Noah Gocial

I just finished watching the limited series and I have to say, it was fine: an interesting story, great acting, amazing cinematography, bad plot development, bad character development, interesting twists, and, as Peter Griffen once said, it "insists on itself." Without going too much into spoilers, I'll say that a bunch of subplots were either abandoned or not given their flowers. It seemed as though the goal of each character was to compare with De Niro and to be a surface-level character in his service. This will become very evident as you reach the ending, if you are just starting out. It feels like a research paper that just mentions a scholarly source to affirm the original point, rather than going into detail. I wanted to explore Angela Basset's character, the relationships De Niro had with each cast member; I wanted intrigue and a meditation on why Mullen left the presidency the first time (which, just a quick note: I hated this framing. It takes guts to willingly serve one term because you know you cannot perform at the level needed) comparing to his parenting style or something that actually led me to believe the writers wanted to make a thought-provoking show. Another issue was the complete lackluster moments (I'll touch on in spoiler territory). Finally, I really hated how a character was introduced, used, then tossed away. Maybe it's a lot to ask for, but it seemed like needles were left unthread, characters were shallow, and there was plenty room for deeper conversations that were never had. That being said, I didn't dislike my time watching the show. The plot is interesting in itself, the acting is good, and the imagery will not disappoint. It was engaging and you will have fun with it, but I cannot give it a good rating because of these high points. Spoilers*** The reveal of Dryer as the villain, though I saw one review saying it was obvious, was good. He had been a consistent character and had consistently vague motivations. However, when it is revealed, it *is revealed.* There was no easing into it, no indication before or anything of the sort. That being said, I actually found his motivation to be entirely misconstrued and otherwise, to him, good. It was backed up by his detailed explanation and so I was pained to watch it go from "you can't kill people, that's not the way" to "he wanted to control everything." If there was a switch, it wasn't present in any scene I watched; moreover, we didn't really get a conclusion on Alex and why she joined Dryer. After all, they spent time together! She was convinced he was good! Was he or wasn't he? De Niro's character, in response to his motivation of trying to heal political division, basically gave an endorsement to "truth over everything." If these questions seem specific, they are. I am trying to rationalize how one thing connects to the other or how one part of the story jumps to the next, but it's not going too well!