Time is a thriller/drama 3 part series depicting a prison inmate and prison guard's experiences in the prison setting.
Let me get this started by saying my opinion on "Time" is drastically different to the general public's. I honestly can't understand how this series is getting such critical acclaim. However, make sure to watch it for yourself before reading this review to gauge your own opinion, I will be exploring spoiler territory so read at your own risk.
I watched "Time" across a span of three days (one episode a night) and in my experience each episode dropped in quality from the previous. I must say that I loved the first episode. The levels of suspense and tension were handled expertly. It really gave this series some great foundations which, unsurprisingly gave me high hopes for the following two parts.
When watching the second the problems began to sprout up, it was paced far slower than the previous although overall it was still an entertaining watch. It was only when I watched the final part where the cracks began to show and the entire series utterly fell apart.
I have to admit that my expectations were rather high for this finale, primarily due to the quality of the previous two parts. I was expecting an ending to really throw me off my seat, but instead I watched one of the most predictable, boring resolutions possible. Even before I watched the episode I had the sneaking feeling something was going to collapse - by the end of the second part there was a ridiculous number of character arcs and mini-stories within the main stories which would have to be tied up well for a satisfying conclusion. And this is where I think "Time's" biggest problem lies, and that problem is that they didn't have enough time. This shouldn't have been a 3 part series. The writers attempted far too much for their limited (3 hours) worth of screen time. I think a 5 or 6 part series would be far more suitable - allowing enough time to flesh out the character relationships to make the ending far more powerful.
This is the second problem - the ending has no weight because we know far too little about the character's. This issue is most apparent with the death of Mark's (Sean Bean) dad. I simply didn't care as we knew nothing about this character or his relationship with Mark. So much of the final episode is spent on this funeral and the fact that it had no emotional weight whatsoever clearly shows how much time was wasted.
Don't let me get started on part 3's final scene, I was absolutely astounded by how awful it was. When he reveals what he wrote in his letter to the woman I was getting ready for some huge emotional pay off to round off the ending. Instead we were delivered something so comical that at the time I couldn't believe my eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry". Seriously! He's an English teacher and this is the best he could come up with. In full honesty I wasn't sure if I was supposed to laugh here or not - a terrible moment rounding off a terrible ending.
Overall, it saddens me to admit that Time was full of wasted potential. I would not recommend Time to anyone for any other reason than to discuss all its shortcomings and laugh at it. This shouldn't have been called Time, it should have been called a Waste of Time.
Let me get this started by saying my opinion on "Time" is drastically different to the general public's. I honestly can't understand how this series is getting such critical acclaim. However, make sure to watch it for yourself before reading this review to gauge your own opinion, I will be exploring spoiler territory so read at your own risk.
I watched "Time" across a span of three days (one episode a night) and in my experience each episode dropped in quality from the previous. I must say that I loved the first episode. The levels of suspense and tension were handled expertly. It really gave this series some great foundations which, unsurprisingly gave me high hopes for the following two parts.
When watching the second the problems began to sprout up, it was paced far slower than the previous although overall it was still an entertaining watch. It was only when I watched the final part where the cracks began to show and the entire series utterly fell apart.
I have to admit that my expectations were rather high for this finale, primarily due to the quality of the previous two parts. I was expecting an ending to really throw me off my seat, but instead I watched one of the most predictable, boring resolutions possible. Even before I watched the episode I had the sneaking feeling something was going to collapse - by the end of the second part there was a ridiculous number of character arcs and mini-stories within the main stories which would have to be tied up well for a satisfying conclusion. And this is where I think "Time's" biggest problem lies, and that problem is that they didn't have enough time. This shouldn't have been a 3 part series. The writers attempted far too much for their limited (3 hours) worth of screen time. I think a 5 or 6 part series would be far more suitable - allowing enough time to flesh out the character relationships to make the ending far more powerful.
This is the second problem - the ending has no weight because we know far too little about the character's. This issue is most apparent with the death of Mark's (Sean Bean) dad. I simply didn't care as we knew nothing about this character or his relationship with Mark. So much of the final episode is spent on this funeral and the fact that it had no emotional weight whatsoever clearly shows how much time was wasted.
Don't let me get started on part 3's final scene, I was absolutely astounded by how awful it was. When he reveals what he wrote in his letter to the woman I was getting ready for some huge emotional pay off to round off the ending. Instead we were delivered something so comical that at the time I couldn't believe my eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry". Seriously! He's an English teacher and this is the best he could come up with. In full honesty I wasn't sure if I was supposed to laugh here or not - a terrible moment rounding off a terrible ending.
Overall, it saddens me to admit that Time was full of wasted potential. I would not recommend Time to anyone for any other reason than to discuss all its shortcomings and laugh at it. This shouldn't have been called Time, it should have been called a Waste of Time.