This really is superb television. The direction is first class, the performances are great across the board and the writing is nuanced enough to at times intelligently make you question if the bad guys really are as bad as you thought they were just ten minutes ago. It could easily have been way too heavy but despite the gritty nature of much of this show the writing is sharp enough to encourage heartfelt emotional investment from the viewer.
SPOILER follows:
For me the only caveat - and this is why it loses a point - is that when in the first episode we meet Taylor Kitsch's character Ben I thought to myself, 'Please don't get to the very end and we find out his best friend has betrayed him!'. Well, if you've watched this already you'll know how it ends. Despite it being a bit of a cliche I think the writers did a good job of explaining Ben's motivations in trying to support Reece in his vengeance but I found the 'at least they get to die with their boots on' line rather weak.
Incidentally, the way this 'betrayed by his best friend' plotline played out has been done many times before. One example that immediately springs to mind the 1998 film Twilight starring Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman. In that film James Garner plays 'the friend who made bad choices' who gets shot by the protagonist at the end.
I REALLY liked the finale when the bird/window scene plays out to a satisfying denouement. It's just fantastic writing all round. Not woke, of course, which probably helps a LOT.
SPOILER follows:
For me the only caveat - and this is why it loses a point - is that when in the first episode we meet Taylor Kitsch's character Ben I thought to myself, 'Please don't get to the very end and we find out his best friend has betrayed him!'. Well, if you've watched this already you'll know how it ends. Despite it being a bit of a cliche I think the writers did a good job of explaining Ben's motivations in trying to support Reece in his vengeance but I found the 'at least they get to die with their boots on' line rather weak.
Incidentally, the way this 'betrayed by his best friend' plotline played out has been done many times before. One example that immediately springs to mind the 1998 film Twilight starring Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman. In that film James Garner plays 'the friend who made bad choices' who gets shot by the protagonist at the end.
I REALLY liked the finale when the bird/window scene plays out to a satisfying denouement. It's just fantastic writing all round. Not woke, of course, which probably helps a LOT.