First, this review is from the perspective of a fan of the book series. I've read all 21 books multiple times and have lived with these characters for years. Those not familiar with the books may have a different perspective about the content of the show.
Second, I was really looking forward to this series praying the adaptation for TV would do the material justice.
Third, I watched all 10 episodes with an open mind knowing the adaptation for TV would not exactly follow the books. I didn't really know the prior work of most of the cast except for Sharon Lawrence and David Allen Grier so started with pretty much a blank slate for the actors playing the characters. I saw the trailer early on and have to say my heart sank on seeing the portrayal of Joe.
First the positives: They need a new trailer as Michael Dorman's portrayal of Joe grew on me. I have no problem with how Joe was portrayed once I watched multiple episodes and think Michael did a good job. They do need to ditch Joe's hat no self respecting Game Warden would wear a hat like that. He needs a true Cowboy hat! Joe's hat is also a major element in the books. I also had no problem with David Allen Grier's portrayal of Vern even though he did not fit the book description of the character. I also thought Patrick Gallagher as Sheriff Barnum was a good fit. They based these 10 episodes on the first Joe Pickett book Open Season which has a good storyline.
Now the negatives: Even though the episodes followed the Open Season storyline they merged in elements from book 3 Winterkill which is where Nate is introduced in the book series and the connection between Nate, Joe and Joe's family takes hold. Then they took the Scarlett family characters from Book 6 In Plain Sight and totally changed how they interact with Joe, the wardens, and the town. I guess just to introduce more villains to the TV plot. For me it was too much of a mashing together of elements from several of the books. I really thought overall the TV scripts were weak and if you hadn't read the book I think how they tried to relate the backgrounds and relationships between the characters was confusing. I thought the flashbacks were way overdone and they really annoyed me. Joe's "childhood" was not the main focus of his character in the books and he wasn't as damaged in the books as the series makes him out to be. What people like about the books is that Joe is an "everyman" with not a lot of old baggage to overcome. The book Winterkill was one of my favorites of the book series and that storyline was was so good and how the relationship developed between Nate, Joe, and Joe's family was interesting and FUNNY. I was extremely disappointed in how they melded the introduction of the Nate character in the TV series using pieces from Winterkill including in a few cases dialog word for word from the book but leaving out other major interactions that are the basis for future book storylines and retained NONE OF THE HUMOR. I hated how they introduced Marybeth to Nate as compared to the books. I also hate that they changed the MaryBeth character to be almost be unrecognizable making her a lawyer. I guess they didn't have the budget to pay actors to play lawyers so they thought they'd get two for one with making Marybeth a lawyer and not a Librarian. This leads me to believe if there are subsequent seasons they will not be doing the Winterkill storyline which is a major shame.
The writing for the MaryBeth character and Joe's daughters was disappointing. The Sheridan character had no spark as in the books. The casting was off for all of them as they and Nate are the most described characters in the books and casting an actor for April that was much taller and bigger than the actor playing Sheridan was ridiculous since April is younger than Sheridan. Marybeth and the Pickett Girls are described over and over in the books as stunning green eyed blonds. They are starting off Joe's girls older in the series than they are in the 1st book. The only actor that I thought I would love when I heard the casting news and would knock it out of the park for sure was Sharon Lawrence as Missy. Sharon could easily play book Missy, a real spitfire, but unfortunately in the TV series Missy was written as a pathetic alcoholic and Sharon did her best but couldn't do much with a bad script. A major disappointment. Having Missy and Deputy McLanahan jumping in bed was laughable for us book fans. He didn't have the minimum required bank account to interest book Missy. The actor playing McLanahan was way too young for the McLanahan in the books, even the early books. Bad casting yet again.
Now for the character of Nate! Nate is by far my favorite character in the books and adds excitement and humor to the storylines. I was so looking forward to his character. I tried to keep an open mind when they cast a stocky, black, short haired actor when Nate in the books is described as an intelligent, intense, man of few words, tall, lanky, long haired ponytailed, Blond, blue-eyed, ex special forces operative, master Falconer in tune with nature, staying off the Grid in WY. Ignoring the fact that if you're trying to stay off the grid and not stand out why would a black ex special forces operative pick WY to blend in? Did they check the demographics for WY? To me it insults the intelligence of the viewers. So ignoring that they cast basically a total opposite type for Nate I wanted to see what Mustafa would do with the character since CJ Box stated in an interview that the producers wanted to pick an actor that could portray the "essence" of Nate and weren't concerned about the physical looks of the actor matching the books. Box said the producers had a hard time finding an actor that portray Nate. Well they failed on several fronts! How they wrote Nate and how Mustafa portrayed Nate was NOTHING like Nate in the books. There was absolutely no "smoldering charisma" as how Nate was described in one of the books. The whole Nate bad-ass "presence" just wasn't there. In fact in one scene Joe's character looked taller than Nate. They took a great part of the WInterkill book where they take Nate into custody and gutted it. Nate "camping" on park land is ridiculous for someone trying to stay off the governments radar. They changed Nate's backstory saying he was thrown out of the service and gave him a wife that was murdered. Really! Totally changes the reason why book Nate is how he is. Total miscasting and taking a pivotal interesting book character and making him lackluster at best. Without a solid Nate character I'm not interested in watching.
Missy and Nate add the spice to the stories and the writing for TV fell way short for Missy and was an all around failure for Nate.
The animal sequences seemed low budget. The CGI ELKS were unbelievable. Joe using a .22 rifle was also such a joke. Not sure what Nate was wielding but the Freedom Arms 454 Casull is also a major player in the stories. Will they have the budget for it or for actual Falcons if this gets a season 2. Doubt they can pull off the storylines or have the budget for Winterkill, Free Fire, or Force of Nature which are my favorites of the books. The worst thing they can do is use Open Season's storyline for season one and then abandon doing any of the subsequent book storylines and attempt to do there own scripts with the characters. The Scarlett clan and the book they were in, In Plain Sight, were actually one of my least favorites. It looks like they are going to use the Scarletts as typical "rich" entitled villains, boring!
There was a lack of chemistry with the cast overall and lackluster/convoluted writing. Missing the mark on both make this a major disappointment for me compared to the books.
Second, I was really looking forward to this series praying the adaptation for TV would do the material justice.
Third, I watched all 10 episodes with an open mind knowing the adaptation for TV would not exactly follow the books. I didn't really know the prior work of most of the cast except for Sharon Lawrence and David Allen Grier so started with pretty much a blank slate for the actors playing the characters. I saw the trailer early on and have to say my heart sank on seeing the portrayal of Joe.
First the positives: They need a new trailer as Michael Dorman's portrayal of Joe grew on me. I have no problem with how Joe was portrayed once I watched multiple episodes and think Michael did a good job. They do need to ditch Joe's hat no self respecting Game Warden would wear a hat like that. He needs a true Cowboy hat! Joe's hat is also a major element in the books. I also had no problem with David Allen Grier's portrayal of Vern even though he did not fit the book description of the character. I also thought Patrick Gallagher as Sheriff Barnum was a good fit. They based these 10 episodes on the first Joe Pickett book Open Season which has a good storyline.
Now the negatives: Even though the episodes followed the Open Season storyline they merged in elements from book 3 Winterkill which is where Nate is introduced in the book series and the connection between Nate, Joe and Joe's family takes hold. Then they took the Scarlett family characters from Book 6 In Plain Sight and totally changed how they interact with Joe, the wardens, and the town. I guess just to introduce more villains to the TV plot. For me it was too much of a mashing together of elements from several of the books. I really thought overall the TV scripts were weak and if you hadn't read the book I think how they tried to relate the backgrounds and relationships between the characters was confusing. I thought the flashbacks were way overdone and they really annoyed me. Joe's "childhood" was not the main focus of his character in the books and he wasn't as damaged in the books as the series makes him out to be. What people like about the books is that Joe is an "everyman" with not a lot of old baggage to overcome. The book Winterkill was one of my favorites of the book series and that storyline was was so good and how the relationship developed between Nate, Joe, and Joe's family was interesting and FUNNY. I was extremely disappointed in how they melded the introduction of the Nate character in the TV series using pieces from Winterkill including in a few cases dialog word for word from the book but leaving out other major interactions that are the basis for future book storylines and retained NONE OF THE HUMOR. I hated how they introduced Marybeth to Nate as compared to the books. I also hate that they changed the MaryBeth character to be almost be unrecognizable making her a lawyer. I guess they didn't have the budget to pay actors to play lawyers so they thought they'd get two for one with making Marybeth a lawyer and not a Librarian. This leads me to believe if there are subsequent seasons they will not be doing the Winterkill storyline which is a major shame.
The writing for the MaryBeth character and Joe's daughters was disappointing. The Sheridan character had no spark as in the books. The casting was off for all of them as they and Nate are the most described characters in the books and casting an actor for April that was much taller and bigger than the actor playing Sheridan was ridiculous since April is younger than Sheridan. Marybeth and the Pickett Girls are described over and over in the books as stunning green eyed blonds. They are starting off Joe's girls older in the series than they are in the 1st book. The only actor that I thought I would love when I heard the casting news and would knock it out of the park for sure was Sharon Lawrence as Missy. Sharon could easily play book Missy, a real spitfire, but unfortunately in the TV series Missy was written as a pathetic alcoholic and Sharon did her best but couldn't do much with a bad script. A major disappointment. Having Missy and Deputy McLanahan jumping in bed was laughable for us book fans. He didn't have the minimum required bank account to interest book Missy. The actor playing McLanahan was way too young for the McLanahan in the books, even the early books. Bad casting yet again.
Now for the character of Nate! Nate is by far my favorite character in the books and adds excitement and humor to the storylines. I was so looking forward to his character. I tried to keep an open mind when they cast a stocky, black, short haired actor when Nate in the books is described as an intelligent, intense, man of few words, tall, lanky, long haired ponytailed, Blond, blue-eyed, ex special forces operative, master Falconer in tune with nature, staying off the Grid in WY. Ignoring the fact that if you're trying to stay off the grid and not stand out why would a black ex special forces operative pick WY to blend in? Did they check the demographics for WY? To me it insults the intelligence of the viewers. So ignoring that they cast basically a total opposite type for Nate I wanted to see what Mustafa would do with the character since CJ Box stated in an interview that the producers wanted to pick an actor that could portray the "essence" of Nate and weren't concerned about the physical looks of the actor matching the books. Box said the producers had a hard time finding an actor that portray Nate. Well they failed on several fronts! How they wrote Nate and how Mustafa portrayed Nate was NOTHING like Nate in the books. There was absolutely no "smoldering charisma" as how Nate was described in one of the books. The whole Nate bad-ass "presence" just wasn't there. In fact in one scene Joe's character looked taller than Nate. They took a great part of the WInterkill book where they take Nate into custody and gutted it. Nate "camping" on park land is ridiculous for someone trying to stay off the governments radar. They changed Nate's backstory saying he was thrown out of the service and gave him a wife that was murdered. Really! Totally changes the reason why book Nate is how he is. Total miscasting and taking a pivotal interesting book character and making him lackluster at best. Without a solid Nate character I'm not interested in watching.
Missy and Nate add the spice to the stories and the writing for TV fell way short for Missy and was an all around failure for Nate.
The animal sequences seemed low budget. The CGI ELKS were unbelievable. Joe using a .22 rifle was also such a joke. Not sure what Nate was wielding but the Freedom Arms 454 Casull is also a major player in the stories. Will they have the budget for it or for actual Falcons if this gets a season 2. Doubt they can pull off the storylines or have the budget for Winterkill, Free Fire, or Force of Nature which are my favorites of the books. The worst thing they can do is use Open Season's storyline for season one and then abandon doing any of the subsequent book storylines and attempt to do there own scripts with the characters. The Scarlett clan and the book they were in, In Plain Sight, were actually one of my least favorites. It looks like they are going to use the Scarletts as typical "rich" entitled villains, boring!
There was a lack of chemistry with the cast overall and lackluster/convoluted writing. Missing the mark on both make this a major disappointment for me compared to the books.