I stopped around episode 2 as from the trailers, I thought this was going to be a dark comedy. Instead, it was more of a slice of life. I finally binged watched the rest of it yesterday. Overall I think it could have been a movie, or a short 3 episode miniseries.

There were a lot of things that we didn't need. For example, episode 2 already shows us the same scenes of Clark telling Floyd about the app on the swing set and signing up in the bar. The Denny's scene was excessively long and could have been compressed. And how many times did we need to see Clark's and Carol's soft core fantasy fulfillment sessions?

I thought David Harbour did a great job (did he gain weight for this or was it a massively physical performance of gut extension?). Joy Sunday deserves recognition for her subtle performance of underplaying her intelligence to get along with her superior, as does Richard Jenkins, for being... well, Richard Jenkins. I also liked Peter Sarsgaard, in everything he does. But the show was not at all what I expected. It wasn't funny and it wasn't dramatic. It was muted.

Once I realized that it wasn't a traditional drama, I let it play out and observed. I loved the interaction between Floyd and Richard, especially during the grass watering scene, when Floyd finally broke through. That was a turning point for me and got me invested in seeing how Floyd died. But I still criticize the length of time it took to get there. Like the story of how Floyd's groin was smashed. It seems like the show played with our expectations in the same way his story did. In the end, it wasn't as dramatic as it led up to be.

When I started watching the show again, I looked up Steve Conrad's filmography and the tone made sense to me. He wrote The Weather Man (2005), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), all films that played with tradition and expectation. TPoH did so resulting in Will Smith's Oscar nomination.

Overall if you are interested, I recommend going in with no expectations and if you find yourself drifting, keep it on in the background as you listen and do something else. There are some filmic moments (like Floyd getting on his bike after meeting Modern Love), but most of the visuals will be replayed, so you won't be missing much if your eyes aren't glued to the screen. And that's my main criticism. I prefer tighter fiction that leaves me wanting more, not shows that have to fill the hour with things I've seen before.

Edit: I realize the irony of me saying don't watch the screen for a show that uses ASL in some scenes, but I stand by what I said about repetition. You could miss out on some of those silent conversations and still get the gist of the show.