I decided to go ahead with another random Netflix special that would
probably not exist if Netflix wasn't behind it. You have quirks, sure.
You have deep moments of reflection and poignancy. You have a couple
moments of genius, but you're missing the mark. You go overboard on the
quirk and create massive tonal issues. You have good actors but they
don't sustain their brilliance. And this is only a ten episode series
that's too long for a movie but too short for another season. Your
concepts sound profound but unravel into generic contemplations on
rehashed ideas. Your aesthetic is a hybrid trying to be unique. You've
failed to really produce something new, because you've hidden it behind
layers of fantasy and silliness that's supposed to be concurrent with
the overall basic premise. You've made a show about mental illness,
about a group of people in a hospital type situation. You've surrounded
them by idiosyncratic doctors who turn out to be less involved than
you've aimed to present. Your two mains are compelling to begin with,
but by episode six I've lost interest in them and their obvious
romance.* The actors have the right amount of chemistry but I'm not
engaged in the coupling now. You wanted to be fun and frivolous while
maintaining a thread of intelligence and insight. Your twists aren't all
that twisty and turn out to be predictable. You couldn't decide what
you were aiming for. You've tried so hard to be original, you pesky
little Netflix Original.
And you just haven't quite made it. Sorry.
*The
two leads being Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, who played love interests in
Superbad. So I had to make a gag from that and that was only from
watching the trailer.
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