I really liked the book, but bailed on the series after a couple of episodes. Somehow a narrative that was really compelling for me in a book didn’t translate.
That said, it was very well reviewed, so we may be in a minority.
Hard to say what constitutes better, without knowing what you’d prefer. But it is a little slow - there are scattered acts of violence, but they’re all quite short and not really dwelled upon. There are a couple of plot-lines that arguably remain under-explored/under-explained. There is definitely some meandering, though generally with purpose. It all comes together in a pretty satisfying conclusion, tying all the various plot threads (well, the main ones anyway) and timelines into a nice bow. But it is a very deliberately paced series, more so than most. It’s a little arty for all of it’s post-apocalyptic setting 
.
I enjoyed it, but it definitely isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
ETA: Maybe the fact that the author considers her book literature, rather than science-fiction, tells the tale about the focus more than anything 
. (Like all such slightly snooty pronouncements, i.e. Margaret Atwood, I consider her to be a little full of shit on the topic - it’s absolutely a form of SF, just not pulp).
There was actually a fair bit of discussion about Station Eleven much earlier in this thread, for any who care to do a search and check it out.
I watched two episodes of Vicious on YouTube.
What happens when you take two of the greatest actors of their generation and cast them in a sitcom that makes Are You Being Served look like Shakespeare? One hour of my life that would have been better spent pulling my fingernails out.
I gave Vicious a try years ago. I don’t recall when I gave up but it had to been in the 1-3 episode range. It was amazingly awful.
We just finished No Good Deed. As noted by others, it is a problematic show.
First of all, it is not a comedy-drama, or a dark comedy or any such thing. It’s a straight up serious drama.
The first episode was a mess. Waaay too many characters all at once. It’s ~ half hour show so no time for character development. The cast bloat continued to be a problem since they wanted to have as many of them as possible in each, short episode. There’s a reason why Seinfeld had 4 regulars.
But … there was something interesting developing over time. So we stuck with it. Yeah, a very small fraction of it was intriguing and had some interesting turns. You just had to sit thru the crap and misdirection’s.
Some major plot bombs occurred that resulted in no real fallout. What?
I love Lisa Kudrow and I’m glad to see her do serious stuff. But this is nowhere the level of her best role in The Opposite of Sex.
Same. Stellar lead casting aside, the writing was basically "Take all the best catty remarks you can come up with and just heap them into a pile in hopes they will magically fuse into a coherent script (Narrator: “They did not”). The straight man (in both meanings of the term) would just sit in their apartment for the purpose of being an audience to these remarks despite having no reason to be there and saying very little.
McKellen and Jacobi are brilliant actors but they couldn’t save this. I’m amazed it got a second season, frankly.
I am on season 2 of my White Collar watch. I nitpick/complain but I do find it amusing.
I tried Shameless and couldn’t get through the first episode.
Years ago, knowing how everyone loved Breaking Bad, I watched the first episode and thought it was intriguing. The second one bored me and I haven’t been back.
We rewatched and then binged the final Lower Decks season. Loved it! (Had to watch the SNW episode for the crossover.)
I just finished No Good Deed last night. After I watched the first episode about a week ago, I didn’t feel like going back. Like you said too much going on in 30 minutes. But I went back in and binged the whole series. I’m glad I did. There were lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing. And no you’re right, it is not a comedy of any sort!
Watching Video Nasty, a BBC series about Irish teens in the 1980s attempting to collect a complete VHS set of 72 movies that had recently been banned in the UK. (Anything more I’d write or you would read in reviews is in spoiler territory.)
I enjoyed it right up until the final episode when a MKII Cortina 1600E with a 1979/80 (V) registration plate turned up. Did they think that car nerds wouldn’t be watching? I gave them extra points in earlier episodes when the period cars were a nice mixture of 60’s-80’s vehicles as you would have expected at the time. Then they made me shout at the telly with that one mistake!
Season One of Severance is available to stream for free on the Roku Channel until January 19.
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I’m assuming you’re referring to the American show that was broadcast on Showtime; it was based on a UK series of the same name. I liked the American show but really liked the UK original.
I took advantage of the free Apple streaming over the weekend and enjoyed Severance. But not enough to pay for Apple. I’ll wait until Season 2 is done and look for a free trial.
Earlier today, I watched the first two episodes of The Pitt on MAX. It’s a new hour-long drama set in a busy urban hospital emergency department and starring Noah Wyle. Sound familiar? It should; many of the people behind it were responsible for ER, except this time Noah Wyle’s character is the grizzled veteran and ER started with him as the new resident.
I watched the first episode of American Primeval on Netflix. It was quite good but I plan to watch it in small doses because I can only handle so much violence, human despair, and mud (so much mud) after dinner.
It takes place in 1850s Utah Territory where Indians, Mormons, trappers, settlers, migrants, federal troops, scouts, and bounty hunters are doing a very bad job of getting along. Betty Gilpin plays a prim Easterner who apparently has a violent past of her own.
I started binging For All Mankind these last two weeks and was enjoying it but around S1EP8 and 9 it has gotten too soap opera ish and began to bore. I’ll come back but I’m starting Missing You on Netflix just because the lead is one of the Slow Horse gang. Just one ep so too soon to judge.
I’ve been watching the new British show Patience starring Laura Fraser. It’s the familiar formula of an unorthodox savant solving crimes alongside a Police Detective, but this time they are digging into autism and neurodivergence as authentically as they can.
So far I like it, but it doesn’t quite have the pizzazz it needs to really stand out, so it may not get another series.
Halfway in the second ep was enough to judge. Pass.
I’m not surprised. Harlan Coben has mini-series deal with Netflix and has been pumping out one schlocky show after another. I watched the first one, Safe, and it was hot garbage.
The spouse is watching The Following with Kevin Bacon. It’s deeply ridiculous and I can’t sit and watch for very long.