Nicolette Antisdel

I don't see what everyone else sees - maybe that's because I read the book this is based off of. For starters the first 3 episodes cover over half of the book, which is the first red flag as this has 10 episodes. They blew through the first 200 pages in an episode and a half, which in my opinion is what lays the groundwork and atmosphere of the rest of the novel. I had to stop watching after 3 episodes since they nonsensically changed everything for no apparent reason. First issue is the pacing. As mentioned before the show blows through the investigation and events that deal with Terry in a little less than 2 episodes, which is a problem since this is what the rest of the story is built off of. Not only that but they pretty much reveal "The Outsider" in the first 30 minutes of the first episode, so all the tension and mystery behind the Terry case is gone since we know there was someone else. Second is character development. There is hardly any for anyone that isn't in Detective Anderson's close vicinity. The Peterson family, whose son was murdered (and whose murder kickstarts the series), is hardly ever shown and pretty much all of the scenes of them grieving and coping with the aftermath from the novel have been cut from the show. So when critical events that happen in the novel happen in the show, it's hard to care as their was no buildup and the scenes are extremely short when they do. The whole premise of the novel was how characters deal with the aftermath of Frank Peterson's murder and the investigative process of finding the killer. However, this show doesn't seem to understand this and jumps through the most important section in the novel to get to the part where the idea of the outsider is introduced. Lots of important scenes involving side characters were cut. Because the show skims through the first half of the book in 3 episodes, they have to fill the rest with meaningless filler which causes horrible pacing problems. It goes from moving too fast to dragging everything out. There is no mystery because they show the outsider in the beginning, so you have to sit through many episodes of the characters trying to be convinced there is a supernatural element to the case, and it is mainly Holly Gibney who does this. Speaking of Holly, she is portrayed horribly in the show. Everything about her was changed in the show. In the books she is quirky and a film buff (whose knowledge of old Mexican films comes in handy). She has social anxiety and hates talking to people, yet she is a great detective (she was from the Mr. Mercedes book trilogy). In the show she is portrayed as some sort of supercomputer and talks like one. They even changed her backstory. It's obvious whoever created her character for the show didn't read the books. In conclusion, if you've read the book then I doubt you'll like this series. It changes so many details and order of events (like the accused killer in Dayton being alive in the show and shown in prison until he kills himself). Scenes involving characters dealing with the aftermath of the murder are cut, so there is hardly any character development. Detective Anderson's son is dead in the show instead of alive and playing baseball at some camp. The pacing is horrible.