Blackstone

Great story, well acted, well written. Believable sets and locations. Enough intrigue and sub-stories to keep things interesting. Politics, corruption, and the struggle of the underdog. All good stuff. Then it falls apart because of the camera work. Every single scene shot with shaky hand-held camera and jerky zoom. The end result is a production that looks like it was professionally cast, written and produced, then turned over to a high school class with a cheap camcorder to film. Oh, the shots are clear enough...once your eyes adjust to the constant jerking around. There is a place for hand-held shots. A few of them, scattered here and there, can be a great thing. But for the entire production? Please. Invest in a tripod and a trolley.

I started watching this show after I saw it in the see also section of the Redfern Now wikipedia page saying it deals with similar issues, although this show does differ from Redfern Now (as Redfern Now is a contemporary show while Blackstone is a crime drama with political intrigue)

While the pilot starts very shoddy and shaky, it overall gets better. I was invested in the story and the characters. I cared about what happened to them, Season 1 was full of tension and stakes, having me in the edge of my seat.

Although the show is flawed, like I said earlier the pilot starts very shaky, the character introductions are mediocre at best (I even had hard time keeping track of them) but when it got to a certain point, it got me invested. But other problems include times when the story hints and suggests things that could be interesting to see them play out, but there never bought up again. Also if you can't handle frustrating plotlines, proceed with caution as this does have quite a bit (Although mostly in earlier seasons). Season 3 is what I proceed to be the weakest seasons in my opinion, the story lines in this season I just didn't care for, all the other seasons (while good in their own right) just weren't necessarily as good as the first season. I won't discuss the other issues since there spoilers.

Overall, while flawed, Blackstone is an enjoyable show. I would highly recommend it (especially if you liked the comic Scalped, since it is similar)

Found this after looking for Eric Schweig vehicles and really wanted to like it. Currently watching Season One Episode Seven.

The 'shaky cam' is distracting and in no way contributes artistically.

The gratuitous vulgarity feels like lazy writing, which is confirmed by dialogue that is often more stilted than insightful.

A lot of the acting is either wooden or heavy-handed.

The actors portraying villains seem to have studied at the "Snidely Whiplash" school of drama - if they had mustachios they would be twisting them.

There is little subtlety or nuance in the dialogue or acting or plot development.

A rape prosecution relies on a non-witness instead of DNA evidence? Vote out the current chief in favor of the one the community knows is corrupt who stole evidence of his corruption and assaulted a council member in the process? Maybe it's me. Maybe people really do interact as portrayed in this series. Maybe people are as illogical as presented here (heck, there are millions still supporting Trump). If so, the situation is even worse than I understood it to be.

The issues are compelling and real and I think deserve better handling than I've seen so far. Hope the series improves.

I really wanted to watch this series, but I literally could not tolerate the nauseating camera work. Why film directors ever choose this approach is beyond me. Don't they realise that by shaking the camera all over the place, you instantly alienate every single audience member with notion sickness tendencies. Sucj a strange model trend in cinematography.

Sad they took it off netflix, it's a pretty solid show and there's not many that delve into the life of living on a native reserve.

I'm pretty sure their official website allows you to watch it for free. So give it a watch, it's worth the time.