The Rook

The Rook is an interesting series with some fresh ideas, beautifully filmed, but a bit slow for its concept and not showing enough characters' powers in action. The main female character's play is mostly bad and cringe-worthy with awful psychological state of mind.

Most of all, the series lacks fluidity and logic from time to time, very often showing sub-plots and 'random' pictures and acts, leaving it to viewers to link them all together in relation to the whole story.

If they aim for a second season, they need to lube all parts of the story and script up, show more in-depth action and tangible use of characters' powers. The characters interactions together need to be more polished and realistic. In its current state, they are more like pieces of a puzzle, shuffled together and piled up.

All in all, a fresh series, still raw, having the potential to receive a nice polish and shine to brighten up like a diamond.

Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man was purchased for the title and the story was deep sixed. The Rook is similar to anyone how has read the book, which is magnificent. The book is totally Myfanwy's story and the TV show seems like they wanted the book title but not the book, which would have required the team from Stranger Things to do it justice and scare the pants off anyone watching which it would have. This is sort like watching MI-5 with some super powers thrown in. I can't say I dislike the show but knowing the book does get in the way. I will watch the TV show simply because it is not even close to the book other than the title so I just view it as a Procedural, but anyone watching the show good luck figuring out the 'Blonds' and no they are not the Children of the damned all grown up.

Watchable but the week by week drip does not help. This needs to be seen in one long weekend.

This has elements of other shows, like Blindspot, the X-Men. I am particularly fond of mysteries that take a while to unfold. I'm hooked on this show. You do have to put in some effort with the story line. Now let's wait for a few more episodes.

This series reminds me a bit of Blindspot, a TV series I saw a couple of episodes of when it started. Amnesiac girl trying to figure out her life. They don't have a lot in common, really, and The Rook's dialogue is decent, unlike Blindspot, but I just had a feeling after the pilot that this was going to leave me disappointed.

There's a frosty stylishness to the way it's filmed, but hand in hand with that is a distance that makes it difficult to care about the protagonist or much of anything else. There's a mystery there that I didn't feel much invested in, perhaps just because I have gone through so many TV series with so many mysteries that I need more than I was given.

I wouldn't say it was bad. I wouldn't say don't watch it. I'd just say it didn't grab me.

It's not easy to create a supernatural setting that feels fresh. The Rook is the most successful approach since Sense 8. Most importantly, Gestalt is the most original and hypnotizing character idea since I cannot even remember (I guess you can argue "ever"). I am disappointed that they are not the main character, and this is my main complaint: I find Myfanwy one of the least interesting characters in the story. I still really enjoy the show, but it's tailored for a specific audience that enjoy alternative supernatural stories. If you enjoyed Mysfits, The Umbrella Academy, or Sense 8 - I cannot recommend it enough. The story unfolds slowly, but it is way more subtle than I expected from something based on the book classified by many as YA. Gestalt alone make me want to know what happened next.