I am conflicted. It's not a bad show, but I feel like it's been misleading in its advertisement, at least. When I read the premise, I expected something like a look back at father-and-son bonding experience, and the affect of separating the two due to cruel circumstances. But it does not really have much (if any) of that.
Other has pointed this out, that it tries to cover a lot of social issues. The issues covered are absolutely valid, they are important, and it may, indeed, be a good idea to cover them in a good show. But the way the show does it is very shallow and narrow. Even Vincent's mental illness (and anguish) is... Just too obscure, too wishy-washy and, in the end, somewhat pink-glassed. And Vincent's and Edgard's relationship is not described at all besides a few inconclusive scenes in 1st episode. I get it that lack of true connection between them could be the point, but it and both sides' reaction to it is just not believable. A short story "Father Dearest" I wrote a decade or so ago is about the same thing, and it is way more detailed and believable, and I am not a professional writer.
The second main storyline was way more interesting for me, because it was a detective work, and Ledroit felt way more human to me. It genuinely felt like he is an honest, but not perfect cop, that wants to really help the world. It might have been a bit cliched at times, but still good. It also worked nicely in terms of introducing little threads here and there and then converging them all at the end to show bigger picture. Predictable to an extent, but still good and satisfying.
But even this storyline, human connections felt... Underdeveloped. And this is the ultimate blow to this. The actors are amazing here, the way they bring the characters to life gives those characters weight, like there is a big background story behind each and every one of them. Those background stories are not tapped into, though. I get it, that in some cases it's done for the sake of "suspense" and mystery, and in some - to make things feel more "natural", but I feel, that if they stretched the show just for 1 or 2 more episodes by leveraging flashbacks, they could have enriched the characters and made them more relatable.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. You can definitely enjoy the show thanks to the actors, and you probably will be satisfied with the end of the investigation here, but the overall ending of the show will probably leave you somewhat empty.
