What/If is a TV series which is currently available on Netflix. It stars Jane Levy, Blake Jenner, Keith Powers, Samantha Marie Ware, Juan Castano and Renée Zellweger. The show comes created by Mike Kelley who some may know for his work on TV series’ such as Revenge (2011) or Jericho (2006).
When I first saw the trailer for What/If appear on my Netflix feed late last Friday night, I was quite intrigued. As trailers go for TV shows, this one does stand out as one of the better trailers for a TV series I’ve seen this year. On top of this, the TV series stars Renée Zellweger and also Jane Levy, who are both very good actresses. The show also comes created by Mike Kelley who has done very interesting things in the past. What more reason do you need to check out this show?
After watching the series in full, I’d say it’s certainly worth checking out if you did become intrigued as I did by the trailer and the entire look of what the show promises to be. But as a series, I felt that overall What/If was a rather mixed experience with some exceptionally good moments, but also a lot of scenes and other moments which I feel could have really just been cut from the show.
Where the show’s main strength is, is with its central characters and theme. The premise of the show is based on the theme of morality. What if a wealthy woman offered a married couple a substantial amount of money, if she could spend a single night with another woman’s husband? Our main characters, Lisa (Jane Levy) and Sean (Blake Jenner) accept this offer from Anne (Renée Zellweger) and we go from there. Jane experiences the guilt of making the decision, Sean struggles with what he did and Anne has other ideas. This what if style plot is interesting and is the main thing that viewers will find intriguing about the show. The dynamic between the three characters and the tension between them all, is strangely entertaining.
Where the show does not do well, is basically with every other character in the show. There’s other characters in there which serve as distractions to the main plot and are participating in equally immoral exercises. But to me, every other character doesn’t really do much for the show and the actors are all fairly uninteresting as a result. For me when watching the series, it felt more like all the other characters were filler, simply used to stretch out the story so it can get to its 10 episodes.
I did enjoy the performances from Renée Zellweger, Jane Levy and Blake Jenner. These three were all quite good and I don’t think audiences will be disappointed with their performances. I certainly felt that the show was always great when these three were on screen.
Overall, I would say that it’s a good idea to check out this show if you are intrigued by it this week. Renée Zellweger, Jane Levy and Blake Jenner put in some great performances and the tension between their characters provides a solid drama experience. The themes based around morality and the what if style plot line was also quite interesting. The only problem with the show is with all the rest of the minor characters who all didn’t really have anything exciting going on. Spending the weekend watching What/If wasn’t too bad and in general, I thought it was a fairly entertaining and interesting experience.
