Having read through the previous reviews here the main gripe i find people having with this show seems to be how it isn't an accurate portrayal of it's source material. So having not read the book i'll judge it purely on it's own merit.
Now i pretty much boycott every production that springs from Sweden. What made me give this one a go was mainly how it was an HBO production, a company i associate with quality tv. As i suspected the production was very good with nice cinematography and sets etc. But the best thing was the story and the actors who kept me glued to the screen all the way through. I do however have a few gripes about this show, and the reasons to why i'm not rating this any higher than an eight.
First of i think that the delivery of certain lines from the younger cast felt a bit stiff even if the written dialouge itself was very good and believable. This didn't happen often and the cast was overall very good. My main gripe however was that i felt the show was a bit too short. The build up to the main conflict was great, with the show doing a good job at introducing us to a large amount of interesting characters. The pacing was also really good at first but i thought the second half of the show was a bit rushed. Character motivations started to change too quickly and i felt some more screen time should have been handed to some of the side characters to flesh out the story more and cover more topics. But all in all it was a great show, well made and exciting from start to finish whilst also raising some important questions.
Now i pretty much boycott every production that springs from Sweden. What made me give this one a go was mainly how it was an HBO production, a company i associate with quality tv. As i suspected the production was very good with nice cinematography and sets etc. But the best thing was the story and the actors who kept me glued to the screen all the way through. I do however have a few gripes about this show, and the reasons to why i'm not rating this any higher than an eight.
First of i think that the delivery of certain lines from the younger cast felt a bit stiff even if the written dialouge itself was very good and believable. This didn't happen often and the cast was overall very good. My main gripe however was that i felt the show was a bit too short. The build up to the main conflict was great, with the show doing a good job at introducing us to a large amount of interesting characters. The pacing was also really good at first but i thought the second half of the show was a bit rushed. Character motivations started to change too quickly and i felt some more screen time should have been handed to some of the side characters to flesh out the story more and cover more topics. But all in all it was a great show, well made and exciting from start to finish whilst also raising some important questions.