Full Circle

Steven Soderbergh is a one trick pony. Flashy camera angles and cuts with little substance. I'm so beyond tired of the "immersive" style of shaky camera footage that it truly makes me nauseous. Literally. The camera work in this show makes me incredibly nauseous- it's not avant garde anymore bro- it's just painful. On every level. I've watched every episode thus far just to be fair.

The story is not terrible. I can acknowledge that. But it is not rendered well.

Outstanding actors across the board and a well renowned director- one would assume a smash hit.

But one would be very wrong to assume. The story plays like recycled garbage and the camera work is despicable- truly hard to watch without vomiting- honestly. It has been a Painful slog just to view this mess.

I imagine the cinematography department voiced objections- if they have a conscience. But it fits the director's style, so I imagine any objections were not well received.

Tldr: decent story with excellent actors Wasting their time with a one note "super star" director. So painful to watch I feel compelled to write this review.

Even Claire Danes couldn't save it. It seems like everything is ruined by poor directing. Chaos. Inconsistent atmosphere that makes you sometimes lose track of whether it's supposed to be thriller or comedy. Especially in the scenes with Timothy Olyphant. Lots of unreliable situations that don't allow you to immerse yourself. When it comes to the characters from Guyana, it feels like it's fantasy; when the scenes involve the wealthy family, it feels like it's drama. Lastly, I know New York well, and this is the first production set there that I don't believe it is. And it's not an advantage that they experimented with, for example, "a different NYC," no, it's another unreliable element. Because of all this, the whole series feels like you're grading a school assignment: "they did this wrong, that's good," instead of simply following the story.

The plot is quite interesting and keeps you wondering what will happen next. Actors are pretty good, but seeing Claire Danes made me feel like she was still playing Carrie from Homeland. She basically only has one aggressive expression. The dialogues were at times a bit tiring. Especially the annoying scenes involving Zazie Beetz (Mel Harmony). The story itself was not that credible, but still entertaining. Not sure about the creative camera-angles. It works sometimes, but feels somewhat unnecessary. I had a hard time keeping up with all the names and persons introduced, so this is not something you can watch half asleep. Would I recommend this to a friend? As a summertime view, yes. Will it stick with me? Definitely not.

Lots of bad reviews, generally, although a complex plot, it's a good show at heart. The only thing hard to take is the Postal Inspector character, she is so irritating and annoyingly smug, she works for the postal service but acts like she is an elite agent of the CIA or FBI, why people don't just tell her to go F herself, I don't know. She ruined nearly every episode, ruins every scene she was in. The ridiculous premise of this character always being ahead of the NYPD, the FBI, without any basis for this insightful knowledge is utterly baffling, such a good director should have known better.

But, if you follow the winding plot, it's worth it, the acting is good and It would have been an amazing show without the one annoying, unbelievable character.

I'm a Soderbergh fan, even if I don't like everything he does. He's not someone who's going to direct the next Marvel movie, he takes chances. My biggest complaint with him is usually his dialogue which often feels improvised. It didn't get a whole lot better here.

I appreciated the overall messages of this one. It was a story about accountability, and about how sometimes you can be held accountable for the way you hold people accountable. The story unfolds very gradually, you're given the pieces of the puzzle in a somewhat tedious manner and I think he struggle with finding a way to reveal everything so it felt a tad clumsy.

It's hard to recognize the quality of the acting because the characters are all such doofuses, but I think everyone did a pretty good job. Special mention to Zazie Beetz who I usually don't like but she was really good here, annoying though her character was meant to be.

The biggest crime committed was the blue bag they made Clare Danes wear as clothes.