Eric

I recently watched the show and found it to be a captivating and well-crafted series. The characters were well-developed, and the themes were thought-provoking. However, I couldn't shake off the feeling that the show was slightly overstretched. Could have been made atleast 2 episodes shorter..

Sometimes I felt that the pacing dragged in a few places, and some scenes could have been trimmed or condensed to maintain a tighter narrative. In each episode the sideway scenes make you do fast forwarding.

Despite this, the show's strengths outweigh its weaknesses, and I would still recommend it to fans of the genre. The acting was superb, the writing was clever, and the overall story arc was satisfying.

A lot of what's done here is great. The 80's setting is faithfully recreated, from the overly-tagged subway cars to grainy, vintage police station.

For that reason I gave it a 5/10. There is interesting stuff here.

Problem is, you are going to hate almost every character. Most of them are insufferable bleep holes, the main character most of all, and even the puppet is incredibly unlikable.

Will it entertain you? Perhaps.

But go in knowing that this show may well annoy you way more than it entertains you.

I know for some people that's not a huge dealbreaker, but for me, I kind of wish I could get my time back.

Frankly, I don't understand the mediocre reviews.

It can be a product that some might not like and deserve a poor rating based on personal taste, or it can be liked and then be a true rare gem.

There are very few standalone series like this, so well narrated, that can boast such a good performance from all the characters involved. Therefore, it definitely cannot be considered a mediocre product deserving of a 5, 6, or 7 rating.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a character with whom it's really difficult to empathize; all the characters are so human that it's hard to see them as purely positive, all with their light and shadow.

Try it, it's a special series.

Benedict did a phenomenal job acting. Honestly, all the acting was great (even the kid). But there were entire unnecessary scenes that caused the show to feel like it was dragging. The timing was inconsistent, and the direction was weak. I kept thinking, "David Lynch would've done a better job with this." It was watchable, but only in the sense that I could be up doing things around the house or working on other things. It wasn't riveting enough to focus on. There were redeemable elements, like the fact that it represented the 80s more accurately than Stranger Things. Everything really was brown. I would not ever watch this or anything like it again. I'm not sure this was worth being a series, though. Maybe a movie, with all the boring parts cut out. But definitely not a series.

I agree with mostly all of the low reviews.

It's long, and it might become tedious.

The characters are unlikeable.

The unwinding of the plot point seems to be a middle finger to the viewers.

There's way too much going on to even make it into the agenda.

Nobody seems to care or noticed the bad CGI, or the incongruence of ambient.

It's supposed to happen during the mid 80's but everything looks as the 70's in the beginning and then of the 90's by the end.

And there's something called perspective, you can't have building far away looking as clear as the objects nearby.

Those are 6 hours that I will consider a long nap, just because I don't want to be upset.