The Path

After parking his trailer for a number of years on the set of such mediocre films as Triple 9, Exodus: Gods and Kings and Need For Speed, Aaron Paul has returned to the place where he achieved his greatest success as Jesse Pinkman, television. . Together with Hugh Dancy - who you may still know as the totally screwed up Will Graham in Hannibal - and True Detective's Michelle Monagham, it's now set to happen in Hulu's latest homemade bake, The Path. In Breaking Bad Paul was still looking for relief by regularly barking his veins with chemicals, in The Path he only has to conform to the teachings of the self-proclaimed guru Steven Meyer. Is a lot cheaper and your teeth will not fall out. Seems like a bonus. While Meyers chases through the dues of his tame lambs at his permanent vacation address in Peru, Viceroy Cal Roberts, played by the delightfully creapy Hugh Dancy, takes care of the store at home in upstate New York. Roberts pretends to be just the mouthpiece of the great leader, but secretly he wouldn't mind at all if everyone were humbly on their knees before him. In bed at night, just before going to sleep, he hatches cunning plans to become the new scoutmaster of the toko as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Eddie Lane, Aaron Paul's character, and his wife Sarah are ripe for the relationship counselor. Eddie is starting to wonder more and more what kind of circus he ended up in and that is against the sore leg of the hardcore believer Sarah. That pretty much covers it, I believe. For a moment I was afraid that I would watch Jesse Pinkman in a series about religious insanity, but that was not so bad. Just as Kelsey Grammer in Boss never reminds one for a moment of the somewhat pedantic Dr. Frasier Crane and Ed O'Neill in Modern Family soon make short work of the grumpy shoe salesman from Married With Children, Paul manages to shake off the character of Heisenberg's former sidekick fairly well. Whether he and his baby face should have had a sixteen-year-old son right away is perhaps still worth discussing, but flanked by Dancy and Monagham, he at least forms a cast that you can look at quite closely. No, Path's 'problem' is not the line-up or the production value, which were perfectly fine in other Hulu productions like 11.22.63 and Casual, the problem is more the story. It's all a bit flat. The overarching idea of a series about living in a religious cult is certainly interesting. For the somewhat belittled among you… Who didn't watch the storming of that farm in Waco and thought, “Wondering what David Koresh has been up to there”? Only too little happens between the main storylines, which makes The Path start to drag on a bit. If you decide that you can also do the dishes while watching, something is not quite right. With the series, huh ?! Me me everything is thick fine. Hulu has already announced that they are going to stick to it for a second season, so maybe after a solid first season the flame really shoots. The cliffhanger in the last episode at least keeps that hope alive for me. www.gumstarr.com

Very good series. As far as I am concerned, the storyline is just fine, as is the acting of basically everyone. The concept really appeals to me. TOP SERIES!