Reviews

Carnival Row looks and feels fantastic. The costumes, the lighting, the setting, the music all are all wonderful. The fantasy setting is very cool. It's steam-punkish (mix of fantasy, guns and steam technology). The only thing that never hit a high note was the story. For me, it was enjoyable but I never felt compelled to watch the next episode. It was easy to wait until my next commute, but I finished. For me, it was too predictable and I never felt emotionally invested in any of the characters. If you're looking to escape the daily news cycle this show is a mixed bag. There are LOTS of evil white guys (but lots of diversity elsewhere) and some social commentary but not enough to ruin this "fantasy world" show (yet). I plan to tune in for Season 2.

I can't fathom the 8+ rating on this. It's a low budget production with a junior college patina. The recognizable actors perform adequately. The rest are terrible. It's a story about human behavior where the people don't behave as actual humans would behave. The script seems to have been written by a thirteen-year-old or a cloistered nun. Somebody with very little life experience. Maybe even an alien from a UFO writing a high school essay. The ultimate let down is that we walk away after several hours having learned nothing. There's no insight here. Just a waste of time. 8+ star ratings for this series is downright offensive and cruel and misleading.

You remember how much you loved "The A Team" or "The Million Dollar Man," then you watch an episode now and you realize it's unwatchable today. Similarly, "Hanna" doesn't meet today's standards. This is a poor immitation of the Jason Borne series. I can look past the immitation, but the writing is ridiculous and action sequences aren't believable. They can be summarized as follows: tiny girl overpowers grown, trained, military or police men as they move in slow motion or just stand there and take a tiny beating. There are SO many instances where you say, "that makes NO sense" or "there's no way THAT would have happened." Some sequences are SO bad they descend into a cheesy 70's sitcom vibe (the arms depot robbery). I made it through 5/8 episodes and finally had enough scripted silliness from a show trying to be serious. I found I didn't care about Hanna because her character is undefined and flat. She just keeps things moving by doing stupid things. I certainly wasn't in awe of her abilities thanks to poor directing/editing. If you want to see it an anti-heroine done right, watch "Absentia." Your welcome.

Beautifully filmed. Fascinating people. How did so many articulate, interesting people end up in a flop house? Watch and find out. Oddly, it's an uplifting experience.

Repetitive imagery. Boring. Random filming for an hour. Boring. Bad music selection. Boring. Meaningless titles. I gave it 2 stars for a few interesting encounters. Not worth the time spent.

Bosch is enough to carry the whole show. Very cool. Titus is cast perfectly in this role. You come to know and love the whole cast of characters.