I just find the show as written so beautiful and funny, and terrifying, that I'm really confused by the critics. "It's like Silence of the Lambs and Seven. So you shouldn't watch it."
Huh?
I really do wish Jessica had seen the review DVDs, because maybe she could explain it to me.
I haven't seen so much "So you shouldn't watch it" as "So you've probably seen it before, done very well."
I've never seen SotL because I can't handle gore. It's the same visceral reaction I have to rollercoasters -- if it makes me feel like I'm going to vomit, I don't watch/ride. Se7en...well, I liked the last 20 minutes. Really wish I'd never gotten around to seeing the rest.
So for me, there is a certain extent to which "Like SotL and Se7en" means I shouldn't watch. But the impression I've gotten from the critical response is that the similarities are thematic, not executional, which IMO can only be a good thing. I'd love for there to be a creepy noir crime procedural that I can actually watch.
Completely personal conclusion not intended to start a flamewar: With the exception of perhaps Wonderfalls and Veronica Mars, critics? Not necessarily full of teh smart.
Please, let's not go there.
[eta: And I think the developers will back me up in saying that we really don't want to be Slashdotted, so if a review does appear there, can we be very careful about not letting it lead back to us? We've only got so much bandwidth.]
I mean, we all have to look.
But this is good. Come for the gore, stay for the excellent writing and complex characterization.
Re slashdot - I was going to link it to the Official site, and TheInside.org. The server TI.org is hosted on has been slashdotted before, and has coped - but I'd need to turn page caching on if we went down this route due to the dynamic nature of the pages...
Jessica, if you skip the teaser, you'll miss the worst of the gore, and I don't think you'll miss much story at all.
I don't think it's any more gory than CSI, but CSI is pretty gory.
SF Gate have published a review of The Inside which, frankly, one of the biggest pile of shit reviews I've ever seen. I'm not talking about his judgements of how the show pans out in the first episode, as I haven't seen it - but I am talking about the way he writes off the show before he even gets into any details.
I have done my fandom-ly duty and pimped the show in my lj. also mentioned your website, Kevin. of course, most of my friends were probably already planning to watch, but it never hurts to make sure.
Ta, tiggy.
I have submitted a Slashdot story, which hypes the show as intelligent and dark crime noir, links to the official site, TI, TimMinear.net (uhhhh... I'm gonna get killed) and a review of the show by a newspaper. I don't know if it will be past their moderation team. Technically it's not "news for nerds. stuff that matters." I suppose - but it's worth a shot.
My friend reviewed episode two. She also discussed the three main criticisms she's heard about the show.
(Heh, after I posted her first link here, she ended up on Whedonesque. I'm just glad she liked the show.)
Technically it's not "news for nerds. stuff that matters." I suppose - but it's worth a shot.
It's totally stuff that matters. Don't nerds like hot blonde chicks and dead babies?
Shit. I forgot to hype the dead babies. I did name drop Rachel in the submission.