When It's Good, It's Very, Very Good, But When It's Bad, It's Horrid

The elements are there to make a fantastic series. For one thing, "The Changeling" stars some amazing actors. Not only is LaKeith Stanfield wonderful as Apollo, but so are the people he acts with, including Clark Backo as Emma as well as Samuel T. Herring as William Wheeler, and, in a guest starring role, Jane Kaczmarek as Cal, the leader of the band of witches Emma briefly joins. While most of the cast is lesser-known, they're all fantastic in their roles and make the episodes mesmerizing to behold, especially Backo, who manages to go from loving wife and mother to terrifying victimizer and back again.

If that weren't enough, the series has Kelly Marcel, the writer of "Cruella" and "Venom," as its showrunner and the scribe behind all eight episodes and Melina Matsoukas, the director of "Queen & Slim" and many of your favorite music videos, as the one helming the show, and therefore, setting the scene in its first episode. These two do a great job establishing the look and feel of the piece, as they hook viewers into the story and make them want more. The scene where Apollo and Emma's son is born, in particular, is unique, engaging, and different from your average birth scene.

Even the book's author, Victor LaValle, is here providing the narration. He makes us believe what he's saying, whether it's fantastical or not. In fact, the first several episodes adhere strongly to the book. But then things veer off course, and they don't recover.