No I never read the books, but the first season was written well enough that it held my attention...it was decent enough TV viewing, certainly better than all the CSI reruns that are clogging up the airwaves. What are my other options? Black Mirror is hit and miss, Orphan Black slowly worsened over time, Z Nation is unwatchable now, we're in a lull before the next season of Walking Dead, which is getting worse and worse anyway. So I thought I'd give this show a whirl, and it's entertaining, and the characters are nicely developed. My problem is that the show is frequently both repetitive and forced; as an example, may I submit the scene where they're escaping from the witch in the forest and one character stops and looks back while another character pulls them along. They did this three times, each time with different characters, and the only thing they accomplished was making it appear exactly like what it was: filler, and forced dramatic filler on top of that.
You can't force the viewer to care about the characters, the story is supposed to do that. In a world where the powerful alpha female is inexplicably taking over all storylines (Maggie on TWD, any female detective on CSI, Amanda and Farah on this show, Madani on The Punisher, detective McCarthy on Happy, etc etc etc), it would serve the writers well to dial back the agenda a bit and give their lead female characters a few faults here and there, at least to make them believable instead of using them to pull in more female viewers. I would think female viewers would want to see a woman acting like a woman instead of a woman acting like a man.
And I realize it's supposed to be zany escapism, but at least play by the rules. A real sheriff would never be that sloppy, a real government agency would never be so poorly run as to allow just anyone to take over...and while I'm on the subject, why did Ken flip? There is absolutely no reason for his change of heart. What makes him qualified to run the agency? Was he vetted, if so by whom?
It was a so-so ride, so I wouldn't be upset if this show weren't renewed for a third season. I don't know why it's hovering around 8.4, I guess a lot of people just automatically hit "10" instead of give the rating some thought.
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