Falling Water

The show is about 3 strangers who are all subconsciously connected through their dreams. The characters are a mother who is looking for her lost child, whom she is told by the hospital doesn't exist, a man looking for his missing girlfriend & a detective trying to cure his catatonic mother.

The directing is great, it plays out like a movie. Fortuately it does not resemble Inception, except for the fact the the theme revolves around dreams & the subconscious. The acting is also good too, especially by one of the leads, Lizzy Brochere who plays Tess.

This seems like one of those shows that will be a long mini-series, or play out like an extended movie, because it's difficult to see how the plot can carry out more than 1 or 2 seasons without the mysteries being resolved. It's a unique plot and very entertaining to watch. The pilot already had a few twists!

After episode 10, 'Falling Water' left me with not much more insight to the purpose of the story than after the first episode. This might be the reason why so many people do not like it. Most parts of the story are revealed in the pilot, or at least whereto it would go in the following episodes, but after that we do not learn much more, despite we want to.

The final episode gives a bit more 'Action' and a nice trial-and-error-loop, but in the end, it's not that satisfying.

The dream world is not much disturbing or frightening, it's a very finite space like an expanded mirror of our world, which is, at least for me, far not enough to impress. And with that I do not mean visuals like in 'Inception', but in a dream you can change location and time like, say, from beyond creation of earth to your classroom to a cave on the solid center of Uranus. But that would be more a Doctor Who thing. I liked 'Falling Water' for its style, for the slow pacing, and of course for David Ajala's character Burton, but once I realized that the story struggles with it's purpose, I lost a bigger part of my interest.

That may have happened even earlier to people who are not as patient as me (and I think I am very patient).

Whereby the show has (or should have) much potential. There is dream mysticism, modern technique, conspiracy, a cult, shady characters with unclear intents, fight of the minds, floating borders between reality and dreamscape, a set of good actors, and much more ingredients that could make it outstanding. A great deal of action is not really needed for that, watch season one of 'Mr. Robot', or 'The Leftovers'.

Sadly, many promises (at least those from the trailers) are not fulfilled. The show starts to "tread water" early, loses its grip and therewith its audience.

I hope really for a second (and better) season, which is not clear by now (12/2016) if it will happen.

Edit (01/2018): It got a second season which runs now. Let's hope for better scripts this time.

So I've never written a review before so bare with me.

Falling Water's preview was intriguing. Dreams, the sub-conscious mind, connecting on another level along with the required dose of mystery and the hint of coming answers. It looked to have all of the necessary ingredients for a tasty, high intellect sci-fi drama soufflé.

So, my highly intellectual, overly dramatic sci-fi loving mind insisted that I take a bite.

Bittersweet.Or rather "sweetbitter". It swirled around in my head like a slightly old chunk of dark chocolate would on my tongue, but in reverse.

For what little you get from the first episode the idea is very sweet having most of the qualities a TV series of this genre should.

But then you get the bitter.

The writing is harsh to say the least. Cliché, dis-jointed and seemingly lacking much direction. It just didn't flow very well and that took a toll on the episode as a whole.

I'll watch a few more episodes with the hopes that this was noticed by whoever is in charge of the writing and can somehow remedy the cheesiness. Maybe have the writers watch a few old Chris Carter X-Files episodes to get a "taste" of some excellent episode writing.

So, to summarize, you should take a bite of this treat but expect the bitter taste of sub-standard writing along with the sweet aroma that the premise creates.

Bon Appetit. ;)

Although it's eerily hard to follow, a mind boggler, the actors are very good, especially David Ajala (sexy). I am watching it for the second time so it is definitely worth it.

I'd be interested in to know the backstory on why the critics have taken such a negative view of this series right off the bat. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus (dating from the very first episode) is "Falling Water attempts complexity and intrigue but churns out an unimaginative concept lacking a redeemable payoff."

The fact is the concept is highly original--I have spent my life reading and viewing science-fiction and have never come across this theme before. And how can they possibly know that it is "lacking a redeemable payoff"?

Is it possible that these reviewers receive a whole series plot development along with the copy of the first episode? I mean, if they know how the series develops and,for that reason, they know it is a dud, this should be acknowledged up-front somewhere.