Chance

Just finished 2 episodes of "Chance" and it has already left me craving for more. Normally within two episodes you realize where the show is going and what is in store for you but here the writers haven't revealed the crux of the story which has made me intrigued.

You do not have to ask about acting of Hugh Laurie, he is actor of highest quality you can get for the show. Direction, Cinematography and Screenplay are just as perfect as the acting.

I am so confused in a positive manner that I do not know what will be happening in next episode. You just feel like competing the series in one sitting itself and wait for next episodes is killing me !!!

Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to the production team behind CHANCE is that this would have been an interesting show on its own, even before the casting of Laurie.

But there's the rub. They did cast Laurie and thereby elevated this to brilliant.

It is about a "consulting neuro-psychiatrist" which is a fancy way of saying a doctor that takes one creepy case after another.

Add in music that would not be out of place in a horror film and you have all the fixings for good entertainment.

And then there is Laurie himself. What a pro! You would guess he would want to reprise House, one of the most memorable roles in the history of TV. And you would be wrong.

Laurie has crafted his character to be almost the "anti-House." Tentative, awkward, uncertain, shy and fearful. The kind of shrink that could himself use a shrink.

Great show. Recommended.

((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Hugh Laurie is as usual superb, He plays doctor Eldon Chance a consulting Neuropsychiatrist testifying in court on the fitness/capability of some of the god awful cases that come across his desk. As a result of dealing with some of these cases it appears to be taking a toll on him. the first episode is a slow teaser of an introduction to himself, his friends and his ex-wife and daughter. His character is brilliant, human, vulnerable and ultimately flawed.. I made the comparison to breaking bad as the series 'seems' to be his descent into much darker territory. As all things with the mind nothing is quite what it seems... solid acting from all involved, but I have to stress this is NOT a procedural House M.D affair as some people may get that impression from other reviews/comparisons. If your looking for some cerebral, intriguing and mystifying entertainment then this is it... 3 episodes in and I was hooked! Ethan Suplee(Randy from My Name Is Earl) deserves a special mention for playing against type in such a menacingly dark and intelligent way.

This compelling series-noir follows Hugh Laurie as a neuropsychiatrist who plays white knight for a femme fatale in distress, assisted by a helpful tough guy.

Chance feels a lot like classic Noirs like Double Indemnity, and I spent much of the series worried that there would be a too-obvious 180-degree turn. But the series offers more zig-zag turns than turnarounds. Things aren't quite what they seem, but this isn't a house of mirrors either. And for the most part the story holds together well, although one can criticize the unlikely convenience of D, who seems almost Deus Ex Machina.

Hugh Laurie tends to be the most riveting presence on screen, as in House or the Night Manager, but here the rest of the cast is too good to give Laurie and opening to take over. Gretchen Mol is terrific as the fragile damsel, and Ethan Suplee is riveting as D. I was shocked to see in the three pages of user reviews on this series he is rarely mentioned and most of the focus is on Laurie; it's as though people are so used to him being the best thing in a series that they can't tell when he's being outshone. Even though he himself is excellent as the obsessed intellectual going down the rabbit hole.

Chance takes more focus than most TV series. I didn't binge watch it simply because it requires more of me than something like iZombie. But if you're in the mood to pay attention, this is a great series to pay attention to.

It's now two years since this series was inexplicably canned by Hulu in something that will go down in film history as one of the worst decisions ever made. (And this is taking Ed Wood's whole repertoire into account.) The cinematography of Chance is fantastic, the screenplay intelligent and mesmerizing, the acting superb by both Hugh Laurie and and the rest of the cast, the suspense is gripping as it's built up gradually when Dr. Eldon Chance finds himself in pulled into an strange and dark underworld thick of secrets and lies. Highly recommended! Three thumbs up!!

But, four thumbs down for the buffoons at Hulu that killed it.