The Clearing

I really wanted to like this. I love Theresa Palmer and Miranda Otto is a superstar. There is not a weak spot in the cast at all. I dont usually mind flashbacks and flashforwards, but there are too many and they are too frequent and they are too short. I guess if you set out to deliberately confuse your viewers, you would consider this a success. But when you take the incredibly great performances by the cast (and some of them are truly wonderful) and put them into a confusing and disjointed mess like this you are failing. Still young and active Joe is easy enough to distinguish from old, beat down reprobate Joe, but it is nearly impossible to tell which period Amy/Freya is supposed to be in.

I question the wisdom of watching this when I'm about to have a baby, but if there's one thing I can't resist it's a creepy cult thriller. It was unnerving to watch the events of this story unfold, particularly without having read the book beforehand. Given that the tale is based on real life Aussie cult group The Family, there's already a sense of foreboding as you start the first episode. This sense increases going into the second episode, and you can't help but feel concerned at what might happen next. Theresa Palmer does an excellent job of showcasing the past and present trauma of her character, and Miranda Otto and Guy Pearce play equally disturbed characters. But the true heroes of this series are Julia Savage and Lily LaTorre, who sent chills down my spine with their respective performances. With an 8 episode first season, I suspect The Clearing is only going to ramp up with each episode. Fans of this genre should give this show a watch, it's cast well, has an ominous soundtrack, perturbing visual effects and I'm already itching to see where the story takes us and what secrets it will reveal along the way.

-by Jayne @WatchItWombat.

I just watched the 6 episode and I'm question myself why I keep watching this series.

The first episode were intriguing and i was curious what happend but my questions were answered a few episodes later. After this no new curiosity sparked, no new mystery to solve and the back and forth between -- now three -- timelines really bore me with details i'm not interested in and the flow is lost everytime they make a timejump.

The characters are also really boring specially the main character who is really unlikable.

There are many shows which are slow but they keep sparking interest but this series fails hard in that regard. The timejumps on top of this just destroy the series. Nothing meaningful is happening.

I can just give this series 4 stars. I would give Yellowjackets 6-7 and one can compare them. Both play in multiple timelines and include the 'cult' theme.

If the purpose of the series is to show the trauma after such events than I would compare it with Rectify which I would rate 8-9.

The best series which included time jumps the best is Damages.

There are other slow and low budget series like The killing or even Top of The Lake which are thousand times better then this one.

I'm happy for You if you enjoy this one. Be reminded that there are many better series out there.

I found this series to be gripping, intriguing and definitely kept my attention so much so that I binge the whole series on one sitting couldn't stop watching. I'm a massive true crime/cults nerd which made this all the more interesting given that it is losely based on the really Australian Cult 'The Family'.

I thought the series was very well cast.

The story line was well written.

My only issue hence not a 10/10 is the time jumps, they are not dated or anything apart from one time. So at first it takes a while to figure out what is going on, especially at the beginning. If it wasn't for this would have been full marks.

Just an absolutely phenomenal job from the cast, especially Teresa Palmer and Miranda Otto. Otto is especially chilling in her portrayal of her character at every level of the character's development. She's a marvelous actress who deserves more acclaim. Palmer also shines in a difficult role as a person who has been extremely damaged from her youth in the Kindred cult. Guy Pearce (superb in everything he does) does a great job in a secondary role that is key to the story. Only downside for me is that the story unfolds in multiple timelines and it can be difficult to detect when the timelines change Multiple themes are at play throughout the story and most of them come through without being heavy-handed.