pariszone

As always, there can be no faulting Hanks performance. The storyline lacked punch however (IMO). It's billed as a comedy-drama but the story was skewed far toward the drama side and was light on the comedy side. Further, I found the plot to be extremely predictable. If you have been feeling down and blue after the holidays and needed a film to pick up your spirits a bit, look elsewhere.

Hanks can lift a film higher than it would have been had it starred anyone else but even his amazing skills were not to lift this depressing film out of the dark rut it is in right from the beginning. If you are feeling depressed, this would not be "good medicine" for you.

I'll say right up front that as an American, I had no knowledge of any previous series by the same name, so I went in as a "clean slate". While I was initially impressed by how "smart" the shooting seemed to be (smart in the sense of being modern and stylish), the sheen quickly wore off. It's as if the writers consulted "the big book of clichés" in coming up with a storyline. It's really rather sad that the only scenes which held my attention were those of the sniper doing his dirty work. Everything else was just filler.

I started wondering if it was just me and that I simply could not suspend my own disbelief long enough to give the series a fighting chance. It was then that I dove into reviews others had written. I can only reach the conclusion that it "isn't just me". The series is predictable, the characters are irritating, and the music is... well... more irritating than the characters.

Here in the US, this is being shown through the PBS system. Only the first three episodes are free to watch without a PBS subscription, so those are the only three I have seen. I won't be making a monetary donation to see the remaining five episodes. From what I've seen so far, I'd say this could have (almost) made a halfway decent "made for TV movie" but in no stretch of the imagination can there possibly be eight episodes of material worth watching. As Gertrude Stein reportedly said, "There just isn't any 'there' there."

One would think if one had any control over time whats-so-ever, one could have used those powers to speed up the movie just a tad. It crawls along at less than a snail's pace.

Honestly, I am only 1/2 way through the movie and already it seems I have been watching it for an eternity. Hopefully something eventually noteworthy happens.

Since I've yet to see the end, there are no "spoilers" involved here but based on what I've seen so far, I am guessing it will meet the two criteria of a "chick flick". 1. Nothing much happens during the movie. 2. One of the main "nice" characters must die in the end.

Again... That is just a mid-movie prediction... not a spoiler.