This series took me a while to finish. Started it on March 31st, ended on June 3rd. That’s because the first few episodes didn’t grip me all that much. In hindsight I can see what they were doing with them, but still. The beginning of the show is slow. I felt like each episode was a few minutes too long and not all that much was happening, though while Ewan McGregor was great and his relationship with little Nina was cute. Episodes 3 and 4 do pick it a little, more starts happening and there was more weight to it. It’s past the halfway point, with episode 5, An Arrival, where the show really became great. And while in the first half I kept thinking “this probably could have just been a film,” by episode 6 I thought “what do you mean I only have two episodes left??” Episodes 6 and 8 got a 9/10 from me. Ewan McGregor is delightful. He’s great on his own, he’s great in scenes with other adults, but he’s at his best here when he’s with “his” kids: whether that’s Nina in the first half or Sofia in the second, he is absolutely magical when he has scenes with them. And look, I haven’t seen that much of his work, I haven’t seen Moulin Rouge! or Trainspotting, but from what I have seen, I’d say this is one of his best performances. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also great in this, but it isn’t until the latter half of the show that she really starts showing what she can do. All the kid actors that come and go throughout the show are also good, and, once again, bring out the best of Ewan. The rest of the cast, from the hotel personel to everyone else have grown on me over the course of the series and I ended up really caring about them, with Johnny Harris being the highlight. Production design, costume design, all that stuff was on point, and I want to give special recognition to the makeup artists because they made the aging look believable, on Ewan especially. Ultimately my only real issue was the pacing. 30+ years of the lives of several people is hard to fit into 8 episodes, I know, but still… the start felt too slow and the end felt too fast. But overall: light 8/10. It may or may not have made me weep a little. And put Ewan McGregor in a magical christmas-y fantastical movie please! Like a sad uncle who’s taking care of his niece/nephew and they end up going on a magical adventure that he doesn’t want to go on but in the end he finds joy again thanks to that. Thank you.