we hate and who we're rooting for in this morally shady universe.

If you really think episodes like this deserve less than 3 out of 10 then you've come to the wrong place. This is the Game Of Thrones room. I think you're looking for the Transformers room. Off you pop then.