Breakers

Yeah it's another one based on the Groundhog idea, but it comes up with some interesting plot twists and keeps you wanting to watch. Obviously it's low budget but they really do well with what they've got. Worth your time.

This is another one of those shows you've never heard of then stumble on it by accident on Prime. They can be really hit and miss, to the point I've stopped watching many before episode 1 is done.

This one did something unexpected. Despite obvious low(ish) budget production values - they're hard to deny - the story was genuinely immediately interesting. I wanted to see what happened next. The lead actor James DeWitt is an absolute unknown to me, but I found him very endearing. He is for the most part very deadpan and unemotional. This could just be a lack of acting range but it really suited this character perfectly so I'm going to be kind and really rate him. And I honestly felt the production got increasingly better as the episodes progressed.

Ten episodes was just the right side of stretching it. They could probably have got away with 8 but it definitely benefited from TV form rather than a rushed movie. Be warned though, it is a 'stuck in a time loop' story so it gets increasingly confusing towards the end as you try to remember what has and has not happened. Not a show to watch if you're only half paying attention.

Overall this is not a big commitment in terms of time and well worth a watch. It does a sci-fi repeated time story without the deep science of something like Looper. And it touches on some religious vibes without the heaviness of something like Left Behind.

This is the kind of gem you can unearth from your streaming services if you search hard enough (and are lucky). Not typical of any particular genre. When groundhog day spirals out of control. Ok, it doesn't have the highest production values but it is well constructed to support the story. And it is all about the story which develops over the series in unexpected directions.

I would have loved to see where a second series would have taken us.

I will look out for the creative team and see what they can achieve in the future. They deserve that opportunitity.

PS I loved the music too, haunting and in keeping with the show.

The other reviews here make no sense to me. Breakers introduces an entirely new twist to the Groundhog Day canon that I have never seen tackled before. Every episode reveals something new, with suspense building steadily until a perhaps confusing, but definitely intriguing climax. Bring on Season 2!

Please persevere with this. It's bad at the beginning, almost to the point of being deliberate. The colour is off, the camera work shoddy and sound design unpleasant. As the series progresses, it all gets better. I am trying to work out whether this is deliberate, as if until he 'finds his story' the world is bland and pointless. If this wasn't intentional.... no idea why, but it really does become worth it further in.