It's a mixed bag. As the show started, I was not enjoying the preciousness of the children as they preciously acted precious. The treehouse-girl's simpering voice was a little too much for me. I did not like the lead actors much, either. It seemed horribly cast, and the backstory of the child's deafness and the father's death were too much. Everyone in the first episode was trying too damned hard. At the baseball game, for instance, all of the parents emoted and acted and acted/emoted heavily through the scene. In terms of direction, the director seems to have kept pushing the actors to give more and more and more. "Dial it UP A BILLION NOTCHES" seems to have been the director's most frequent command during shooting, judging by the grimaces and head- wagging and bug-eyed shock of all the actors. Then at some point I realized I was watching Milo Ventimiglia and I relaxed a little. Then I recognized Dee Wallace playing the main character's mother or grandmother or nanny (that could have been explained a little better), and I relaxed further. And I started enjoying the show a little more. Ventimiglia brought some acting skill that broke the ridiculousness of the first episode's tone. I made it through the next two episodes, binge-watching it and enjoying things more and more. It's a mixed bag, I say. The story should be compelling and fascinating, and at times it is kind of interesting. But...something is missing. I don't know what. I'm going to watch the show as it unfolds, but I wonder if the director and producer were trying to squeeze too much intensity out of the actors in those early scenes.
Review of The Whispers
