DMZ welcomes us to the near future, where some of the United States has separated and turned into their war zone, think movies like Escape From L.A., Escape From New York, and the much-maligned Barb Wire.
The series starts with a bang, then quickly goes steep downhill from there. Not even a Rosario Dawson can save this from an over-the-top Benjamin Bratt who chews up the scenery like he’s John Malkovich.
The production design feels rather cheap as well, it underwhelms as an HBO Max series and feels more like a made for Syfy tv movie back when they were called ‘Sci-Fi’. It flops massively and I don’t know how many people will stick with it after the first two episodes unless they’re comic book die-hard fans. The story is also all over the place with interwoven storylines taking bits from Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, some may even Romeo must Die.
If DMZ took its time with fleshing out 72 issues into 4 episodes it may have worked better, however, to the audience’s dismay it’s a dreadful watch, if you thought The Spirit and The Kitchen were terrible then get ready for DMZ, I doubt the creators wanted a series that’s this bad starring talent like Rosario Dawson and Benjamin Bratt.
Overall Grade: 1/5 stars
