Jeffrey Miner

There are some wonderfully original ideas here. A ghoulish man who murders neglectful parents and takes their kids to Christmas land. A librarian with a magic Scrabble tile bag. Unfortunately, it's all ruined by a terrible main character. Vic McQueen, in addition to having the dumbest name for a protagonist ever, is a selfish drama queen that treats everyone around her like crap and makes only bad impulsive decisions. Buy about the middle of the series, I was starting to root for the ghoulish guy.

The same creepy things kept happening over and over again with very little revealed about why. There was no story arc here, just a flat line. By the time the movie was over I was just glad it was over. Some movie makers don't realize they need to do more than just create spooky atmosphere. They need to actually tell a story. And have some engaging characters.

This started out as a good crime thriller with some interesting characters and creatively gruesome murders. But the plot became more and more improbable until, in the fourth episode, the show took a complete left turn into surrealness. I no longer knew what was happening. And I didn't care. The big reveals and plot twists were predictable, incredibly lame, and cliched. Like, this is something your beginning creative writing teacher told you to absolutely avoid lame and cliched. A disappointing, self-indulgent mess.

I was excited by what seemed like the original premise, but was quickly disappointed. The science-fiction in this show is childishly silly and unbelievable. It exists only to set up the philosophical question, which is what the writers really want to explore. And the conclusions they come to are dark and grim and depressing. I get the feeling this is the kind of story Scandinavians write in the winter when they aren't getting enough sunlight. You're definitely not missing much by giving this show a pass.