agmtw logo
search
The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland

A white-knuckle thriller with great characters going up against constant, seemingly impossible odds

The Very Best

8.0

TV Show

Japan
English, Japanese
Action & Adventure, Animation, Crime, Drama
2019
Ai Kayano, Ari Ozawa, Erisa Kuon
23 min

TLDR

The two cardinal rules of watching The Promised Neverland: (1) don't look up a single thing about its plot; and (2) just pretend they never made a second season.

What it's about

When several orphans living at Grace Field House learn of a dark secret being kept from them, they plot to make their escape from the orphanage.

The take

Intricately constructed and unbearably suspenseful from beginning to end, the first season of The Promised Neverland is a masterclass in using the episodic structure of TV to maximize the effect of a mystery-driven thriller. By placing us firmly within the perspective of its child protagonists (who are, to be fair, incredibly smart and determined), every step towards freedom still feels like a shot in the dark, and every setback becomes increasingly more devastating. Even as the season hurtles towards its conclusion, it never becomes clear how much its characters will succeed, if at all. Intelligent editing and animation that goes from ominous to fully grotesque ensures that something always feels off or too good to be true, no matter what.

And it says a lot about the sheer quality of the first season that it's still worth recommending despite a truly awful, rushed second season, which ignores its own themes and resorts to lazy animation just to get through the story faster. Viewed as a two-season series, The Promised Neverland can't help but look disappointing, squandering an exhilarating first half with developments that lead nowhere. But even on its own, season one stands tall as a stunning achievement in anime—a self-contained story of selflessness and hope in the face of dehumanization and despair.

What stands out

It's difficult to talk about any aspect of The Promised Neverland without giving anything away, but it should reassure any skeptic to know that the first season boasts both a practically perfect premiere episode and a practically perfect finale. The hook within the very first 20 minutes of the show sets a tone that's impossible to shake, while the conclusion manages to work in just enough unexpected emotion into its breathless set pieces. With such strong bookends, the first season has a rock-solid foundation on which every development in between feels necessary and earned.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Ethos

A level of attention to aesthetics usually reserved for the most elaborate films, mixed with a complex and relevant story, make this series from Turkey unmatched in its quality

9.9

Caliphate

A psychological thriller that provides insight on what drove so many young people to ISIS.

8.9

Pretend it’s a City

A wildly entertaining series of interviews with a New York legend

9.2

Escape at Dannemora

Based on a true prison escape story, this slow-burn suspense thriller features once-in-a-lifetime performances by a star-studded cast

9.3

Unorthodox

A well-acted fact-based thriller about untangling the grip of a close-knit community

8.5

The Looming Tower

A well-written thriller miniseries about the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI and how they failed to prevent 9/11.

8.1

Unbelievable

Critics lauded the angle and feminist edge of this grim true crime miniseries.

8.8

Lovesick

Heavy on the rom but also the com, this British series is an effortless watch based on an unlikely premise

9.4

The Last Kingdom

8.6

To the Lake

A Russian thriller about a deadlier pandemic where society goes violent

7.3

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.