The Back Pages

The plots are interesting. The dialogue is horrible. The actors are atrocious. They are just really, really, really bad. Their movements are robotic and their facial expressions are ridiculous. When they're supposed to be sad you want to laugh. When they're emoting anger you want to laugh. When they're supposed to be funny (like the ridiculous old man in episode 3) you want to vomit. The show could have been so much better if they hired actual actors instead of pulling people in from the streets. Did the director have any experience or did he just ignore the ridiculousness in front of the cameras for the sake of a quick paycheck?