Rating: 
Summary: 'scuse, all. Am I unreasonably easy to please?
Review: I must confess to having never read anything by Neil Gaiman. I have American Gods in my 300+ volume strong To-Be-Read library in Mahwah-Above as opposed to the Archive in Mahwah-Below and I will get to it one day.
I HAVE sat through decades of rubber monsters, Daleks who (I think Jon Pertwee pointed this out) could be easily foiled by tossing an opaque mac over their tops, Cybermen who could have been outrun by a lame tortoise, etc. in Dr. Who and I loved every minute of it. Honestly now, were the effects in Hitchiker's Guide all that terrific? Did Zaphod's extra head look even remotely alive?
I watched Neverwhere before reading any of the reviews here and I found nothing wrong with the visuals at all. The overall quality added to the effect of unreality and it was only here at Amazon that I read that a planned processing step had been omitted by Auntie and that everyone found this a detriment.
I didn't even think ill of the cow, probably because of the flash forwards where it looked much more menacing.
The ideas are what counts. And the ideas, starting with the subtext about the homeless through to Door's family abode and Angel Islington are just fab.
All of the actors, especially Hywel Bennett and Paterson Joseph were wonderful.
My suggestion, unless you are spoiled by state of the art tech to the point of being unable to appreciate the ideas, is to run with it and not look for flaws. American Gods just moved up quite a few places in the queue.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth seeing; but don't expect too much
Review: I read the book before I saw the DVDs, so my comments come from that perspective. The book is richer, more detailed, and better. The characters are mostly like I imagined them from the book except that Richard wasn't as nerdy, and the Marquis wasn't the dominating personality, as he was in the book. The bad guys: Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermar are great. I haven't watch much British SciFi (though this is a Fantasy) but I gather that this DVD has the same low production values. I was too-often aware that I was watching a set. This is not really a problem since the setting and the charactors have the unique Neil Gaiman touch. The acting is mostly quite good; underplayed in that British kind of way. If you've read the Sandman series, you'll know that particular Gaiman imagination - it's here in this story too. One of his many talents is an ability to make his fantasy characters and settings plausable, though, of course, they are full of impossibilities. But then, isn't that what makes fantasy work?
Rating: 
Summary: yuck! yuck! yuck!
Review: i rented this with an 'oh wow' - the bbc + neil gaiman- hooray!boy was i wrong! it was annoying, ill-produced, low-budget in the worst way (low budget can turn out all kinds of good stuff, this was just bad costuming and stupid special efx). i watched most of the wretched thing- until i fell asleep about twenty minutes before the end- even with all of the time i invested- i returned it without bothering to view those last moments. if you're smart you'll stay away and read a sandman comic instead!
Rating: 
Summary: Neverwhere is AWESOME!
Review: I saw Neverwhere back in 1998-99 when Stardust was released and it was so cool! Talk about modern fairy tales with twists and turns, romance, sexy chicness, and amazing visuals that will astonish as much as entertain. I have been waiting for this to come out on DVD for quite a long time, and it's finally here!
Rating:
Summary: Better than the book
Review: I was a little wary of watching this series after reading the book. I loved Gaiman's Sandman series, and have read all of his other books. I wasn't a big fan of Neverwhere when I read it, though. It was just a little too slow for me. This tv series, however, gave me a new appreciation of the story. Although you can tell it was made on a low budget, that doesn't detract from the greatness of the story. I think that with recent movies like the Matrix and Star Wars, we've lost our appreciation for a good story and expect every movie to blow us away with their cool special effects. Unfortunately, those kind of movies don't usually have great stories to accompany their expensive effects. I don't think Gaiman's stories need expensive effects. I love the idea that homeless people aren't just the vagrants people think they are... that they have a whole other society and "talents". One thing bothered me through the whole show. I kept trying to figure out where I had heard the name Marquis de Carabas before. As it turns out, Gaiman explains in the special feature interview, that the name comes from the fairy tale Puss In Boots. It's the name Puss gives when asked who his master is. Anyway, this is a great series with an excellent story to tell.
Rating:
Summary: Good... but obviously the book is better
Review: I was one of the few people who actually watched this when it was first on television back in the UK. And come to the think of it I'm not sure why I did, as at the time I hadn't read any of Neil Gaiman's work and just knew that he wrote some comics or something. Obviously in the intervening years I have discovered what a genius Gaiman is, and what a throughly nice man he seems to be as well. As for Neverwhere: it's good, but it could have (or should have) been great. The premise is interesting and the story is engaging, most of the actors are very good -- particularly those playing Croup and Vandemaar, not to mention the excellent portrayal of the Marquis. But it's let down by a somewhat strange combination of shooting on tape and lighting for film, or something or other, that made all the on location scenes look as though they were amateurishly faked. That coupled with the un-terrifying Beast of London, really let down the whole show. For me what made the DVD worth buying was the commentary by Neil Gaiman (yes it is on the DVD, strangely located under the individual episodes sub-menu). You get to hear all about the different locations used during the filming. And about what he thought worked really well, and what he was disappointed with. After all he wrote the book to put back in all the things that for one reason or another didn't make it in to the series, or didn't make it in the way he originally envisaged them. All very interesting. After watching the show and then listening to the commentary I really wanted to go and re-read the book... sadly my copy is somewhere over in London Above.
Rating:
Summary: Painful
Review: I watched it once all the way through. The 2nd time I tried thinking " maybe I'm just not getting it", "it must be intentional", "It couldn't have been as bad as I recall" It was. I had to stop it after 15 minutes. I've seen way better BBC productions (see "Gormenghast"). Neverwhere looks like someone took their camcorder and their D+D buddies out to make a movie. You can't really blame it on the budget, there are TV shows with better cinematography than this. The opening credits were fantastic! However, Islington remains it's only redeeming value. As a Neil Gaiman fan, I wanted to cry.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a miss
Review: I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, so it pains me to say it, but this film is one of the worst I've seen in recent history. The production values are absolutely nil, the acting isn't there at all, and there's just absolutely nothing here worth watching. I turned it off before I even got to London Below; the whole thing was simply unwatchable, and even Gaiman's commentary wasn't terribly interesting. Definitely give it a miss and pick up the book instead; Gaiman definitely improved upon his story when he wrote it up as a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Total dissapointment!
Review: If ever there was a book that deserved to be made into a big budget movie this was it. Unfortunately it looks like it was rushed to production with the goal of making a quick buck. This production is a text book case on how to ruin a good story with cheasy effects, poor direction, and horrible acting. It is also the poster child for ruined expectations. The director, producers, and to a lesser extent writers either had a very bad day or have fallen into the commonly held misconception that scifi or fantasy fans will watch anything regardless of quality. My reconmendation Neverwhere? Nevermore!
Rating:
Summary: Not much to say about this
Review: It's a mess. Go and have a look at Ultraviolet instead.
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