I survived through 8 episodes. The show is beautiful, the acting is great, and I just love seeing fellow Brazilians working in cool shows like this (go, Santoro!). I got to enjoy most of the characters too, I thought they were well built, and I got to see a lot of development during these 8 episodes. I specially appreciated Jimmi Simpson as William, as I think heroic characters of this particular type are a very rare find nowadays.
However, episode after episode, I found myself less and less interested in the plots. Some scenes caught my attention here and there (Dolores's, and Maeve's scenes really stand out!), but I was most of the time pretty indifferent to what I was seeing. It came to the point when I began dreading whenever my randomized media list would fall on an episode, and I kept skipping it several times before I could convince myself to watch it. Finally, I just decided to give up entirely.
I was severely disappointed with the themes the series chose to explore, as they were not what I thought they would be from the pilot. The development outside the park was also extremely slow, with most things left obvious but unsaid through several episodes, until they were finally "revealed" making it all just very anti-climatic. I really cannot make myself go through it.
This comment is about season 1, which I have just finished. I should say that although I have read the book, I do not like it, it is the one thing Gaiman wrote that I did not care for. The fact that the TV series was suddenly not following the book precisely was a plus for me, but now I am wondering if they somehow managed to make it worse.
The cast is great - I think every actor involved did a fantastic job in their characters, and the characters came out much more interesting and likable than in the book. I particularly enjoyed how much screen time Laura is getting, and I loved how Browning also played Essie. The "Coming to America" sequences were my favorite parts in the book, and I am not surprised to have enjoyed them in the series also.
However, in 8 episodes, I mostly got the feeling that nothing happened.
They added a lot of new things, specially with Laura and Mad Sweeney, and Wednesday and Shadow felt more like secondary characters than main ones, as their storyline is basically empty while everything happens to everyone else. In 8 episodes, Wednesday has had barely any advancement in his cause, and while the congregation at the House on the Rock is one of the first things to happen in the book, the entire season ended before old man Mr. Nancy could ride the carousel, and that was a sight I was looking forward to!
With the current positioning of the gods, I feel like the series is aiming for a far more complicated plot than the one in the book, but the creative team is, unfortunately, failing at writing it to work with an 8 episode season. They have set what looks like a very big stage, but the plot does not feel yet big enough to fill it.
I am quite disappointed, as individually the episodes are ok, but they just fail to be cohesive together and convey a good story. I will probably check out the second season premiere, but unless they fix this awful writing, I will just look for better things to waste my time on.
Sai de Baixo was very funny upon its release date and an incredible success that created iconic characters and catchphrases that were repeated all throughout the country by people of all ages. It being one of the rare Brazilian-produced sitcoms, it aired very late at night on Sunday, and I remember fondly how it brought families together to watch it, even my own - it was one of the rare moments when my about-to-get-divorced parents would sit together with me in the living room (as this was a time when houses usually had only one TV, or at least only one big TV).
Unfortunately though, the jokes in this show have not aged well. The humor relied heavily on stereotypes, sexism, racism and specially classicism (Caco Antibes' main catchphrase was "I hate poor people!", uttered with a face of disgust...) which at the time, wasn't even considered scandalous or anything - those ideas were current, and our concept of what was disrespectful and offensive was mainly related to aggression. Watching it again with the mindset and education we have today is pretty much impossible (I barely could make it through 4 episodes), but I will always respect it for the place it had in the homes of so many Brazilians. It's very important to understand the show did not mean to offend, but rather to reflect what went on the minds of the middle class Brazilians in the mid-90's, good or bad as it was.
For an updated version, that includes Brazilian's more socially evolved points of view, try Toma Lá, Dá Cá, a show that features the same format and production - another excellent mirror of the Brazilian middle class, with it's all it's improvements and shortcomings during the mid-00's.
I thought it was a bit too sappy at times (don't all Korean dramas tend to be?), but it was overall funny and cute, and quite enjoyable. I felt the boys, specially Ji Woon, took a little while to grow on me, but they all eventually did. All actors were quite competent too. It looked like Park So Dam struggled with some scenes, but it didn't ruin anything. Some characters were terribly annoying, and I suppose not everyone's ship will make it to the end, but I promise Ji Woon's smile eventually wins over any heart, making up for any couple you might hope would never happen.
A very likable trait of this drama is that it keeps negativity to a minimum. Even the antagonists who plot against Eun Ha Won or the Kang cousins aren't the overly cruel sort and even they find their own balance eventually, making this is is really a great option for everyone who might be looking for a very light-hearted romantic comedy. The show has been fairly compared to Hana Yori Dango, and though I think plot-wise things really are similar, Cinderella and Four Knights still stands on its own, besides having less of a comedic focus than that other story does. This is mostly a show to make you smile rather than to make you laugh, and I think this is a very pleasant watch I'd recommend to most rom-com fans.
(At the date of this post, the show has been freely and legally available at DramaFever, from December 24 to January 2nd, 2017. There's still time to catch it in case you aren't a premium user already!)
