wonderful and terrible in equal measures

shea765

the wonderful: beautifully filmed and acted. The leads are all superb, and on a scene by scene basis, the visual metaphors and logic of the character interactions are amazingly on point.

the terrible: the script reads like a series of unrelated vignettes, with characters freely floating between scenes and behaving in unmotivated ways when viewed holistically. The story also hinges on the now rather dull concept of an all powerful 1984ish government with total control over its citizens (except of course when the scriptwriters conveniently ignore these powers). Without giving too much away, the mathematical "discovery" that drives the intrigue wouldn't appear plausible to an Algebra II student.

If you're only interested in visual presentation, this series has much to offer. If you care about story, you surely won't be satisfied. I've seen some reviewers claiming resonance with "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," but in le Carré's own words, this is quite the opposite thing.

score 5/10

shea765 3 February 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3632460/