I'm amazed that so many people have slated this series.
I'm a pretty discerning viewer, with high standards in regard to production values, quality of writing directing and performance, and overall technical and artistic excellence. I'm a stickler for detail, violently object to having my intelligence as a viewer insulted, and am very critical of everything that I watch. But after avoiding this series (due to bad reviews) for some time, I eventually decided to watch it, expecting the worst.
Perhaps, then, my lowered expectations were partly responsible for me enjoying it so much. It certainly wasn't perfect, but I was gripped from beginning to end, and was very well satisfied with the overall quality of the production and all the elements I listed earlier.
I did feel that the last episode was a little rushed, and rather desperately flailed around trying to tie-up all the various narrative threads, but it was a satisfying (if somewhat predictable) conclusion.
My main concern before watching, having read numerous comments and reviews about it, was Michael C. Hall's accent. I have been a huge fan of his through Six Feet Under and Dexter, but had very low expectations of him being able to pull-off a convincing British accent. (Americans doing bad British accents is also a big pet peeve of mine!)
So I was frankly astonished at how well he did it. I am British, and speak with basically the same accent as his character. He sounded just like me, consistently and throughout, apart from two very brief and minor slips - neither of which would have betrayed him as an American (more likely a Brit with a regional accent who's had elocution lessons to sound less provincial).
Anyone knocking his accent in this is either just looking for ways to attack and fixing on an obvious target (though an unwarranted one) or else is unable to properly recognise or analyse accents because of their own poor ear for such things.
In my opinion, this was very much an above average series, and Hall was fabulous in it.
