Overall one sentence review: starts off with a bang, ends with a whimper.
J.K. Simmons has increasingly been one to watch for years, but this might be his peak right here. Saying much more than that gets into spoilers, which could ruin things. So just watch the first few episodes; its worth it.
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OK, need more? It's got bits and pieces of "The X-Files" and "Dark", with a bit of old Cold War spy atmosphere, but its surprisingly not that supernatural or sci-fi at all.
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No really, just see it for yourself. The number one reason too see this is to watch J.K. Simmons in various roles doing various interesting things. What's with German TV sci-fi and parallel dimensions anyway? After watching Dark and this, I'm ready for whatever else they come up with.
It's good and worth watching, but ready yourself for disappointment. The first half or so is well written and well paced. And then something changes for the worse. It feels like this was going to be another season or two, but the word came down to wrap things up quickly and it really shows. Kind of like what happened to Babylon 5 - it was humming along nicely when it got cancelled, they had to condense, and then it got uncancelled and then they had to stretch. But there's no reprieve here; every piece is put back in its case and the board wiped clean. Lame tacked on fakeout ending notwithstanding.
There are some really memorable parts, but they're all in the beginning. By the time the show ends, I don't even miss it anymore. Still worth watching.
