We all know the anime was GOLDEN. The Japanese live action movies imo weren't that bad and I also managed to get my hands on Death Note: The Musical and found myself pleasently surprised.
They were all it's own thing, but following pretty much the same formula (and it worked).
The Netflix's awful attempt at rebooting or somehow renowating this universe failed horribly.
This adaptation on the other hand DIDN'T fail at all. Apparently you *can* tweek a few things and introduce new ideas and make a very good show. Who would have thought.
I was a bit surprised at the beginning because Light was much more human in the earlier episodes than what I was used to, but it worked very well. I very much enjoyed wathing his descend into calculating darkness, because literally anyone could be him. It felt much more relatable than if he was this sort of cold genius right off the bat.
As far as events go, it pretty closely followed the anime version, but with small and bigger twists thrown here and there.
There were also stuff that I found more realistic? Like it could happen to anyone, in the real world. It was a psychological, refreshing and thrilling masterpiece.
This version also had my most favourite version of Near. First of all, he's introduced pretty very early on as a side character so it doesn't feel like someone dropped a bomb on you when he becomes bigger part of the plot later.
The portrayal of Light's and L's relationship felt very well done and natural. Both actors were incredible and their cat-and-mouse game was incredibly fun to watch.
I could go on and on but this review has already gotten very long so I'm just going to tell you - go watch it, give it a chance, it's really worth it.