They started for health – two girls with a strange past, people in costumes, chasing on their heels, a watch with a melody from the past, a secret organization that soon emerges. It all looked like a good set for a fascinating story, but...
The first doubts appeared in the first episode. Some shots in the 25-minute series managed to show 3 (three!) times. Then it caused only vague bewilderment and hope that in the future the pace of the story will be cheerful. It will, but not often.
For a story based almost entirely on intrigue alone, Noir is evolving too slowly. And that's a big problem. Repetitions and long plans are so common that only a completely lazy and unread/watched person can not figure out what and how will happen next.
Sometimes the reactions of the characters to the “news” do not cause anything but indignation. How could I not have guessed before? There will be a few surprises in the end, but that's it.
The first series looked good (except for repetitions) in the fighting scenes. In addition, unrelated to the main storyline orders looked decent and interesting. Against the background of all the other problems, you can forgive Noir and the ethnic cleansing in the USSR of the 70s, and the most cranberry performance of Cosa Nostra in my memory.
Problems begin to appear closer to the middle, when the plot information is issued per hour for a teaspoon, and there is nothing to distract from it.
Fights are terribly degraded and in the end turn into banal shooters with idiotic enemies, everything is so predictable that in such moments it becomes boring.
Cool killers and other secondary characters turned out not to be particularly expressive, but a pity. Moving from country to country, traveling between continents, scriptwriters successfully (and for some reason it turns out clumsy) make it clear about the global nature of what is happening. Colorful characters, such as the various contractors in Darker than Black, would color the world, but, unfortunately, for a few episodes, the writers have nothing.