The solid acting by all involved is why I'm rating this as high as I am (and a few of the lines are decent). With that pro out of the way, let's look at the cons (and ignore all the 10-star reviews on here, those are probably HBO shills):
Basically, I think HBO is past its prime and is just cranking out mean-spirited shows for the sake of being mean and "edgy" trying to recapture the lightning they had in the early 2000s. The Wire this is not.
But don't take my word for it. Try it out, see if you like spending twenty hours with a fully un-sympathetic cadre of emotionally stunted walking anti-social personality disorders who only have fun when it's at other people's expense.
- Every single character is despicable. Hope you don't like shows with someone to root for, because this isn't it. Not even anti-hero territory. They're all rich, spoiled, obnoxious, sociopathic, entitled idiots who make not only poor choices but brain-dead ones for the sake of "plot."
- Speaking of plot, there's very little. Backstabbing, yes, but actual story threads aside from "central characters mess up again," no.
- The father is a downright psychopath. While sometimes fun to watch Cox steal a scene, it also gets old very, very quickly. Yes, he's going to be horrible to his kids. And if he treats his kids that way, just imagine how he'd treat literally anyone else.
- Worst of all, I don't think this is any sort of deep examination of how power corrupts or some thesis on class warfare; although they touch on those issues, it feels more like the creators actually want you, in some way, to *empathize" with these sycophantic sociopathic screwups.
Basically, I think HBO is past its prime and is just cranking out mean-spirited shows for the sake of being mean and "edgy" trying to recapture the lightning they had in the early 2000s. The Wire this is not.
But don't take my word for it. Try it out, see if you like spending twenty hours with a fully un-sympathetic cadre of emotionally stunted walking anti-social personality disorders who only have fun when it's at other people's expense.