Rectify (TV Series) Jacob's Ladder (2013) User Reviews

Review of the 1st season: overall 8/10

[851222 · 8/10 · 20 August 2014]

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Rectify" (2013-) is a very solid drama, with great acting, great feel of settings, good atmosphere, music and deep meaning dialogs. It's not "Breaking Bad" by any means (or at least yet) although as the poster calls it's from the same producers, but it's a different show, or at least it's first season. Yet, to be honest, i was hooked to watch this show by two reasons: 1) universal acclaim at "metacritic" 2) very good, deep, interesting premise. To be honest, exactly on these two bases it was a bit of disappointment. It'a a bit over-hyped by critics, because it's not that really interesting. Yes, it shows a real life, real people in real location, with real actions they are making, and thats the strongest point of "Rectify", the problem, that it's just not really engaging. Second, the premise. It sounded better on paper, although it show the glimpses of life inside "the green mile" and the main character has got unimaginable situation he is in, the main character to me was the second problem. He is literally "Forest Gump". Yes. And thats the bit of a problem because it takes away the sense of reality that is going on around him. Maybe, he's more real of nature than most of us, but when you trying to watch him on the screen, again, it's not that engaging - believe me, i don't want the main character to be C.Eastwood style, but it would be more compelling, if he would be more human.

Overall, 8/10 for the first season. See you all at the end of the second one.

S1: Engaging despite (because of?) the slow pace, patience with the characters, and lack of spectacle

[bob the moo · 6 May 2017]

I came to this show having never heard of it until I saw the name topping critics lists and being ranked as one of the highest TV scores on Metacritic; so a little bit of pressure there on the show to amaze out of the box. I put this to the back of my mind, knowing such a thing is not fair to expect – plus it is not really that type of show that grabs you and gets you fully on board with some spectacle or fast paced action scene. Instead the drama is very small and personal. Okay we have the bigger legal case, and the political maneuverings around the small community, but mostly this is about the individual people within this scenario.

As such it engages because there is enough within the characters as written and performed to make us interested. At first the season does play up the bigger picture to set the stage well, and after this it settles back down somewhat. Despite the universally positive reviews, I did not find this to be an approach without a cost. The benefits are clear, because it gives a sense of the slow life, of the small community, of the heat, but the cost is that it does meander somewhat. There is not a huge amount of development in narrative, and as a complete season it is a little unsatisfying for it to end where it does without more to show for it. That said, the show works well as one to settle into rather than look for the next 'thing' to happen, and it is engaging.

The cast do really well. Young's lead performance is a very tough one, but mostly he pulls it off. Of course his character is a mess after so many years waiting for his own death, and at times he is a different character to focus on – but this is well done thanks to the nuance of Young. In support you have characters who seem simple but have some edges to them that come out gradually – Clements, Smith-Cameron, Crawford, Spencer, all do very good work. There are some characters in the smaller roles who do feel a little bit more clichéd in how they are delivered, but even these are pretty solid with quite a few recognizable faces. In terms of production values the show looks great throughout, everything is polished and has that warm haze to its light that convinces of the place and heat. The only aesthetic element I found a bit distracting was the two stunning female leads (Spencer, Clemens) who both seem almost too effortless to exist in this small world.

Rectify season 1 may not have knocked me out the way the praise suggested it would, however it is an engaging slow burn, which takes the time to let the characters and scene breath. It does this within a convincing world which is easy to spend time in. I do hope though, that the second season can maintain this while producing some more motion forward in other areas.