I finally got time to watch this.
It's impossible for me to watch this completely unbiased and without comparing it to the original. It's been well over a decade since I've last watched it but I thought the original 1999 pilot was not only THE BEST episode from the original TV series, I thought it was one of THE BEST TV pilots EVER in general.
The original pilot was written by Jason Katims who also worked on "My So Called Life" and "Friday Night Lights". It was directed by David Nutter who would later win an Emmy for directing "Game of Thrones". So IMO that's a lot for Julie Pleck, and Carina Adly Mackenzie to live up to.
In general I think pilot episodes are hard because they have to cram so much into so little time. And this new pilot certainly felt more like a general TV pilot than the amazing pilot from the original series I have in my memories. But I've watched some amazing TV series that only had so so pilots.
Yeah, this new 2019 pilot didn't live up to original pilot to me. The pacing, chemistry, and acting felt poor in comparison ...maybe that was just me comparing too much to the old show, anyways I hope everything improves or my opinion of it improves in the next few episodes.
However with the characters now all being adults, this gives the new series some interesting potential. Perhaps more potential than the highschool version of these characters. We'll see where the writers/showrunner takes it.
I'll continue watching.
Also finding out Shiri Appleby, the original Liz, directed episode 9 makes me excited to see that one.
