The Crowded Room

This was surprisingly good series. Great levels of drama and mystery and the pacing is perfect. Each piece of new information is provided at the perfect time to keep the viewer engaged and build up more mystery and drama. And the pieces fit like a perfect puzzle. The character's trauma is exposed step by step and it makes the viewer sympathize with a criminal, despite the crime.

But one of the strange failings of the series, one which jumped at me because other Apple series approach the same way, is a strange "sin of the past washing". They put a lot of African-American (or women, or minorities in general) characters in positions of power (judges, prosecutors) which was certainly not the case at the time (late 1970s). The show that caught my eye with the same was For All Mankind and I can't unsee it now. Washing the past makes in various series, present one included, makes it look like some people were far more accepted at the time than they really were, and it makes newer generations believe that.

Ok I have to admit that Holland was just spiderman in my head. Another cute young, charming actor playing easy roles for their personality. But wow! Nope, he did such and incredible job in this movie! The second it flashed back to high school and you see his demeanor change to this innocent shy kid, I was impressed. That was just the beginning of his performance! It transforms into such an impressive compilation of versions of himself as the film jumps around with flashbacks. He was great! Now I led with that only because I was floored and had no idea of his talent. However, ALL the actors were brilliant and Seyfried was incredible but she always is! All around great series! I am only half way through but can't wait for more!!

I've been looking forward to The Crowded Room ever since I first heard about it. Then my excitement grew after seeing the trailers for this. Now that I started watching it I can say that's it definitely worth watching. While it may not be quite what I was expecting it's still pretty good. There are plenty of wrists and turns to keep you interested and the talent on screen is as good as it gets for a tv show. I mean Tom Holland, Emmy Rossum and Amanda Seyfried are all A-list actors who all give terrific performances here, especially Holland. Tom Holland has really become a great actor. He's juggled between huge blockbusters and smaller more serious roles like this and he's been excellent in all of them, even if the show or movie itself isn't that good you can always count on him giving a great performance.

Was initially excited to watch this then so put off by the absolutely awful reviews. Which upon reflection were unfair also I sensed some pettiness with the critics reviews as they didn't like being asked not to mention what we later learn in the show. I've just finished episode 6 and felt compelled to write this review after the fantastic performances I've just watched. I agree the first few episodes setting the scene are a little slow and disjointed to begin with but it is all leading up to more! Give it a chance there really are some fantastic performances especially Holland who really gives it his all.

I just started this and it looks like it's going to be really good. But ... When I was a kid , my mom took me to see Grease. She was extremely annoyed having grown up in the 50s , that the dialogue being used and how they acted was not accurate to what she remembered in the 50s. Of course back then, I was thinking " Geez mom, you're so old. Lighten up!" Now I get it. There are so many shows I have watched recently that are set in the 90s ,80s or 70s. Yet they are using dialogue that didn't exist or the teenagers are behaving like kids do now, not necessarily as they did in the 70s. Use of the word "literally " literally just became popular in the last few years. The word "dude " wasn't an east coast term. I know this because I grew up in California and when I went to live on the east coast in the early nineties, people were fascinated that we called people " dude" . I got made fun of for being a typical Californian . If they wanted to really be authentic, they would only have needed to watch the Brady Bunch. Or another show popular in the 70s. Other than that being a pet peeve of mine. This looks like it's going to be a great show.