I’ve been on holiday for three weeks (the benefits and perils of being a consultant) and of course various series were put aside for my enjoyment of an evening.
Three in particular, and in increasing order of quality and with my initial reaction to them.
Designated Survivor - very, very silly indeed. Ludicrously convoluted, more deus ex machina than Harry Potter would dare shake a wand at and with a horrible whiff of jingoism to boot.
Westworld - meh, was so looking forward to it and indeed it looked wonderful but I did not care one single jot for anyone in it. I was a little worried that the Abrams/Nolan link would mean that it would disappear up its own memory loop and alas that is what happened. I can’t be arsed to untangle what exactly was real and which was memory and I speak as someone perfectly happy with the set-up and narrative of “Primer”.
The Handmaids Tale - this was a different class. Scary and gripping on a level that the other two can’t touch. The best Sci-fi takes a simple “what if?” and runs with it and this was a great example. The interspersed sections of the fall of society and the rise of Gilead laid out a frighteningly plausible turn of events.
The most depressing part of all of this is that they all seem slated for another series. I think if you can’t say all you need to say in 10+ hours of TV then you have either failed as a director or are simply milking the idea dry. Tell the story and then stop FFS.