So, watched this to the end since I didn’t have much else on the playlist atm. Mixed feelings.
On the one hand, the problem of having no one to root for continued throughout the 10 episodes. I disagree about Jeniffer - I think she’s shown to be generally an admirable person, but her position (trying to solve what is probably an unsolvable problem) makes it hard to really root for her. She does have a few great scenes, though. Sam is the other sympathetic character in the show, but unfortunately he’s solely in the show for other people’s character development.
355 is the star of the show. Took a little time to warn up to her, but she’s just stellar throughout. “You’re about to get your ass beat with a fucking shoelace.” Tour de force. But again, she’s kind of a difficult character to root for, because we’re basically kept in the dark about her motivations.
I do think the show finally found its footing when they reach Marisville. I think Sonia was better in the comics (part of her “charming” of Yorick is that she seems so innocent), but it still worked very well, IMO. There are a few dumb things about this, though. Why were they patrolling (in cars) when they found Yorick’s group. Why were they not patrolling when the Amazons came? Their defense plan was… to have a shootout? Dumb. Also, after a shootout with multiple fatalities and wounds (at least one of which was ex-con), they just let the Amazons walk out? And let them take their weapons with them? The former I can somewhat accept (although still a long shot, considering they imprisoned 355 and Allison for “seeming” a threat); the latter defies belief.
The final few episodes is also where the redoubtable trio finally begin to gel, and we start getting some good character moments from Yorick/355/Allison. The main problem, IMO, is that they really needed to have gotten to this point much earlier in the season. The spot they leave off, I might actually be interested in seeing a show about those three, but how many people are going to power through to that point?
The Amazons in the show are an improvement over the comic. They just spend far too much time with them… time they could have spent on the redoubtable trio instead. The Roxanne flashback episode felt extremely unnecessary; hard to see what it added to the show that she was a fake cop. Also, the final scene with Nora/Victoria was just weird. The world will fear us? Why? Her taking over leadership makes perfect sense. Her continuing to pursue an agenda of conquest and man-hate? Makes zero sense.
Hero in this show is just unsympathetic. I don’t understand why they let her kill Mike in the first episode if they’re trying to make her more sympathetic. Because they clearly decided her killing Sonia (as in the comics) would be a step too far, but it robs Yorick’s “My sister is brainwashed” line of impact, since she actually (and pretty clearly) saves his life instead. Also… she’s clear-headed enough to kill a young woman, but instead of following her brother - whom she clearly still loves - with the two horses she now has, she goes back to the pool. Why? Selfish and self-destructive does not quite cover the character.
Beth doesn’t work for me at all in this show - the book did much better in keeping her “off-screen” for most of the story. It made Yorick’s pining for this “perfect girlfriend” work much better, when one didn’t get to the reality. In addition to making her even less sympathetic, her heel turn to being an anarchist seems way too sudden and I found it hard to buy. Especially the part where she is surprised that attacking the Pentagon would lead to bloodshed. Then again, the whole Pentagon storyline just feels/felt like wasted time.
All in all, a flawed show. The writing is just bad at times - the backstory in e10 should have come much earlier; in general, lots of narrative decisions in the show seem puzzling, and Yorick needed character development much, much earlier. But I do think the back half is stronger than the first half, and would at least consider watching a second season.
