Episode #1.1

This is a brilliant book & I had high hopes for a film adaptation but Netflix have ruined it. The lead German actor is reasonable, if dull. Lars Eidinger is brilliant ( see Babylon Berlin) but the so-called French female lead isn't French and has no acting ability AT ALL. Hard to understand the casting. So at what point did they decide not to take the French language language and acting ability into consideration? There must be hundreds of good French actresses in London /US. Do Netflix take us all for idiots?

It so very sad to see such a brilliant book brought down by awful acting. Kept wondering if it was the script-but no.

I'm late to finally watching this series and as of this first episode, it doesn't seem so horrible to me. The acting is perfectly good, the characters are engaging, the premise is interesting, the plot zips right along without dead spots, and the special effects are convincing. Just pick anything at random from Netflix and you'll see much worse.

The plotline with the eeeevil Nazi maniacally and sadistically searching for a legendary gem with supposedly magic powers is maybe a bit Indiana Jones-ish, but I assume that's taken from the well-regarded novel on which this series is based, so that can't be the problem.

The first episode did its job, getting me interested in learning more about the two main characters, particularly Werner, and continuing with the series.

Yeah, yeah, I get it: we need light to see but yet we don't always see it. I mean... you might have called it "unseen light" or something...

I bet they thought they were making a thoughtful and revitalizing rumination on evil, morality, truth, persisting against adversity blah blah blah.

I wonder if I use the word "sophomoric" too often but this had absolutely no self-awareness at all. The lay on the attempt at lyricism and pathos with a shovel and it is not subtle in the slightest. That moment when the title becomes dialogue can be amazing but they are as premature as a high-school boy in the delivery and that is a microcosm of this simpering little flag waver.

I might have really liked this when I was 14. The way it colloquizes in a poetical, stylized way with its characters trapped in that episode of history where everything went a bit cuckoo bananas (I think it was just one time; no others ever get into movies).

But it is relentless with pseudo-intellectual drivel and overtones of smugness. The flashbacks with the little blind girl are especially saccharine (quelle petite garce!) and the extended metaphor of the light is so heavy handed...

Everything you need to make sure your serious story isn't taken seriously is there. There's isn't a single character that is both likable and developed. Very sentimental and none of the candour that made Game of Thrones credible; it just talks down to you.

Finally, this cannot be said enough:

It's NOT OK that it's in English.

It's NOT OK that it's in English.

It's NOT OK that it's in English.

That cast a shadow over the whole thing and it wasn't great to begin with.

Unintriguing, flaccid and simply irksome to watch.

I wish that the light had never found this.

I'm finished with people judging an entire series on the first episode. Also, books are books and movies are movies. The reasons for them being different are obvious. We have kind of standard fare here in the portrayal of the Nazis, especially the guy after the jewel. He has to be portrayed as a butcher, I guess, but we sort of know that from history. The first hour tells us about the young woman, her uncle, and her efforts to survive and get her messages out. Her blindness makes all this incredibly difficult. I know that others will be moving onto the scene as she moves forward. There is a kind of cheap narrative hook at the end. Of course, serialized things have been doing that for 140 years or so. The girls is believable, although her ability to survive without help is stretching things a bit. Hugh Laurie as her uncle certainly will come into play. I was really taken with the young man after watching all three seasons of "Dark," where he is one of the principle stars. I am intrigued to see where this goes. I read the book about four years ago, and while I remembered being engaged, I don't have specific memories. For the impatient--take a bit of time and have a look at this in its totality.

For now, I have read the first half of Anthony Doerr novel. An exercise exactly for be in theme about Netflix series.

The expectation - not accurate adaptation because the difficulty is obvious and the architecture of novel imposed more a serious series not only four episodes. . But fair translation of its spirit . Magnificent, intense.

The first episode, indeed, with some not very pleasant differences by images offered by book, makes that. But the serious pillars are the actors and photography.

Beautiful performances and amazing scenes. The encouraging first step is just made and this represents a real good point of series. Sure, maybe the chronologic order of events were little more inspired. But, it is only the fair episode. And , not to ignore, a Netflix production.