I watched the first episode and liked it, though it was one of those shows where everything is so dark you can’t see what’s going on even outside in broad daylight at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Meant to watch the second episode but I had a vicious migraine on Sunday night, so I’ll try to catch it tonight.
I liked the first episode better but I’ll give it another few episodes. I did think the scene in the bordello was so unrealistic I honestly thought it was the girl’s dream. Maybe I missed something but I just kept expecting her to snap out of it. No way!
I do think the doctor’s wife and that set up in the country was interesting although I’m confused at how he moved to the country but was available in an emergency to set Copper’s leg?
Well, it did give him a alibi.
I think he’s just in Harlem. IIRC, the city part of NYC stopped at about 57th st. back then.
I thought I remembered them saying that he was moving to 125th St. If so that was 6 or 7 miles from Five Points. In an emergency a fast moving carriage could get there and back in two hours.
The whole episode was melodramatic wish fulfillment, but that’s what most dramas are these days. If Batman could make a point of needing a bionic brace for his leg and then simply ignore it after it was established I don’t see how this is different.
Watched episodes 1 and 2. It’s OK, but nothing special. They’ve set it up with a broad ensemble of characters that should allow for non-repetitive storytelling.
I can’t believe what I’m reading.
The only thing I can think of is that sometimes, around bed time, I get so sleepy that if I start watching something, I always just fall asleep.
But this show was absolutely “gripping”. Or maybe you could say it was absolutely “riveting”. From the opening scene of the first episode til the last scene of the second episode, once you start watching this show, best not make any plans or a couple of hours because you will be riveted to your seat for that long.
It’s just a fantastic show.
Just be sure to skip Episode 00 - it is just some kind of preview. Start with Episode 01 and then watch 02 and 03.
I watched the first episode, partly because it was free on iTunes, and partly because I used to work for Cineflix, the production company that made it.
It definitely has potential, and if I liked period pieces I’d probably keep watching it. That said, if it gets renewed for a second season (and I hope it does, as I’d love to see Cineflix make more dramas and less reality type shows), I might download the rest of the season after the fall-winter TV season is over and I’ve run out of other things to watch.
I’ve watched the first two shows, and it has promise, but if they continue to name-drop the show title every show, I’m out.
Liked the second PE less than the first, so I’m out and will wait until I hear it gets a lot better.
While I also think it has potential, some of the line readings are just horrible. The daughter of the dead man in the last episode? Wow. It was like watching a performance in a junior high school play.
I also get kind of eye-rolly when every female character is in luuurve with the main dude.
But I think it could get better, and the main character and the doctor are both watchable.
You and I aren’t watching the same show.
What are some of your other favorites so I can get an idea of where you may be coming from?
How plausible is the African-American doctor’s forensic work? I’m skeptical that, given the science of the day, he can reach such conclusions about causes of death.
We’ve been watching it. Not impressed, not turned off. Just barely enough interest to keep watching.
Too much modern sounding language and idiom. But an interesting “steampunk” type vibe to make up for it.
Blacks dominated the lower levels of the funeral industry for a long time. It was considered too “demeaning” for whites to prep bodies, dig graves, etc. So, a lifetime of working in the dead body field could conceivably give Dr. Freeman some training. (And the “doctor” part might have been more based on experience than a degree?) Don’t know if this was going on by the late stage of the Civil War.
He and the widow are the two most interesting characters and he’s stuck out in the tullies now with a space filling wife.
The pace of the names running by in the credits in the most recent episode I saw was fantastic. Could hardly tell that they were even credits rolling by. Don’t the unions have any say over this nonsense?
Wasn’t there something about him studying medicine in Paris?
yes, med. schools in europe had a more liberal entrance policy at that time. he mentioned working at the morgue.
the nyc morgue at bellevue is several years off at the time of copper.
they are keeping the history rather close, perhaps an extended life here or there of backround types (the bishop), but really close.