aubuchon

I try to keep an open mind for all new series. This one follows a well-trodden path. Finding a serial killer before he kills again. For that to work the characters have to be interesting and the storyline needs to have at least a modicum of believability. This fails on both. I remember watching the lead actress Melissa Roxburgh in Manifest and feeling the same thing. She seems like a very nice person but acting is not her forte. She speaks with urgency but lacks conviction in her delivery. I don't know if any amount of acting classes can cure that. The pace and story is typical police procedural. Main character, Roxburgh, getting back in the fold but not quite sure if they want the job. They seemingly solve the mystery long before the show ends so you can see the plot twist coming a mile away. One bright spot on the show is Nick Wechsler who plays Oliver on the show. He's one of the best actors around. He's been in numerous series and played Jack Porter in 'Revenge' . There's a scene in that show where his dog passes away. He did such a realistic performance that the lead actress was even crying. She fed off his energy and showed some real emotion for the first time in that show's history. There is always a chance this show could get better if they switch out writers for each episode since most of the actors are fairly talented except for the lead but I'm not holding my breath.

W. C. Fields said "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull***t" He also said "You can fool some of the people some of the time -- and that's enough to make a decent living." I think both quotes apply to this movie. The script is like a Rube Goldberg machine. They quote numerous outlandish scientific theories and mathematical equations that all lead nowhere. These type of movies gained ground with 'Blair Witch Project'. A movie about making a movie sets off a red flag with me. They seem to devolve with each one. I've coined a new term for these misguided efforts. I like to call them faux documentaries. They incorporate a lot of reality TV methods which include outright lying to the audience and presenting it as "reality". Watching them constantly smoke cigarettes was cringeworthy. They put a lot of effort into this movie but the end result is a train wreck.

Everyone in the series ages about 15-20 years before the last episode except Criston and Daemon. They both stay in the their early 20's. All the plastic surgeons in the world couldn't achieve that miracle. Leans to the soapy side. The show reveals how the monarchy is embedded into every English-born citizen's brain in real life. The self-absorbed and entitled disposition of royalty was too much to stomach. This is the end of review. IMDB requires that I type 200 more characters before they will accept it so I'm going to do just that. It's not a difficult thing to do but it seems like a waste of time since the whole of what I wanted to say has already been written.