A Netflix Original Series

Finally finished watching the first season and much of it is worth recommending. The story is good, if a little oversimple. The photography is lovely (although I do have a 4K TV and it is shot in 4K, so your results may vary). But it’s really about the acting. Smartly casting smaller roles with wonderful actors, “Boardwalk’ Empire’s” Irish heartthrob, Charlie Cox, is a believable and likeable superhero and Vondie Curtis-Hall lends all sorts of credibility to the proceedings as the cranky veteran reporter with a heart of gold. Even Scott Glenn’s couple appearances are multi-dimensional. But the show REALLY belongs to Vincent D’Onofrio. As the villain, he somehow channels the idiosyncratic pauses of William Shatner’s “Capt. Kirk,” and makes them terrifying, mesmerizing, and utterly real (I watched his delicious delivery of the line “watching videos…of…cats!” ten times). As with any show one binges on, you notice some repetitive scenes, and there are a couple times an episode’s director gets in the way of the flow by changing up the style too drastically, but it’s definitely worth trying a couple episodes and seeing if it tickles your fancy. I really enjoyed it.

Originally written 4/20/2015