-When I first saw the promos for the Rosemary's Baby mini-series, I was interested in the direction that they would take it as well as amazed by how great it looked. Never had I imagined that it would look this beautiful. The scenery of Paris felt like I was watching a Travel Channel special about all the spectacular imagery that Paris conveys in it's artistic landscapes. I could never take my eyes off of the screen whenever a day time sequence was shown. I have never been to Paris, but I can imagine that they captured it's beauty perfectly. Not only do we get a great setting to drool over, but the visuals of the more horrific scenes are interesting to say the least and beautifully shot. That's another thing about this series is it's cinematography. It is eye-gasmic for lack of a better term when watching these scenes take place.
-One of the most important things about a series is it's characters and plot. After all, that is what you came for in the first place. Why should I be excited every week to see these characters engage in a story for hours. In this case, I can easily use one word to describe why anyone should be interested in watching this show: "curiosity". Whether you're familiar with the source material, watched the classic original film, or read online the basics of the story, there is a great sense of curiosity and intrigue where the charters are concerned. The main cast (Rosemary and Guy) are great characters on their own in terms of establishing an every day average couple finding themselves in the world. It's the supporting characters that take you in and challenge your sense of mystery and wonder. Yes, there are many times where my knowledge of the original film takes over and plots it out for me with some of the characters, but it never takes away from my thoughts on wondering what's to come. That's a sentiment to the brilliance in the writing. Everyone seems to be hiding something and even if they're hiding it in plain sight and you recognize it with ease, it's still brilliantly handled.
-Rosemary is played very well and may I say refreshingly by Zoe Saldana. It's great to see characters adapted differently over the years and I had no problems at all with Zoe in the role. I knew she was a high caliber actor and it showed in this first episode. As for the rest of the cast, Guy is played by Patrick J. Adams (who some people might know from "Suits") and he does do a great enough job in playing the struggling writer trying to find success. It's the supporting cast that really puts the horror and mystery elements up front with Carole Bouquet and Jason Isaacs who brilliantly plays the mysterious couple helping Rosemary and Guy. There are other great performances (thought not a lot is seen in the first episode of them to really spotlight) by Olivier Rabourdin as the commissioner and Christina Cole as Julie. I especially liked the commissioner character as I felt he was one of the rare situations where the police commissioner didn't feel like a total waste of time and actually added something to the story.
So being somewhat of a fan of the original film (I never seen it in it's entirety to fully appreciate it yet), I couldn't help but think that the iconic "This isn't a dream" moment could've been better handled. It's fine what they did here and probably worked for the story perfectly in the way the writers planned, but I feel like visually the scene in the original drew me in a lot more and added the horrifying element of the situation a lot better. In the original, you couldn't fully see what was happening as everything was cloudy for the most part. That was genius as we the audience was somewhat experiencing what Rosemary was at the moment on a hazy visual sense. So when the terrifying imagery of claws and monstrous eyes pop up randomly, we can relate to her in that "what the hell is going" type of way. When she states that she's not dreaming and that what she's experiencing is in fact real, it makes it a lot of more scary. As for this version, not a lot is left to the imagination as they show quite a lot removing the nightmarish element to a degree. Another thing that I didn't really care for was the character of the robber constantly stealing someone's purse only to be revealed to be the man in the photo that Rosemary found in their apartment. I like the mystery element behind it, but it felt a little out of place. I think this will be fully explained and given the closure needed in the second half, but for now I can't say I'm fully on board with this side plot.
I think as a whole, Rosemary's Baby is down right gorgeous to look at and it has a lot to offer in the mystery and suspense department. Aside from a couple things that I wish were done a little differently, the series has started on a good foot in it's first half. Let's just hope that the conclusion is just as great if not better than the beginning. There's a lot that can go right as well as wrong at this point. As an optimistic viewer, I stray towards the positive path.
-One of the most important things about a series is it's characters and plot. After all, that is what you came for in the first place. Why should I be excited every week to see these characters engage in a story for hours. In this case, I can easily use one word to describe why anyone should be interested in watching this show: "curiosity". Whether you're familiar with the source material, watched the classic original film, or read online the basics of the story, there is a great sense of curiosity and intrigue where the charters are concerned. The main cast (Rosemary and Guy) are great characters on their own in terms of establishing an every day average couple finding themselves in the world. It's the supporting characters that take you in and challenge your sense of mystery and wonder. Yes, there are many times where my knowledge of the original film takes over and plots it out for me with some of the characters, but it never takes away from my thoughts on wondering what's to come. That's a sentiment to the brilliance in the writing. Everyone seems to be hiding something and even if they're hiding it in plain sight and you recognize it with ease, it's still brilliantly handled.
-Rosemary is played very well and may I say refreshingly by Zoe Saldana. It's great to see characters adapted differently over the years and I had no problems at all with Zoe in the role. I knew she was a high caliber actor and it showed in this first episode. As for the rest of the cast, Guy is played by Patrick J. Adams (who some people might know from "Suits") and he does do a great enough job in playing the struggling writer trying to find success. It's the supporting cast that really puts the horror and mystery elements up front with Carole Bouquet and Jason Isaacs who brilliantly plays the mysterious couple helping Rosemary and Guy. There are other great performances (thought not a lot is seen in the first episode of them to really spotlight) by Olivier Rabourdin as the commissioner and Christina Cole as Julie. I especially liked the commissioner character as I felt he was one of the rare situations where the police commissioner didn't feel like a total waste of time and actually added something to the story.
So being somewhat of a fan of the original film (I never seen it in it's entirety to fully appreciate it yet), I couldn't help but think that the iconic "This isn't a dream" moment could've been better handled. It's fine what they did here and probably worked for the story perfectly in the way the writers planned, but I feel like visually the scene in the original drew me in a lot more and added the horrifying element of the situation a lot better. In the original, you couldn't fully see what was happening as everything was cloudy for the most part. That was genius as we the audience was somewhat experiencing what Rosemary was at the moment on a hazy visual sense. So when the terrifying imagery of claws and monstrous eyes pop up randomly, we can relate to her in that "what the hell is going" type of way. When she states that she's not dreaming and that what she's experiencing is in fact real, it makes it a lot of more scary. As for this version, not a lot is left to the imagination as they show quite a lot removing the nightmarish element to a degree. Another thing that I didn't really care for was the character of the robber constantly stealing someone's purse only to be revealed to be the man in the photo that Rosemary found in their apartment. I like the mystery element behind it, but it felt a little out of place. I think this will be fully explained and given the closure needed in the second half, but for now I can't say I'm fully on board with this side plot.
I think as a whole, Rosemary's Baby is down right gorgeous to look at and it has a lot to offer in the mystery and suspense department. Aside from a couple things that I wish were done a little differently, the series has started on a good foot in it's first half. Let's just hope that the conclusion is just as great if not better than the beginning. There's a lot that can go right as well as wrong at this point. As an optimistic viewer, I stray towards the positive path.