morrataxco

(I've not read the books or watched earlier versions.) Alex Cross is investigating two crimes: the murder of his wife and the death of a local activist. The motivation for the first is not exactly unfamiliar territory for a cop series but the second is original, albeit very over the top. We are left guessing about the first baddie and there are a few red herrings, but we are shown the second one from the start. He is a cliché of nutty, bleached-blonde billionaire with various authority figures in his pocket, but is played very well. The scenes involving his "art" are quite hard to watch - and the premise made me very uncomfortable - so I could only binge two episodes at a time. (Which, I guess, is not binging!)

The best thing about the series is the rapport between the Alex and his cop partner and best friend John, and Alex and his family and the talent of the actors (including the children) for bringing this to life. The series has a kind of dark, "cartoonish" vibe to it, which, I think, makes some of the more "this is too much" or "we've seen many times before" scenes still engaging. For example, I enjoyed the final episode even though the entire scene has been played many times before. However, I agree with others about the lighting: at times I could barely see the reaction on people's faces.

I watched the first episode - and boy did it drag. I could see what they were attempting to do but it just didn't work in my opinion. It wasn't funny - I didn't laugh once - and any quirkiness felt forced.

We've seen the supporting characters time and again, so quite a few cliches there. The main character is supposed to be the town freak - but she is an attractive and witty woman, not exactly Wednesday Addams-like! Also, there was way too much narration which I found irritating.

I like things that are a little different - I just very much enjoyed the Aussie black murder comedy Deadloch - but I don't feel inclined to watch any more of this.

I wasn't aware of the original novel, so I came to this without prior knowledge or expectations. It seemed like the sort of thing I would usually enjoy. I watched the dubbed-in-English version which probably made it less enjoyable than a subtitled version.

At the end of episode one, my partner was keen to continue. I would have abandoned it. The pace was glacial! Oh well, only two more to go, I mistakenly thought. Unfortunately, there were six in total! Three too many!

The "what happened to Josy" mystery was quite easy to solve, unfortunately. I grew to quite like Dr Roth and the spiky older woman though, which was the only saving grace.