A beautiful start and then terrible writing
First, a warning. The summary is completely misleading about the tone, and is completely missing major, core parts of this premise.
This is a very hard show to just give a rating. I got like halfway through and it was sitting at 9+ in my mind. A show that makes me that invested in the characters, and has me crying at how powerful the moments are, normally has a guaranteed MINIMUM rating of 8+.
Shows that make me angry enough to think about dropping, normally get a MAX 7.
My spoiler-free advice is, if you get to a point in the early-middle of this where it feels like "this is actually a nice place to wrap the story" -- JUST DO IT. There are 2 big points where I had this thought, and I wish that I had. Everything that comes after is just so dumb and disrespectful to the characters, while adding NOTHING to the story. There really is no loss to dropping early.
THE GOOD:
The leading actors give amazing and rich performances.
There is a trauma aspect to this plot, that is handled better than many... until its not.
hrm, thinking about what else to say, it really is just the leading actors and their (initial) characters that make this good to me, it seems
THE BAD:
Major, plot altering decisions are given no basis in character motivation. It is so jarring that it (more than once) seems like entire scenes are missing.
The men in this are completely controlling and end up being a large focus, and despite them being bad and harmful in their decisions, they never receive any consequences or even are portrayed as their actions having been bad. They are literally thanked and apologized to instead. Gross.
The bad people (except 1) receive absolutely no consequences. This is actually disappointingly typical in this genre, but this show is notably worse about it. Actual horrible person who does horrible things never even apologizes, and just suddenly becomes trusted and relied upon. I still get sick even thinking about it.
And the things that make me want to be sick go on. Just idiotic plot choices, forcing characters into situations just for angst or whatever. The entire second half is both gross and poorly written.
This is a very hard show to just give a rating. I got like halfway through and it was sitting at 9+ in my mind. A show that makes me that invested in the characters, and has me crying at how powerful the moments are, normally has a guaranteed MINIMUM rating of 8+.
Shows that make me angry enough to think about dropping, normally get a MAX 7.
My spoiler-free advice is, if you get to a point in the early-middle of this where it feels like "this is actually a nice place to wrap the story" -- JUST DO IT. There are 2 big points where I had this thought, and I wish that I had. Everything that comes after is just so dumb and disrespectful to the characters, while adding NOTHING to the story. There really is no loss to dropping early.
THE GOOD:
The leading actors give amazing and rich performances.
There is a trauma aspect to this plot, that is handled better than many... until its not.
hrm, thinking about what else to say, it really is just the leading actors and their (initial) characters that make this good to me, it seems
THE BAD:
Major, plot altering decisions are given no basis in character motivation. It is so jarring that it (more than once) seems like entire scenes are missing.
The men in this are completely controlling and end up being a large focus, and despite them being bad and harmful in their decisions, they never receive any consequences or even are portrayed as their actions having been bad. They are literally thanked and apologized to instead. Gross.
The bad people (except 1) receive absolutely no consequences. This is actually disappointingly typical in this genre, but this show is notably worse about it. Actual horrible person who does horrible things never even apologizes, and just suddenly becomes trusted and relied upon. I still get sick even thinking about it.
And the things that make me want to be sick go on. Just idiotic plot choices, forcing characters into situations just for angst or whatever. The entire second half is both gross and poorly written.
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