I watched the 4 hour first season of the BBC series last night. It was outstanding and will be hard for the American version to beat for the following reasons.

1. Nobody does this kind of drama better than the Brits. We may own the action/adventure genre but I think we fall short on this kind of drama due to our insistence on an obligatory soap opera plot device in nearly everything we do. You will see what I mean if you watch the netflix version.

2. The BBC version is divided into three 4 hour story arcs, vs the US version being one 13 hour arc. A 13 hour flick is always hard to pull off.

Still, I have watched another 2 hours of the netflix series today and I am continuing to like it a lot. There are some mildly annoying things that I would have preferred they leave out. I can't say more for risk of spoiling but I think you will see what I mean, if you get around to netflix.

Disappointing that the next 2 segments of the BBC series are not free to Prime. For 6 bucks each I will surely get to them sooner or later. It is good that the first segment was essentially a stand alone story so there is no pressure to watch the rest immediately.

I agree that netflix will not allow any of the other streaming services to offer the series for a long time. I think that it will be be available on dvd after the usual wait and I think they might make it available to a broadcast or cable network in the next year or so.

Since netflix is a monthly service with no contract, it might be worth signing up for a month for 8 bucks if there is a strong enough interest in the series.