This is the kind of story that should be told in a limited series. I foresee it getting REALLY boring if they try to extend it out to subsequent seasons, yet it seems that's what they're going to do, since they ended the show with a LOT of unanswered questions.
What was the killer's motive, what was his backstory (sure, they crammed it in with a few sentences by the protagonist in the final episode... but there was just not enough meat there), the reason he left items in his victims, the mechanism of the house? Yes, I get that you can dip in and out of different time periods, but why? Who built it? Why was it standing alone in a field in the mid-1880s... and I guess you're telling me they built a neighborhood around it subsequent to that time? That doesn't at all track with the formation of the actual historical neighborhood of Lake View in Chicago. Why and how did things shift outside of the house, and yet some things stayed the same? Why did the protagonist survive her attack? Or did she? Why was she even chosen? Why were ANY of them chosen, for that matter? Why the cross markings on the victims? (C'mon, give us more than just a shot of dead bodies in WWI with crosses on them... that's not a REASON, it's just a visual cue.) What was the significance of the different items left in victims? The radium? The dancer he knew from childhood? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Just a lot of open loops -- I'm not even close to mentioning all of them here... there were a LOT. Which tells me they're probably planning on continuing to return to them in subsequent seasons, but I feel bored just thinking about it. It seems an interesting enough story that could be told in 8 episodes. There's a whole lot of extra stuff that drags the story down and doesn't need to be told. Maybe everything was addressed in the book, but this is not the book. We shouldn't have to read it to have the story make sense -- it's the filmmakers' job to choose the right details to tell the story on the screen. (And I don't feel like taking a chance and investing *more* time reading the book, only to find out the story is just as messy there!)
A primary issue seems to be that the show suffers from that "thing" (I don't know what to call it) where they make some of the very insignificant characters and scenes and props SEEM like they're going to be much more significant, which just wastes valuable story-telling time and feels exhausting, as you're already having to keep track of a lot due to the "jumping around" nature of the show. I thought the jumping around itself was fine, but if you're going to make us pay attention like that, don't ALSO make us think certain scenes and characters and props are going to be significant, when they aren't.
The acting was very good for the most part. Elisabeth Moss needs to stop twitching her eyes like she's about to black out, though. That face got REALLY old by series' end. It's hard to believe none of the directors (yes, I know Moss is one of them, but there are others) noticed it. It was overused to the point that it took me out of the story itself and into thoughts like, "Why does Elisabeth Moss think that this character would be twitching and blinking so much??"
Anyway, I watched all 8 episodes and really WANTED to like it, but alas, I wouldn't recommend it to a friend. I feel like perhaps the filmmakers thought we'd be so caught up in the creepy vibe, good acting, and the interesting "time traveling" concept (all of which was good, to be fair) to notice that the story itself just wasn't well-told. And it feels like that same lazy storytelling would drag the viewer into interminable boredom in subsequent seasons. Pass.
What was the killer's motive, what was his backstory (sure, they crammed it in with a few sentences by the protagonist in the final episode... but there was just not enough meat there), the reason he left items in his victims, the mechanism of the house? Yes, I get that you can dip in and out of different time periods, but why? Who built it? Why was it standing alone in a field in the mid-1880s... and I guess you're telling me they built a neighborhood around it subsequent to that time? That doesn't at all track with the formation of the actual historical neighborhood of Lake View in Chicago. Why and how did things shift outside of the house, and yet some things stayed the same? Why did the protagonist survive her attack? Or did she? Why was she even chosen? Why were ANY of them chosen, for that matter? Why the cross markings on the victims? (C'mon, give us more than just a shot of dead bodies in WWI with crosses on them... that's not a REASON, it's just a visual cue.) What was the significance of the different items left in victims? The radium? The dancer he knew from childhood? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Just a lot of open loops -- I'm not even close to mentioning all of them here... there were a LOT. Which tells me they're probably planning on continuing to return to them in subsequent seasons, but I feel bored just thinking about it. It seems an interesting enough story that could be told in 8 episodes. There's a whole lot of extra stuff that drags the story down and doesn't need to be told. Maybe everything was addressed in the book, but this is not the book. We shouldn't have to read it to have the story make sense -- it's the filmmakers' job to choose the right details to tell the story on the screen. (And I don't feel like taking a chance and investing *more* time reading the book, only to find out the story is just as messy there!)
A primary issue seems to be that the show suffers from that "thing" (I don't know what to call it) where they make some of the very insignificant characters and scenes and props SEEM like they're going to be much more significant, which just wastes valuable story-telling time and feels exhausting, as you're already having to keep track of a lot due to the "jumping around" nature of the show. I thought the jumping around itself was fine, but if you're going to make us pay attention like that, don't ALSO make us think certain scenes and characters and props are going to be significant, when they aren't.
The acting was very good for the most part. Elisabeth Moss needs to stop twitching her eyes like she's about to black out, though. That face got REALLY old by series' end. It's hard to believe none of the directors (yes, I know Moss is one of them, but there are others) noticed it. It was overused to the point that it took me out of the story itself and into thoughts like, "Why does Elisabeth Moss think that this character would be twitching and blinking so much??"
Anyway, I watched all 8 episodes and really WANTED to like it, but alas, I wouldn't recommend it to a friend. I feel like perhaps the filmmakers thought we'd be so caught up in the creepy vibe, good acting, and the interesting "time traveling" concept (all of which was good, to be fair) to notice that the story itself just wasn't well-told. And it feels like that same lazy storytelling would drag the viewer into interminable boredom in subsequent seasons. Pass.