f13.net

We're working through the third season finally, trying to catch up for the fifth.

It has a lot of resemblances to the Godfather films thematically, but I have to say that Cillian Murphy makes a great romantic/criminal lead in the Michael Corleone vein. If I were a casting director, I'd be putting him at the top of my list for a very large slate of roles just based on his performance in the series.

I’ve been watching my way through this too and was surprised at the hate I see directed it’s way. Cillian Murphy really puts on a performance and the supporting cast are no slouch either. It’s well crafted even if the storylines and plot twists have been done before, seeing early last century Birmingham is also impressive. The music choices are interesting too and after a few episodes it stopped being so jarring and I just went with it.

So, I started watching the first season some time ago when it first launched, and I just petered out somewhere in the middle of it.  It's.... hard to say why.  I really liked the first few episodes, but things started just annoying me with ham fisted love interests and other plot points I can't remember.  Just lost the will to watch because it felt like the interesting premise got bogged down in uninteresting stuff.  For those of you who have gone on much longer (man, didn't realize it had this many damn seasons now) is later stuff considered better than the first season, or do you all really love the first season also?  This will give me a good gauge on if I should try to push through to later content, heh.

I get it re: the love interests and also some of the sudden twists, some of the forgotten characterizations (and characters), the tendency to just suddenly jump forward. I also wish that the main character were occasionally as good a plotter as the series needs/wants him to be. But I find it stylish and enjoyable when it's good--a high-toned soap opera with some Godfather-ish DNA.

Don't know about the end, I didn't get that far, but definitely becomes a slog in the middle seasons.

Everyone gets more and more unlikeable without showing any particular competence or pay off on plotting. Main character gets beaten up, main character gets up very slowly and just punches harder this time.

Cast is good though. Can understand people getting through this just on strength of performances.

This show is EXTREMELY MY SHIT.  Just got hooked onto it and watched all 5 seasons over the last couple of weeks.  You have to go into it knowing it is a wildly over the top potboiler at its heart.  They also keep cranking up the crazy, over the top shit and I just love how they bring in the big guest stars to be the big bads* who just eat the fucking scenery. I love it so much. The ridiculous slo-mo shots, the blasts of flame for no reason, fog machines, plot twists, the music, T&A, some actual historical context. I mean, come on.

*Spoilers for all 5 seasons bad guys

I have not yet watched any, but I appreciated your post.

I really enjoyed the first few seasons of this show, but it got a bit too crazy for me after that!

Embrace the crazy!

I tried watching the show when it was first put on Netflix years ago and I got through a couple of episodes and just lost interest.

The performances were great and everything but for whatever reason it just didn't click with me.

To each their own.

I AM BILLY KIMB-AH

Oh, the other cool thing is as it has become more popular on BBC (it won the Best Drama BAFTA for season 4 and switched to BBC One where its audience tripled) they are spending more on music. Finally included a couple of highly apropos Black Sabbath songs.