IdleRich

IdleRich
Actually the adaptation was ultimately disappointing.... good moments, but I feel that the M & M is a very complex book and I don't claim to understand what it's getting at. But it seems to me that if you are going to direct an adaptation of something you should have some idea of what it's about, cos if you don't you will just end up with a load of scenes that are in the book but which don't have any kind of overarching, guiding principle. And that's what was the issue here... so, many good scenes, many bad scenes, loads of metaphysical musing that failed to make much impact. In the final analysis, a mess despite the cast and the material.
But we've signed up to the Soviet cinema page for a week and we have loads of other good stuff availabe for our 15 dollars - we've stated on a tv series called Chiki about prostitutes in a Southern Russian nowhere town - seems pretty good so far.
 

Leo

Well-known member
just finished season four of French series "spiral", really great. coming off our binge of all past seasons of "the bureau", we've had an eye-opening view of the grit, danger and international machinations happening in Paris. both highly recommended.

also watching the new "Fargo", interesting coincidence that in this year of BLM, this season centers on a cast of Black characters. Good so far, different from past seasons in that it's set in the past (1950s, I think). Never seen Chris Rock in a non-comedy role before, he's pretty good as head of the crime family.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
this new danish documentary The Mole is one of the most ridiculous things i've ever watched.

the brilliant thing about it, what drives home the sense of absurdity is how, when the veil is pulled from this secret underworld of international arms dealing, drug manufacturing, underground weapons factories, intergovernmental conspiracies, what is revealed isn't any less evil than imagined but so much more amateruish and awkward and random, filled with quirks of fate and just weird, out of place, everyday elements from the same world as we live in.


theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/12/every-boys-dream-is-to-be-james-bond-inside-north-korea-with-mr-james-and-the-mole
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
Remember the Channel 5 show The Mole? That was great, subtle acts of sabotage and paranoia over 12 weeks, very entertaining
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But we've signed up to the Soviet cinema page for a week and we have loads of other good stuff availabe for our 15 dollars - we've stated on a tv series called Chiki about prostitutes in a Southern Russian nowhere town - seems pretty good so far.
Weird mixture of glamourised poverty, violence and depression. Ultimately not sure what it was trying to say or what the point of it was. But I enjoyed it... mainly just cos of seeing a part and side of Russia I've not seen portrayed before, hot and exotic with brightly coloured shacks, ripe watermelons in the fields and a large muslim population of... Chechens maybe?
 

version

Well-known member
I've been watching some of the early episodes of Midsomer Murders. There was a good one where John Nettles accidentally ate a load of space cakes and was going around trying to solve the case whilst bursting into fits of laughter, staring into space etc.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah you got... what Badger's Drift, Causton... Midsomer Mallow... there's Upper and Lower something too I think. Theme reminds me a little of the Saint Saens' Danse Macabre, I reckon they kinda copied it to be honest.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
The Midsomer region is statistically more dangerous than Baghdad or something (or so I read once) - they do have about three murders every week. There's one that is super dark with about five or six victims including two children.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Sadly I've seen that one too... but I never realised it was Orlando Bloom. Oh yeah that was the one where the little girl kills her babysitter at the start right? That was creepy.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Is this the twee English village that has a higher per-capita murder rate than Ciudad Juarez?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Is this the twee English village that has a higher per-capita murder rate than Ciudad Juarez?
Common misconception there - Midsomer is not actually a village but rather a fictitious region containing a number of vicious villages - with a higher murder rate than Baghdad (as stated above) or Juarez if you prefer.
The series focuses on various murder cases that take place within small country villages across the fictional English county of Midsomer, and the efforts of the senior police detective and their partner within the fictional Causton Constabulary to solve the crime by determining who the culprit is and the motive for their actions. It identifies itself differently from other detective dramas often by featuring a mixture of lighthearted whimsy and dark humour, as well as a notable soundtrack that includes the use of the theremin instrument for the show's theme tune.
 

Leo

Well-known member
you'd imagine that after years of astronomical homicide rates, each of those quaint villages would be overrun by military police to maintain order. yet they remain a peaceful oasis...on the outside, anyway.
 
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