I started watching 11.22.63 a long while ago, and have just, finally, after such a long time, gotten to the end of it. I was so looking forward to watching this series, James Franco goes travelling through time in an adaptation of a Stephen King book? It couldn’t really sound more perfect if it tried.

The first episode was massively intriguing, and I forgave its slow pace as it was setting up an absolutely intriguing premise. The moments where he jumped through the time travel window and found life to be exactly the same again and again, I loved all that stuff.

Gradually, however, I started to lose interest in the series. The date of the title is backwards to my UK mind, and as it’s not a date I particularly know, I found it quite difficult to know where I was in the timeline at any given episode. The characters were good, but I couldn’t see any chemistry between Jake and… I don’t even remember her name it was that memorable a relationship. It was nice to see Franco stretching his dramatic wings further, but I was more interested in the headmaster/secretary, or Marina and the fake brother.

As the series wound to its conclusion, things did start to ramp up a little. I liked how out of control it all started to feel. Jake has worked on this project for three years and it could all go wrong right at the last minute – and mostly due to situations outside of his control. I also thought the moral choices at the end were good: head back and just see her one more time, then leave things well alone.

It looked great, and the attention to period detail was incredible, but in the end the series just wasn’t as riveting as I hoped.