AMC took the interesting (but not unique) tack of previewing the first episode of this drama at twenty-one movie theatres around the US followed by the livestream of a Q&A with most of the actors and the showrunner. I went in without reading anything beyond the info that it was a US remake of a two-part UK series.
Without spoiling, the episode was intriguing and very well-written, and the plot was quite different to anything I've seen currently on US TV. The acting was top-notch - and the idea of bringing over two of the leads from the original series to recreate their roles very likely made it even better than it might have been otherwise.
Rather than starting with a "whodunnit" at all, this is more of a "how will they get away with it." Yes, that idea's been done before. But the overall storyline is, again, quite different.
My one big complaint about this series - which has a nicely diverse cast of men - is the women. All ranges of male ages can be found in this show. Indeed, there's a very large male cast.
Women? Not so much. In fact, there were only four women total with screen time in this first episode - and one of those only in flashbacks. The three women in the present were all younger - the oldest might be in her early 30s. The people running this show have no love for mature women. Even the secretary to the lieutenant seems to be no more than her mid-twenties - hardly a standard in the working world.
Oh, and only one female detective was visible for the entirety of the episode. Really? In this century they couldn't justify more women than that in an entire police department?
FYI - don't be fooled by the multiple female actor names in the IMDb listing. I saw none of them and can only assume they were either extras or have very small roles in upcoming episodes. (Even if they were all in attendance, again, the age range seems to be between 22 and 33. Not exactly what one would see in the real world.)
Considering the female population that they could be engaging, AMC would do well to address this egregious "oversight" and add at least a modicum of more mature women to the cast.
For now, I'm going to give more of this series a pass until they have more of a reality check on the missing 50% of the country.
Without spoiling, the episode was intriguing and very well-written, and the plot was quite different to anything I've seen currently on US TV. The acting was top-notch - and the idea of bringing over two of the leads from the original series to recreate their roles very likely made it even better than it might have been otherwise.
Rather than starting with a "whodunnit" at all, this is more of a "how will they get away with it." Yes, that idea's been done before. But the overall storyline is, again, quite different.
My one big complaint about this series - which has a nicely diverse cast of men - is the women. All ranges of male ages can be found in this show. Indeed, there's a very large male cast.
Women? Not so much. In fact, there were only four women total with screen time in this first episode - and one of those only in flashbacks. The three women in the present were all younger - the oldest might be in her early 30s. The people running this show have no love for mature women. Even the secretary to the lieutenant seems to be no more than her mid-twenties - hardly a standard in the working world.
Oh, and only one female detective was visible for the entirety of the episode. Really? In this century they couldn't justify more women than that in an entire police department?
FYI - don't be fooled by the multiple female actor names in the IMDb listing. I saw none of them and can only assume they were either extras or have very small roles in upcoming episodes. (Even if they were all in attendance, again, the age range seems to be between 22 and 33. Not exactly what one would see in the real world.)
Considering the female population that they could be engaging, AMC would do well to address this egregious "oversight" and add at least a modicum of more mature women to the cast.
For now, I'm going to give more of this series a pass until they have more of a reality check on the missing 50% of the country.