First, I want to start with the positives of this show: I think it's great that it tackles the problem of overpopulation - something that is talked about way too little nowadays. The show has some very impressive visuals (the colours and the scenery) and a good general outline of story (the virus, the comic book). I am a sucker for originality and I have to admit there was a lot of that.
However, this is where it ended to me, the show has A LOT of weak points. The biggest one to me were the characters, 3 of the 4 main characters (Becky, Ian and Grant) are almost in no way interesting, charismatic or likable. I understand that they were supposed to be the "normal" characters in the show, but the fact that they don't have a crazy past doesn't mean they should be almost entirely devoid of any complexity. This is a huge problem, because a lot of the dramatic scenes would have only worked if I cared for the characters, but with so much death and murder in basically every episode (often of other important characters), I couldn't care in the least if one of the main ones was murdered too.
The character development was also suspect. Many characters changed way too drastically in way too short of a span: Wilson Wilson turning into an absolutely brutal psychopath during the last 5 minutes of the last episode; Arby turning into a peace loving family man; Jessica Hyde at some point suddenly turning into a self-obsessed nymphomaniac that wants children? I understand they wanted to make Jessica Hyde more human, but wasn't she all about "individual people don't matter and this is bigger than all of us" in the beginning? There was almost no transition between these states, we see characters going from one extreme state to a completely different one in one single episode.
A bit too much of the show depended on the "shock" and "taboo" factors, from the very first scene the show seems extremely full of itself, along the lines of "look, we can kill a kid in the very first scene, we're so controversial and cool". I am okay with violence in movies and series, but a large part of it seemed like violence for the sake of keeping up with the amount they had in previous episodes.
The comedy attempts in the show were okay, but nothing noteworthy.
Overall, the show had everything except for a good writer. Perfectly, I think, this could be solved if they hired a great comic book writer to write the story for them (as the whole thing does have an intentional comic book feel) and then have a high-class screenwriter adapt it for TV. I'd give it a 6.5/10 if I could.
I am excited for the American remake that could solve all of the series' problems, With David Fincher and Gillian Flynn making the remake, they probably will not go in the "comic book" direction, but it should be much better than the original.
However, this is where it ended to me, the show has A LOT of weak points. The biggest one to me were the characters, 3 of the 4 main characters (Becky, Ian and Grant) are almost in no way interesting, charismatic or likable. I understand that they were supposed to be the "normal" characters in the show, but the fact that they don't have a crazy past doesn't mean they should be almost entirely devoid of any complexity. This is a huge problem, because a lot of the dramatic scenes would have only worked if I cared for the characters, but with so much death and murder in basically every episode (often of other important characters), I couldn't care in the least if one of the main ones was murdered too.
The character development was also suspect. Many characters changed way too drastically in way too short of a span: Wilson Wilson turning into an absolutely brutal psychopath during the last 5 minutes of the last episode; Arby turning into a peace loving family man; Jessica Hyde at some point suddenly turning into a self-obsessed nymphomaniac that wants children? I understand they wanted to make Jessica Hyde more human, but wasn't she all about "individual people don't matter and this is bigger than all of us" in the beginning? There was almost no transition between these states, we see characters going from one extreme state to a completely different one in one single episode.
A bit too much of the show depended on the "shock" and "taboo" factors, from the very first scene the show seems extremely full of itself, along the lines of "look, we can kill a kid in the very first scene, we're so controversial and cool". I am okay with violence in movies and series, but a large part of it seemed like violence for the sake of keeping up with the amount they had in previous episodes.
The comedy attempts in the show were okay, but nothing noteworthy.
Overall, the show had everything except for a good writer. Perfectly, I think, this could be solved if they hired a great comic book writer to write the story for them (as the whole thing does have an intentional comic book feel) and then have a high-class screenwriter adapt it for TV. I'd give it a 6.5/10 if I could.
I am excited for the American remake that could solve all of the series' problems, With David Fincher and Gillian Flynn making the remake, they probably will not go in the "comic book" direction, but it should be much better than the original.