Too Old to Die Young

I'm not sure what else I can add that has not already been said. In some ways, this is NWR's best work. But in other ways, this is the most painfully slow show I've ever watched. The 1 star reviews are just as true as the 10 star reviews.

Scenes are beautifully shot and colored, but often serving little to no purpose. The characters are well acted, but it can be hard to sit through dialogue with 10 second pauses between each sentence.

I gotta give it to NWR and Amazon for not watering anything down. This show is incredibly pretentious, but very unique and doesn't try to anything else. If you're not a fan of NWR, this will not change your opinion on him.

One beautiful shot after the other, atmosphere-building silences, sparse dialogue, echoing analog synth drones. If you've seen any of Refn's last 3 films (Drive, Only God Forgives, Neon Demon) then you know the score and you should probably know what to expect coming into this so-called series, which really is much more of a 13-hour movie/bad acid trip.

Except with so much time for Refn to do as he pleases we end up with much more atmosphere-building silent moments, and somehow the dialogue is even sparser - Miles Teller basically plays a corrupt cop version of Ryan Gosling's Driver minus the toothpick. The end result comes across like a non-supernatural, neon-colours David Lynch piece with a mesmerizing score by Cliff Martinez at his best. This alone makes it worth watching - it's like being in an art gallery, watching one beautiful moving painting after another as brilliant, haunting music fades in and out. Is there much underneath this shimmering, beautiful surface? Debatable. Does it matter? Only if you like your TV and movies old school style, with a well-conceived plot and characters you can empathise with.

Being a fan of Refn's previous work I've been waiting patiently for this and definitely not disappointed. Yes it's a slow-burn piece but with that it's building perfect atmosphere and mood! If you enjoyed Drive, Only God Forgives and Valhalla Rising you'll be in for a treat here. The soundtrack is dark, gloomy and the visuals have a beautiful tint of colours.

A little disappointed in reviewers saying it's slow and giving low scores after only seeing 1 episode. It's for viewers with open minds and willing to take in what's happening in a cinematography stand point, sounds, as well as acting and story...

If I was to compare this to other directors work I'd say it has a fair bit of Lynch's abstract filmmaking and Kubrick's tracking shots on top of its own unique originality.

Extremely dark, powerful, provocative and holds a place in my heart.

This not for people that dislike graphic violence and gore. Having said that, I really enjoyed the director's style, the cinematography, acting, plot and production values. This is an extremely dark drama, with really terrible characters, doing really terrible things. However, the plot is constructed in such away, that it is really hard, if not impossible. To know what is going to happen next, or to whom. I was fascinated by the series, and really enjoyed it. I'm surprised at the high number of positive viewer reviews of the series there are, because it certainly is not for everyone.

We cannot be certain of our true selves for we are not the rational creatures we purport to be. We lie to ourselves constantly. And when we do reveal ourselves - it is often with the suddenness and venom of serpents. At the heart of Too Old to Die Young lies a mandala of irrational selves, where characters are adrift in a vivid dreamlike emptiness that is both conscious and unconscious and "time is a river that flows in both directions."

The characters cannot help but to be molded by the irrational, by choices, accidents, violence and experience. You do not need a brick by brick plot in order to decipher them-for with these characters the mighty stone has already dropped into the river when we meet them - and the rippling gyre is already in motion. This is the genius of Refn. The ripples widen, slow and fade like the pure tone of a Tibetan gong.

The cinematography is bold and saturated; the location and settings and lighting is equal to the characterization. It is beautiful and challenging and violently poetic. If you need to cling to manifestations of order and generalized stereotypes to enjoy a work of art - then this won't appeal to you.