An engaging but ultimately overrated title:

Mouse has received a lot of great feedback from a variety of people. I fell foul of this and decided to watch the series, thinking that it would be a solid drama to see. I was disappointed. There are certainly positive aspects to the show, however the failings are numerous and they can be very jarring also.

If you were to summarise the plot of Mouse, it's a psychological thriller about serial killers, detectives and some other convoluted nonsense. It likes to think it's a series about psychopaths, but there isn't a single psychopath in the drama (despite the fact that the term is thrown around constantly).

The plot itself is a mess. It is constantly jumping around and throwing itself about, and whilst it isn't difficult to follow, it sometimes feels like the writers got distracted and started running off on a tangent just to 'remember' what they were supposed to be doing with the plot after a few episodes. Every episode tends to follow the same pattern - end it on a 'plot twist' that leaves the viewer thinking something major has happened, and then start the next episode with either a flashback, or an immediate explanation of how nothing has actually happened and it was just to misdirect us... except after the first couple times you just expect them to play it safe. And they do. Every time.

I was constantly rolling my eyes at the story in Mouse. I was not surprised by the 'plot twist'. They allude to it the entire way through the show, so nobody in their right mind should be surprised when it comes to light - however they do nonetheless keep you guessing about a lot of the plot. Not because it's well written or complex, but because it just doesn't make any sense. It's unnecessarily convoluted, to the point that it seems the writers themselves didn't understand the story either. So much happens that is irrelevant that often important points are overlooked.

Regarding the acting, it's decent. Most of it is good, although there are some scenes that are difficult to watch - without spoiling things or going into detail, let's just say there's a bit too much crying and screaming in this show, and a couple of the actors don't cry well... *cough* the Detective *cough*.

Lastly... the research. It's a real pet-peeve of mine when writers don't do their research. Clearly this show has founded all of its knowledge from stereotypes, cliches and misinformation. It is so abhorrently wrong about so much. The entire series is focused on psychopathy and serial killers (not the same thing) - but they have no idea what a psychopath is, they have no idea about policing procedures, they have no idea about crime scene management or forensics, they have no idea about biology, they have no idea how brains work, they have no idea about how experiments are conducted and theories produced. They literally just pull everything out of their butts. It's an insult to any writer that actually makes the effort.

Lots of people have excused the total lack of informed writing and just dubbed this series as 'sci-fi', but that seems a petty excuse to me. It's just laziness from the writers. They clearly didn't care much about understanding their subject material.

Ultimately, it's a watchable show, no doubt about it. Most people could still probably enjoy it for what it is, especially if they just want to watch an easy series about killers. However, I can't really recommend it to anyone. It's definitely not the masterpiece people have claimed it to be.

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