While most of the user reviews here love this show, I found the series opener slow and dull. The basic idea of a thug looking for a career change becoming a Hollywood producer is a good one, but the plot unfolds slowly and the series is more funny in theory than practice.
It's perhaps not fair to compare the series with the movie, since star Chris O'Dowd is not playing the same character as John Travolta played in the movie and the series bills itself as "loosely based" on the book. But the important thing is not that Chris Dowd plays a different character, but that his sad-sack killer cannot hold one's attention the way Travolta did. I like Dowd in general, but I don't find him interesting here.
Instead of slowly pulling me in, I felt the pilot was pushing me out; by the end I was desperate to move on.
It's perhaps not fair to compare the series with the movie, since star Chris O'Dowd is not playing the same character as John Travolta played in the movie and the series bills itself as "loosely based" on the book. But the important thing is not that Chris Dowd plays a different character, but that his sad-sack killer cannot hold one's attention the way Travolta did. I like Dowd in general, but I don't find him interesting here.
Instead of slowly pulling me in, I felt the pilot was pushing me out; by the end I was desperate to move on.