acstrasser

Carnival Row looks and feels fantastic. The costumes, the lighting, the setting, the music all are all wonderful. The fantasy setting is very cool. It's steam-punkish (mix of fantasy, guns and steam technology). The only thing that never hit a high note was the story. For me, it was enjoyable but I never felt compelled to watch the next episode. It was easy to wait until my next commute, but I finished. For me, it was too predictable and I never felt emotionally invested in any of the characters. If you're looking to escape the daily news cycle this show is a mixed bag. There are LOTS of evil white guys (but lots of diversity elsewhere) and some social commentary but not enough to ruin this "fantasy world" show (yet). I plan to tune in for Season 2.

I can't fathom the 8+ rating on this. It's a low budget production with a junior college patina. The recognizable actors perform adequately. The rest are terrible. It's a story about human behavior where the people don't behave as actual humans would behave. The script seems to have been written by a thirteen-year-old or a cloistered nun. Somebody with very little life experience. Maybe even an alien from a UFO writing a high school essay. The ultimate let down is that we walk away after several hours having learned nothing. There's no insight here. Just a waste of time. 8+ star ratings for this series is downright offensive and cruel and misleading.

You remember how much you loved "The A Team" or "The Million Dollar Man," then you watch an episode now and you realize it's unwatchable today. Similarly, "Hanna" doesn't meet today's standards. This is a poor immitation of the Jason Borne series. I can look past the immitation, but the writing is ridiculous and action sequences aren't believable. They can be summarized as follows: tiny girl overpowers grown, trained, military or police men as they move in slow motion or just stand there and take a tiny beating. There are SO many instances where you say, "that makes NO sense" or "there's no way THAT would have happened." Some sequences are SO bad they descend into a cheesy 70's sitcom vibe (the arms depot robbery). I made it through 5/8 episodes and finally had enough scripted silliness from a show trying to be serious. I found I didn't care about Hanna because her character is undefined and flat. She just keeps things moving by doing stupid things. I certainly wasn't in awe of her abilities thanks to poor directing/editing. If you want to see it an anti-heroine done right, watch "Absentia." Your welcome.