hanaahbraan

Spellbindingly directed and acted, this is a tour de force in thought provocation that I reckon deserves an award or two. The hum feels like a metaphor for many things. For anyone who has experienced or lived with/alongside trauma, monotony, isolation, misidentification, social misalignment or misunderstanding, there is common ground to be found in this production. It doesn't attempt big bold answers or judgements on right or wrong, but rather shares a gripping portrayal of a mix of characters, each of whom are experiencing something beyond the norms of everyday life, ie the hum. Both the trailer and the descriptions do lead you down the path of expecting some sci-fi infused plot twist, which is a pity and sadly misses the point completely.

One of those where you wish zero stars was possible. My main beef is the appalling lack of cohesion. It's an absolute car crash of half baked ideas, dialogue styles, filming techniques, and particularly poor sound editing, not to mention to dreadful casting. I withhold comment on Nicole. Broadly, if this is the best Amazon can do, the book on which this is based must be horrendous. Ragbag storyline notwithstanding, literally everything is poorly executed. I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing that Amazon is dishing out the dollars to such amateurish directors and producers. If you know Hong Kong culture at all, this is like low rent TVB drama with more money than sense... a bit like the obnoxious expats it so poorly attempts to portray.

Terrible dialogue, shoddy concept, lousy editing, not funny, not interesting. Nothing makes sense and I have no clue what this show set out to achieve. I feel embarrassed for Kate Winslet. Seriously Kate, fire your agent. One lead role speaking in borderline period English, with the other smashing out a shoddy pseudo-Slavic accent, but why? Just why. If indeed this is supposed to be a parody of 1980s Romania, someone should take note that Romanians do not speak with comedic Russian accents. This was mind numbing to watch and I'm still figuring out why I watched it to the end. Perhaps because it's HBO and I usually trust the brand enough for a show to pull through. This just didn't. It starts flat, goes nowhere and ends flat.