User Reviews

The Shorter Way is an interesting mess of a pilot episode. When I separate the book from the series I can find a few different aspects that I enjoy, yet, I'm not hooked. I feel the intro could have been more interesting if the writers followed the book closer. For instance, when the nurse takes a "hot bag of blood to Charlie Manx" he grabs her wrist and threatens her son. Charlie is supposed to be close to death in a coma. It's a great hook and frightening.

Vic was cast well in the series. I don't mind her character being aged up for the show, but her being a bit older does take away from the intrigue set up between her and Charlie in the novel. My main gripe is the tired teenage dialogue between Vic and her peers. I won't go on about it like the show did.

I love the casting of Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx. I hope the writers really go for it in the coming episodes in regards to his character. Charlie is evil. The series needs to own that if it aims to succeed. In this first episode he failed to come across as scary. From what I saw of Bing I'm more optimistic. It's a weird change to have him working at Vic's high school, but it could be interesting. Vic's parents were portrayed relatively well and I have no qualms in that regard. I'm at a loss for Maggie's character on the screen. I wish the stutter was there, but maybe it'll show up in later episodes. Her friendship with the local officer also comes off as a bit weird and plot driven. The moment she pulls out the scrabble pieces and spells THE BRAT was a highlight.

Overall, I'm a bit underwhelmed by the pilot, but I'm going to go along with it and give AMC's adaptation a fare chance.

4/10

It has that lifeless stretched thin 1990s Stephen King miniseries feel. There are cutaways to a creepy man traveling with a kid, like Storm of the Century, there are vapid cliche ridden conversations with overdone backstories but while that kind of was tolerable in something like The Langoliers, it's dead here because the supernatural mystery is so boring itself. This is an extended King miniseries without the King magic that makes you want to know what the plot is all about despite of all the other drek in it. It's weighed down with filler not interesting character development. It's not interesting to watch a father sing "Here Comes the Sun" for example and it doesn't add much to understanding character motives nor empathizing with them. Everyone is a cliche. The janitor is dumb. The people who are the biggest losers have thick accents, somehow Vic doesn't have her parent's accent. The rich are judgemental and condescending. Teens are angsty cut outs. It's a mess and since the problems are the creative department, it likely will not improve and this is the first and last episode of NOS4A2 I'll be watching

The first episode does not have the same intrigue that the novel had. Once again, we see television producers rushing things along, rather than creating suspense and intrigue. First episode should have been just about Vic and her discovering the bridge. There's enough great content there. I enjoyed that so much when reading the book. In 10 episodes, one should be able to pretty much follow the novel as it is.