1899

After three hours, I decided I wasn't going to invest another five hours on this. It's a competently put together mystery show, but I am not enjoying it at all. I am not enjoying the characters, I am not enjoying the mystery, I am not enjoying how fucking seriously everything is taken, and I don't give a shit what happens next or how it ends. If it turns out to be something brilliant, let me know, but I won't bother further at this point. And yet, when it comes to the premise, I am the target audience. Oh dear. (17.11.2022)

The new series from the Baran bo Odar, creator of the successful Dark and the great Who Am I: No System Is Safe, is a decent mystery thriller, but it’s not the discovery of the year, the rewriting of the charts, and the new Netflix smash hit, and I'm actually disappointed with the project. The series can rely on quality craftsmanship, it has great production design, the setting and the exploration of the ship new and old has its charm, the soundtrack always at the end of each episode is very fine. The acting is decent, although no character really impresses, the atmosphere is nicely mysterious in places, and the mystery itself seems ambitious and I don't doubt the director's qualities, he's devised it skillfully, but I absolutely stopped caring about it halfway through the series. At the beginning I was surprised, as I had no idea what to expect and one question after another was thrown at me without any answer and as soon as I got answers to those questions, I actually stopped being interested, because I find the concept is quite trendy these days and crammed in almost everywhere (I don't want to say what it is, but it bothered me). I would have much preferred if they had kept it more down to earth and relied more on the mystery or horror side, which is more or less absent here. It's really dense mindfuck in places. When there is a twist, no proper action comes out of it. I would have preferred if there were ghosts or clones on the other ship, I would probably have cheered. The pacing is also a problem, it's painfully slow and by the end I was suffering slightly and had trouble finishing it. I gave up on Dark for a similar reason, and this didn't sit well with me as a result either. However, fans of Dark and slow mystery stories should give this a chance. 6/10. (18.11.2022)