Posted 16 April 2012 - 10:32 AM
I thought it was good from the get-go. Most of my recollections are from those first episodes.
Oh I did like it from the start, but the story starts to pick up some momentum. That's what I meant. I've got two gripes about it, though: the music is really generic TV score and on-the-nose (well, maybe except for Justin's theme), and the characters don't seem to go anywhere (apart from Justin). They just have the same exact conversation in every single episode. But because it's so well done, you enjoy watching it anyway.
Karol
I don't remember the music to be a problem. But I wonder, do you think Williams' music is so unusual? Agreed with the characters, they don't go anywhere but perhaps that's a good thing? The only story arc of true importance is the clashing of the devil and the angel. But who is who? 
Alex
What bothers me about the music is that it sounds cheap as opposed to the otherwise amazing production values. Same with
Game of Thrones. And I wish they did something less obvious with it. More striking perhaps. Take
There Will Be Blood, for example. Also a period piece but the music does something else. This show deserves better.
As for Williams, his approach is somewhat rare these days. When I watched
War Horse some time ago, I thought to myself "no one in the audience will get this". Which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Oh and I just finished watching episode 6 of the second season. Six more to go...
Karol
From a storytelling point of view, from a directing point of view, there is one thing I associate with what he does, which is calm. There is such an inherent calm and inherent trust of the one powerful image, that he makes me embarrassed with my own work, in terms of how many different shots, how many different sound effects, how many different things we’ll throw at an audience to make an impression. But with Kubrick, there is such a great trust of the one correct image to calmly explain something to audience. There can be some slowness to the editing. There’s nothing frenetic about it. It’s very simple. There’s a trust in simple storytelling and simple image making that actually takes massive confidence to try and emulate.
- Christopher Nolan