DMZ

The premise of this is odd to say the least: there is a second civil war going on in the US, which would be a big deal worthy of a true blockbuster series, but the show spends roughly 15 seconds talking about it, and then we're just stuck following inconsequential people the rest of the way. Mostly a mother looking for her long-lost son, or petty gang bosses holding small-time political rallies. It's such a weird waste of a potentially phenomenal backdrop.

What made the graphic novel so successful, albeit uneven, was the ambitious scope of the story, detailing the effects of the war on so many people stuck in the DMZ, struggling each day to survive. Whereas here it barely registers as a conflict. Probably as a way to save money, but then why take on such a grandiose source material, if you're just going to keep a few characters and a minor fraction of the plot? Parks are a little less tidy and here and there there's a burnt vehicle, but mostly Manhattan seems unaffected by a supposedly brutal war. People are living a normal life, with electricity, running water and block parties with music and street food. It's as ridiculous as it is pointless.

If you're a purist of the comic, this is definitely not for you. If you separate it from that, it's still not that great of a show. No particular actor or actress steps out to steal the spotlight. The directing of the first episode is horrible and jumps around too much to allow the viewer to understand what is happening. It gets marginally.better but it's been done before and done better.

This is not a 1 score, neither is it a 10 score. Its just a lazy, badly put together, forgetable trudge through a DMZ that is unrecognizable from the original comic. I gave up after the 2nd episode because I had absolutely no interest in seeing anymore or it.

The characters are so cringeworthy with their decisions and choices and just general demeanor. The story crawls at a snails pace and is filled with SO MUCH melodrama. Most of it isn't earned or built up to begin with to leave any impact. The editing and direction makes me want to vomit, there are so many cuts in a scene...cut to face, cut to other face, cut to handshake, cut to face again, cut to other face in like 10 seconds...It's extremely annoying. There is one big action scene in the 3rd episode that could have actually been cool, all the elements were there to make it cool, but you definitely could tell the person never shot action before and it was LAME. I'm being generous with a 5 because the actors all do fine work and are really giving it a 100% effort, the set pieces and world building were pretty cool as well. Disappointing.

I barely made it through the first episode.

My opinion is that it's not gritty enough for the setting that it proposes and story isn't very compelling. I had higher hopes for an HBO production. They should have put the money for this into more seasons of Raised by Wolves. :P.