First of all, it was an excellent choice to start the series at Point Blank, which was in my opinion the strongest book of the series.
Farrant was absolutely excellent as Alex Rider. In the books, Alex was complex, moody, snarky, badass, angry, but fundamentally good at heart. Farrant captures this perfectly, and honestly doesn't look too different than what I pictured while reading the books. Farrant and O' Connor are both great actors and had terrific on-screen chemistry. The scenes between them are some of the best of the series.
The show did take a few episodes to find its swing, and I'd say toward the end of the second episode (when Alex is resisting interrogation) is the moment the show clicked for me. By the raid of Point Blanc and the stunning finale (which book readers were waiting for the whole show), the show had definitely found its pace and rhythm.
There were a few things that detracted from the overall quality of the show for me, though. First is that throughout the show, we see several sets in Brookland, so why did they have to show so many scenes of Alex and Tom walking down that same hallway? It made it feel like the only set they had for the school was that one hallway, it was distracting. Second is that the Point Blanc school was intensely creepy in the books, but the school itself just felt a little drab in this show. Also, the ages of Alex and Tom make me nervous for the future of the show. The appeal of the books is that Alex is 14, but here I think he's meant to be 16. And the thing about young actors is that they get older and don't look so young anymore. It's something that they'll have to content with.
Finally I have to address the elephant in the room: Jack Starbright. In such a terrific cast, this baffled me. First of all, the actress' American accent was horrible. It cycled between a British accent, bad standard American accent, and an even worse African American dialect. Her acting is also pretty bad. When she's meant to be concerned, she looks totally bored. In fact, she never delivers a convincing facial expression or tone of voice. Jack was a total miscast in a show with so much great acting. Especially in her scenes with Tom. It's like watching an audition tape that should have gotten her passed over in favor of someone else.
Overall it's a much better adaptation than the 2006 movie, and I'm excited to see where the show goes in the future.
Farrant was absolutely excellent as Alex Rider. In the books, Alex was complex, moody, snarky, badass, angry, but fundamentally good at heart. Farrant captures this perfectly, and honestly doesn't look too different than what I pictured while reading the books. Farrant and O' Connor are both great actors and had terrific on-screen chemistry. The scenes between them are some of the best of the series.
The show did take a few episodes to find its swing, and I'd say toward the end of the second episode (when Alex is resisting interrogation) is the moment the show clicked for me. By the raid of Point Blanc and the stunning finale (which book readers were waiting for the whole show), the show had definitely found its pace and rhythm.
There were a few things that detracted from the overall quality of the show for me, though. First is that throughout the show, we see several sets in Brookland, so why did they have to show so many scenes of Alex and Tom walking down that same hallway? It made it feel like the only set they had for the school was that one hallway, it was distracting. Second is that the Point Blanc school was intensely creepy in the books, but the school itself just felt a little drab in this show. Also, the ages of Alex and Tom make me nervous for the future of the show. The appeal of the books is that Alex is 14, but here I think he's meant to be 16. And the thing about young actors is that they get older and don't look so young anymore. It's something that they'll have to content with.
Finally I have to address the elephant in the room: Jack Starbright. In such a terrific cast, this baffled me. First of all, the actress' American accent was horrible. It cycled between a British accent, bad standard American accent, and an even worse African American dialect. Her acting is also pretty bad. When she's meant to be concerned, she looks totally bored. In fact, she never delivers a convincing facial expression or tone of voice. Jack was a total miscast in a show with so much great acting. Especially in her scenes with Tom. It's like watching an audition tape that should have gotten her passed over in favor of someone else.
Overall it's a much better adaptation than the 2006 movie, and I'm excited to see where the show goes in the future.