This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is an astonishing series - part sci-fi, part espionage thriller, with a brilliant cast and a stand-out performance from J K Simmons. It's impossible to say much about the plot lines without encroaching into the realms of spoilers, but suffice to say, this will in turn both excite and intrigue from start to finish. One big warning: don't start looking at your phone or make a cup of tea while this show in in motion, or you will almost certainly miss important plot elements and be lost and confused. It demands your full concentration and isn't for anyone who thinks Midsomer Murders is a complicated watch. But give it the attention it deserves and it rewards in spades. A must watch..

***** SPOILER ALERTS *****Thanks to J.K. Simmons. If he isn't at least nominated for an Emmy for his part in this excellent part sci-fi, part political thriller, then they don't know excellence AT ALL! I rarely give out 10s as I have grown in my reviewing skills. I started reviewing on emotions like most people do. Now, I actually have developed a point system, where I watch shows carefully, this once twice, and assign and take away points for story development, entertainment value, acting quality, story quality, writing quality, directing consistency and set quality. Within each category, there are certain musts: does each actor fit and enhance the role? Does the story have a consistent pattern of growth without dropping threads? Does the story differ slightly from director to director? Etc. I watched Counterpart twice through because, honestly, it was so perfect on my scale, I figured I was too caught up in the thrilling storyline to catch the other failures. Second time through, I would have rated it a 12, if that was available! There are things about Counterpart some people will find disconcerting. We are never sure about the event that caused the universe to split in two. Yet. Season two supposedly will answer some of those speculations. The story builds slowly and in another set of producers and writers and directors hands could have been extremely confusing. But as the story unfolds, we get to know each character, their role in the story, and their differences and likenesses to their counterparts. When the universe splits in two by some as yet unknown event, everyone became two separate but exactly alike people. In worlds exactly alike. Except that as time went on, each person's story diverged more and more. Counterpart is set 30 years after the split.J.K. Simmons plays Howard Silk. Actually Howard Silk from one universe, and a completely different Howard Silk from the other universe. Somewhere along the way, an opening between the two universes becomes apparent and our story is set up as a conflict both politically and personally between the two universes meet in a sort of alleyway opening yet to be explained. The story is fascinating! To me, it was truly thrilling and full of deceit and backstabbing and politically manipulative incidents. But what was interesting to my eye, was how drab one universe looked. The universe that was decimated by some sort of terrible flu some time after the split that killed tens of thousands of their people. Meanwhile, the other universe does NOT get this flu. And, of course, the decimated universe blames it on a sort of terrorist move by the other universe to gain the upper hand. People who would develop technology and jobs and growth, died in the epidemic. So, to their thinking, they were at a severe disadvantage from the other universe not affected by this flu. And there is a sort of winking at diplomacy throughout the story, because the advantaged universe was not forthcoming in sharing their advancements with the so-called disadvantaged universe. Yet diplomacy is always foremost in the conversations. Does it sound like a story yet to unfold? You bet! For many seasons.There are many complex characters throughout this series. Played not just competently, but with such superiority, I cannot single out one or two of the supporting actors as better than another. J.K. Simmons has had a long and excellent career in supporting roles. I think this is his first truly starring role in anything, but others can check me on that. He shows acting abilities seen in ALL of the great actors of the past. Better than many, in my opinion. It's hard to top Mel Gibson in Bravehart (IMHO), or Denzel Washington in about five of his best movies. I thought of Marlon Brando, but he was never one I thought of as brilliant. Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan maybe. If you watched Sons of Anarchy or Game of Thrones, there are numerous excellent performances. I am only basing this on my own perspective, mind you. But I think J.K. Simmons is brilliant as the two Howard Silks. He isn't a handsome man, but he shows us in Counterpart that he is capable of much more than he has been offered during his long career in show business. I love a movie or a TV show or a series like this that crafts a plot so twisted that if you miss a moment of it, you will be confused the rest of the series. I know, because lightbulbs kept going off as I watched it a second time. Things that didn't make sense, just all came together the second time I watched it. And I found no contradictions, no threads left hanging, no acting imperfections, no characters that did not make sense from one end to the other. So, I could not deduct points for anything. Counterpart is a well crafted, excellently acted thriller. Be patient because it is also extremely satisfying as it ties up Season One. Now, let's see if it continues through season two!

It's the most ridiculous premise for a story ever but it's done so well that you almost forget. I've tried to describe it to friends and the closest I can compare it to is a really good episode of Homeland. I absolutely loved every minute of it - we watched the whole thing back to back in a day. Some great acting. Twists and turns aplenty. Really excited about series 2 which is very rare for me (I always think these things are unnecessarily dragged out to make more money).

The show starts off slowly but promising and I expected to be in for quite a ride, but in the end it never truly delivers. Its focus seems to be set mostly on character drama, where the espionage theme just serves mostly a secondary role and the sci-fi aspect is ultimately underused.I had hoped for a really clever and intelligent story that would develop over the course of the season, but after watching all the episodes, I have to say that it's simply not there.At best, the only motivation for anything that happens seems to be "we don't like them". But other than one incident, which isn't even explained but merely mentioned a couple of times (which is silly in itself given how huge it actually is), there's no apparent motivation whatesoever as to why one side wouldn't like the other side. As a viewer, you're just seeing stuff happen because it happens. Cold-war because cold-war.There's a good amount of decent action and on average at least 1 person gets killed per episode as part of what appears to be a plan. However, again as a viewer, you're just seeing a random person you hardly know or don't know at all (and as such don't care about) get killed, because of reasons which aren't explained. Some of it is "explained" in the last two episodes, but even then the drive behind it just lacks reasonable motivation.Between the action and the main story, there's a lot of character drama and a good chunk of that is on the level of soap opera. Not all of it serves a real purpose and sometimes it just drags on a bit too much.During the last 4 or so episodes, things start to happen so conveniently so often, I found it hard to suspend my disbelief. Very lazy writing, looks like they were in a hurry to wrap it up. Certain aspects of the show are also made mysterious for the sole reason of appearing mysterious. There's no substance there. Again, lazy.Acting overall is top notch and J.K. Simmons delivers a great performance as both Howards, especially in the first half of the season, where he portrays the diffences in personality and character so well, you don't even need another clue as to who you're looking at; you could notice just by his walk, for instance. This subtleness sadly mostly fades during the last couple of episodes, and not just because of what's happening story-wise.I also liked Harry Lloyd's portrayal of Peter Quayle.The general atmosphere and the setting in Berlin is great.All in all, it's not a bad show, but it's also never more than an average show, despite obvious potential for being way more than that. 6,5/10, rounding up to a 7.