I love Aaron Paul - he is brilliant, and I think he does a good job here; sometimes he seems too intense, casting nearly everyone else into shadow. He doesn't pass muster as someone who has a 16 year old, however, because he is just too youthful.
Dancy is creepy, as he should be - you suspect there is something else lurking there and Monaghan is good, although her character is predictably a bit flat.
The show however, feels sloppy. There is a tornado in NH, (which is really rare), and it feels very staged. The woman with the wailing baby, the frenetic young woman who drinks wiper washer fluid because she craves water, but the tornado just happened, so the timing seems off. Then the young woman steps on top of a pile of boxes and planters that *happen* to be arranged like steps to the top of a shipping container. Remember, this is after a tornado, when everything else is thrown around and cars are overturned.
There are also some odd but important things that aren't explained. At least of the followers live off the compound,yet the cult seems insular. More than a few of the scenes, (like where the recruits are trying to convert people on the street), are overly simplistic and not believable. Paul's anguish over his vision in Peru is almost palpable; he appears like he is on the brink, and I wonder for a moment if he is sane. It's almost too much considering how average a lot of the rest of the show is.
Still it is interesting, and seems to combine some Scientology and Mormonism into a reasonably believable construct. I wish there was more depth, but perhaps that will come in time. I'm 2.5 episodes in and although I'm not chomping on the bit to see the rest, I am curious to see how Paul's crisis of faith is played out, and whether he continues to chat with the woman who left Meyerism.
Dancy is creepy, as he should be - you suspect there is something else lurking there and Monaghan is good, although her character is predictably a bit flat.
The show however, feels sloppy. There is a tornado in NH, (which is really rare), and it feels very staged. The woman with the wailing baby, the frenetic young woman who drinks wiper washer fluid because she craves water, but the tornado just happened, so the timing seems off. Then the young woman steps on top of a pile of boxes and planters that *happen* to be arranged like steps to the top of a shipping container. Remember, this is after a tornado, when everything else is thrown around and cars are overturned.
There are also some odd but important things that aren't explained. At least of the followers live off the compound,yet the cult seems insular. More than a few of the scenes, (like where the recruits are trying to convert people on the street), are overly simplistic and not believable. Paul's anguish over his vision in Peru is almost palpable; he appears like he is on the brink, and I wonder for a moment if he is sane. It's almost too much considering how average a lot of the rest of the show is.
Still it is interesting, and seems to combine some Scientology and Mormonism into a reasonably believable construct. I wish there was more depth, but perhaps that will come in time. I'm 2.5 episodes in and although I'm not chomping on the bit to see the rest, I am curious to see how Paul's crisis of faith is played out, and whether he continues to chat with the woman who left Meyerism.