I liked it, but the way this series played out is something I’ve been currious about for a LONG time.
Start the series out as a typical drama and then several episodes in, with no warning, add a sci-fi or supernatural element to the show.
My guess is that as much as I liked it, it’s just going to piss most people off.
I remember when From Dusk till Dawn came out, a lot of people were pissed bc they thought it was going to be a heist movie when it turned out being about vampires. Even though those same people like vampire movies.,
I haven’t watched the series, but this description makes me want to watch it. I think the idea of changing genre mid-work is interesting and isn’t done enough.
My wife and I just finished it. Yeah, the supernatural twist was kind of a left turn and caught us by surprise, but we rolled with it. And the twist on the twist in the last episode was pretty well done in terms of making everything fall into place plot-wise. Reminded me of the movie
Interesting that we had pretty different reactions to the twist, @kayaker. As the OP wondered, would you have bought the premise of the twist if you had gone in knowing there was a supernatural element to the show, or did you just think it was objectively ridiculous?
I don’t mind straight-up crazy fiction, like superhero movies, but they are in that universe from the start. I didn’t mind the lucid dreaming stuff, as that’s real. But to start off in the real world, and then suddenly have spirits flitting about, I felt cheated.
So it sounds like it is the bait-and-switch that turned you off, rather than the subject matter itself, as the OP speculated would be the case with a lot of people. It does take kind of a hard left turn from a real-world drama to a supernatural mystery, and my wife and I both went “whaaa…?” But we adjusted our expectations and enjoyed it as a supernatural thriller / mystery. It should probably have been marketed as such so people don’t feel like they’re getting the rug pulled out from under them.
Just watched it, and the lack of clues that it was that kind of story did piss me off. Compare to movies like, oh, Angel Heart, or Jacob’s Ladder. Those take a hard turn in terms of genre, I think, but you kind of see that something’s coming. Here, episodes 1-4 seemed to point to there being something hincky on the order of one or more of the characters being deluded, or dreaming it all, or something psychological like that. But not … well, y’know.
I give it 10/10 for execution — really well-done plotting. And then deduct a bunch of points for using THAT as the overarching plot device with no notice.
This is exactly how I felt after reading the book a couple years ago, and now I feel annoyed all over again knowing it was made into a miniseries. I really felt cheated.
I watched it too, and I’m definitely in the naysayers’ camp. The genre-shift was much too abrupt, and the supernatural stuff seemed goofy and silly. People are calling the plot twist a “left turn,” but it felt more like veering off a cliff. It didn’t help that the final episode was filled with inane plot contrivances.
I don’t have a problem with stories that switch genres, or supernatural plots in general. Angel Heart, already mentioned in this thread, is a masterful example. Behind Her Eyes felt like a 6-hour practical joke. “Bet you thought this was going to be a sexy 1990s-style psychological thriller, like Basic Instinct or something! HA HA YOU FELL FOR IT!”
I loved it. Of course, I had seen this thread when it was first started so I was expecting things to go hinky. I wasn’t expecting it to go there, but expecting something that might disappoint kind of lessened the disappointment and allowed me to just go with it. Still, I can absolutely see it not working for some.
One thing the author of the book upon which it’s based said is that they made sure there were no plot holes. If you look back, everything that was shown fits the conclusion. I got to thinking about it and I couldn’t think of any contradictions. I’m tempted to watch it again to pick up on all the clues, now that I know what was going on.
