I have never ever never written a review after a whopping 11 minutes of viewing something. In fairness to me, I ran to various places to find out the writer, director, etc and even sneaked a peak at imdb reviews before moving forward, but this process was not just instant infatuation. In the first 11 minutes, I was completely immersed, and every single facet of the production pulled me in. Devices which usually fail to influence me, like using established pop songs as sound track, functioned perfectly to set the mood - even though they were written decades after the time period. The city buildings, landscapes, cars, uniforms, language idiosyncrasies, acting, culture, character development, dialog, lighting, etc dragged me as if I was part of the story. I was torn between wanting to interrupt the dialog and just being satisfied to be an anonymous observer. But I was THERE, dammit. Wow.
I am, of course, obligated to point out that craftsmanship in Hollywood is very much a rarity these days, and that prequels, sequels, spin-offs and remakes generally have even lower standards than the dismal mainstream pablum. By contrast, I would say this entire series is a wondrous breath of fresh air. Only we all know that London pollution was at its worst during this period. So I shall cough, instead.
