As my Amazon Prime membership has now been absorbed into LoveFilm (or some such thing) and I now have access to various free films and TV shows to stream I decided to give the pilot of this a try.
Now, I wasn't expecting much (post his peak Carter has basically had a career that Joss Whedon thanks God everyday for not having), but it was free and only an hour long and so a good way of testing if the system worked or not.
Overall, whilst very Christ Carter-ey (arc plot ahoy), it was enjoyable enough hokum and played nicely with my expectations of how cheap something made by Amazon would be by starting very small and confined before opening up.
The main problem (other than finding it hard to get involved in the mysteries because it is Carter) is how horrendous the acting was, even with at least one experienced thesp in the cast in- as my Mother put it- "That bloke from Heroes".
This was especially true of the Irish character. I don't know if it's a Glen Quinn in Angel case of a genuinely Irish actor being so badly written and directed so as to sound like a parody or if it's just a hideous fake accent coupled with a hideous stereotype, but with all the Irish cliche's of drinking, swearing, leprechauns, comparing anal sex to the Queen and..err... the black forest in place he was actually painful to watch. At least the black character being on death row seemed to be trying to suggest something about the American justice system (albeit not in a terribly convincing way, "Our one black guy is an escaped convict! But it's making a point, honest!"), this was just nasty.
The other flaw was Carter being a bit too giddy at being able to swear and show boobies freely, the woman stripping off was squirm indulgently gratuitous.
Still, might be harmless enough to watch as a series, assuming the fast pace keeps up. The fact that, apparently, they're letting viewers have a say on its direction is worrying though.
