This was a superb and rivetingly gripping series. Time travel is always a tricky focus to have for a drama – do you have lengthy, possibly baffling explanations, with much scientific language or, at the other extreme do you just have a device which just does what it does – what I call the BTTF flux-capacitor approach. Here there was a degree of scientific explanation (apparently the Deutsche Particle IS a ‘thing’ in quantam physics/mechanics) but there was enough explained for it to be dramatically plausible. With four time interconnected time periods, convincing but clear explanations (as far as they can be given) were particularly important. The ending was both emotionally and dramatically satisfying although with each strand there is a nice hint of ambiguity about the new future. Eight episodes seemed just right but you do need to stick with it; I read very dismissive response after writer only seen Episode 1 which was pointless, misleading and wrong!
The first six episodes gradually filled in and made connections and then in the last two, gaps and p’uzzles were p0lausibly filled in with repeated scenes revealing more than we knew the first time we saw them. Sometimes that can be rather absurd, particularly if you had other significant characters appearing in the later repeat of the scene who were not there in the first, but this tricky problem was well dealt with here.
I did feel however that the19th C and WW2 scenes had bit too much for the glossy CGI look, impressive though they were. But the future setting (2053) looked very, and rather disconcertingly similar to the present day. But effectively and appropriately.
An absolute must-see – as gripping as a Mike Flanagan series, which I think, is probably the gold standard of ‘praise for a Netflix series.