Blackstone

Understand something. I'm not epileptic. Never have been. Could play VirtualBoy hours on end and never get ill. But this show, like with too many productions these days, don't understand how annoying jerking the camera all over the place is. Imagine talking to a person, looking in their face, reading them, but they're quickly swaying back and forth. Won't keep watching. It's broken. Might not even be a bad show. I won't know. Story-wise, it seems decent enough. Not being native, I can't tell you how much of this is theatrical silliness or how much is egregiously "incorrect" to their culture. Regardless... they messed up with the cameras here.

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.

I tried watching this years ago on cable TV but I found it too cartoonish, too violent, too black and white in its portrayal of Aboriginals on modern day Reserves. Recently I caught it from the Pilot and have watched 14 episodes so far. Now I understand it. You have to watch it from the beginning to understand who are the good guys and bad guys. I hated Andy Fraser before as he is just pure evil, Satan incarnate. But now? I love him. When you watch any movie or TV series, if it does not have a good antagonist then it will fail. You need someone truly bad to contrast with the good characters, the angels if you will. I am addicted to this program. I have not missed an episode. I am invested in these characters. Andy is the only truly bad character. Even his co-conspirators are not as bad as he is. Life as an aboriginal in North America has always been a nightmare and like a horror movie for others who have not seen or heard what that group has been through. This series handles that aspect of Native life very well. There is lots of darkness and bad things happen all the time, but these people still survive, scarred and defeated, but they get back up again because that is all they can do.

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)