Defending Jacob

[Abazigal]

I enjoyed the car crash part - I was completely shocked by it & it added suspense to the whole story - I thought they were both dead. The ending let me down. I would’ve liked to know who killed that kid. Apparently the book ending is completely different to this. There was too many questions at the end of it, which annoyed me.

Going by the wikipedia entry, the book seems to make it unambiguous that Jacob was the killer all along, though his death at the end was more an accident.

Personally, I would rather have the series end with both mother and son dying the crash, or leaving their fates unknown. Too many loose ends at the end. So does the mother believe in his son's innocence now or not? Either way, life will never be normal again for the entire family.

And well, Chris Evans is a powerful draw either way.

 

[GrampaJiiji]

Excellent acting.
But as I said earlier lighting too dark, not realistic, over done.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

If nothing else, at least the finale kept me on my toes.

Granted, I haven't read the book so maybe the book didn't have any pay offs either, but this is the kind of ending that gets taken through the cleaner on social media if this show were popular enough for more people to watch it.

It just wasn't a rewarding finale. The only answer we got was that Andy's dad was the reason for Patz's confession. Other than that, we left with 2x as many questions as we had going in to the finale.

 

[Bolanders]

Excellent acting.
But as I said earlier lighting too dark, not realistic, over done.

Yeah that mom was loony. People with kids who love their kids don't think or act like she did. They think more like the grandpa in prison did.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Going by the wikipedia entry, the book seems to make it unambiguous that Jacob was the killer all along, though his death at the end was more an accident.

Personally, I would rather have the series end with both mother and son dying the crash, or leaving their fates unknown. Too many loose ends at the end. So does the mother believe in his son's innocence now or not? Either way, life will never be normal again for the entire family.

And well, Chris Evans is a powerful draw either way.

Apparently in the book the girl on vacation is murdered and Jacob has blood stains on his swimsuit. Why did they leave this out? Would gave been a way better ending IMO. And better context for Laurie going off the deep end.

 

[matrix07]

The ending was a bit “meh” for me. Anyone else?

Personally I think it’s great and refreshing. It’s obscure and you can interpret it in many ways. Did Jacob really did it? Someone else? Like Laurie said, we never know and that’s great. It’s pretty realistic in term of parent having to deal with a kid who could be a psycho.

 

[BlankStar]

Started watching three days ago with my girlfriend and finished it already. Really liked the show, but was hoping that the last scene of the show would be the murder. I don't like open endings :-( I want to know!

 

[Rogifan]

I finally watched this series. I thought it was good. All the actors were good. I still think Andy still always wondered in the back of his mind if Jacob was the killer. I think it‘s something he’d always have doubts about.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Really enjoyed this show a lot (only just watched). In fact I found it gripping from start to finish. It wasn't perfect and made me raise an eyebrow once or twice, but overall I thought it was fabulous.

My only gripe is that the finale, whilst excellent, kind of fell flat on its face in the final few minutes. Throughout the show I had imagined that it would only be the one season, but the ending of season one seemed open, and we never actually did find out if he killed the kid, so I'm assuming there's a season 2 inbound. For the record I think he did it. I hated him anyway so I hope he gets the chair in season two ?

 

[nutmac]

My only gripe is that the finale, whilst excellent, kind of fell flat on its face in the final few minutes. Throughout the show I had imagined that it would only be the one season, but the ending of season one seemed open, and we never actually did find out if he killed the kid, so I'm assuming there's a season 2 inbound. For the record I think he did it. I hated him anyway so I hope he gets the chair in season two ?

I suspect the ambiguous ending is intentional. After all, we are still talking about it.

The book is much more conclusive, with more circumstantial evidences. IMO, the series rightly focuses on far more interesting aspect of the novel -- not whether Jacob is guilty or not, but how the situation affects and regresses Jacob's parents.

Both Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery expressed interest in reprising their roles, but only if the story is a compelling one.