Kiss Me First

When it comes to bad adaptations, there's Eragon and there's The Golden Compass, there's The Girl on the Train and there's The Giver. Then we come to Kiss Me First. One of the worst adaptations of a good novel that I have ever witnessed. I've never been so disappointed in my life.

Of course, a bad adaptation doesn't constitute a bad film or show, there's numerous examples of a film being better than its source material. Hello, Fight Club. I'm sad to say that Kiss Me First is not one of these - it doesn't buck this trend. From the get go, Kiss Me First is an incomprehensible mess. Taking it on face value, it sounds intriguing. A show about the dark side of online worlds, virtual reality and mental illness. but it gets more and more nonsensical as the series goes on. It loses its way very, very quickly. And that's largely down to the script. More and more questions are continuously being raised, with characters going a full 180 in a matter of episodes. When you get to the final episode, you'll begin to realise that none of the questions will be answered, and that none of the episodes that came before it mattered. Look, I'm a fan of Brian Elsley's work, Dates was phenomenal television, and millennials grew up watching Skins, but this is not his best - it's nowhere near. With shoddy dialogue and plot that is all over the place, it's hard to take Kiss Me First seriously.

The biggest shame is that the creators had such a talented cast on their hands, with solid source material. If only they'd followed it more closely, it would have made for a better show, but most of all, it would have made sense.

The first two episodes are really well done. Then, unfortunately,it becomes unnecessarily confusing. Still worth watching.

The story is just so far out it ruins the whole series. Motivations of the characters are just.. too much. Way too many "as if" moments. Progress is very slow, seems like the producers were paid by the minute filmed.

But see for yourself. I had to force myself to finish the series.

Didn't make it past episode 3. All of the characters suck and it's just a teen drama with no real exploration of the VR world that is such a big part of the characters' universe. Avoid.

Too many people want to give either 1 star or 10 stars to everything. But this is exactly 6 stars. The cast, amazing. Every actor (except maybe the woman who invented the game) did a fantastic job.

But then the writing for those characters, pretty bad. If they had literally just cut out episode 5 entirely, which added nothing to the story, and spent that time developing the characters, it could have been an 8 star. With a worse cast, could have been 4 stars.

The tone, very well done up until episode 5. It did a good job at explaining the premise, explaining the stakes, and showing character motivations organically. Then it goes so off the rails at the end its just unbelievable. The last episode literally makes no sense if you stop to think about it for 10 seconds. Even the geography and distance between things is nonsense.

And Im not ashamed to say that the nudity is, again, at first fantastic and becomes a symbol of character growth. Plus, not hard to look at. Then at some point (especially the ending, wtf was that even all about. I feel bad for the lead actress in the one scene tbh), its apparently under the assumption you will get bored without a boob or butt every 10 minutes.

Its weird to be passionate about a 6 star review, but it has so many fatal flaws with such a great premise. Its rare to find something where you arent grasping at straws to give it credit, theres a lot to like here. And yet I wouldn't recommend anyone watch it, especially someone struggling with mental illness. It builds you up just to let you down.

Final note. Seriously, someone please give all three of the lead young people great roles in the future. Such great acting. And to the director, dont try to be M. Night Shamalan or something. Character development goes a lot further than weird twists that go nowhere and ultimately dont matter.