User Reviews

The inevitable implosion and the whole edifice crashes down.

A fabulous first half to this series, the back half, though, is sluggish, half baked and not so great. It would have been better to condense everything to four episodes.

Great music, some good performances and an exhilarating story, let down by poor pacing.

Although not perfect and proudly ahistorical, the first four episodes are highly entertaining. Episode 5 slows in places and it gets worse in this episode.

Perhaps trying not to lazily retread Alex Cox's excellent 1986 "Sid & Nancy", Boyle concentrates on Jones' feelings rather than the ugly but compelling Vicious/Spungen saga. The results are slowly paced, only mildly interesting, and over-reliant on artsy visuals that often seem like pretentious filler. Boyle wisely warps the timeline and ends with one of the Pistols' more iconic performances rather than remaining fixated on Jones' decline, but the ensuing oddly-colored and obvious CGI transition to the end credits seems like more filler. Boyle seems to have run out of things to say and tries to compensate with out-of-place visual flair.

The episode comes across like a high school essay awkwardly stretched to 1,500 words from a 1,000-word first draft. I was hoping for something better.