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Reviews
Vivir sin permiso (2018)
Entertaining, but . . .
Ok, so next time your pretentious Eurocentric cultural friend goes on about the superiority of everything Euro over everything American, this should be contra exhibit A. One part Sopranos (if Luis Zahera isn't channeling Steve Van Zandt, I'll eat my hat) without Tony's inner life, one big part telenovela, this is incongruous, has plot holes big enough to drive the Panzer division through, and is so over the top as to make Dynasty-I show my age-appear understated. And yet . . . It's entertaining as all get out with lots of beautiful people, including scads of highly confected, stunning women teetering around in impossibly tight dresses and high heels. Even though this makes the Kardashians seem like reading the collected works of Foucault, I enjoyed it. If you can't figure out if you'd like this from this review, well, move on to this year's Oscar-nominated best foregin language documentaries.
Treason (2022)
Pat show with ridiculous villain
Ok, this show was going along as a garden variety reasonably entertaining, if stereotypical, spy thriller when the true villain gets unveiled in the third episode. Is it the Russians? Nope, that's a head fake. A shadowy Middle Eastern terrorist group? Of course not, they don't do stuff like this, after all. Maybe some far right Brits? Well, you're getting warmer, but no. It's the CIA! This is the third British series I've seen in the past month where the Americans were the bad guys, trying to subvert all that is great in Britain. Is The Guardian Op-Ed page writing this dreck, and does any even slightly educated Brit believe the Americans are the worst of their worries? I'm not a blind lover of our intelligence services or constabulary, but this is too ridiculous for words. Count me out.
Before We Die (2021)
Gripping TV, regardless of others' gripes
Ok, I didn't see the original Swedish production (I didn't even know that there *was* an original Swedish production), and I always think it's a bit silly to set a show in some non-English speaking locale and have the actors speak English (unless it's dealing with Anglophones in said locale). But I confess I could truly care less where this was filmed; that's not the point of this series. And what is important to me is that I think the acting is consistently convincing, the plots and dialog compelling. Do I really care that an APB wasn't called in in some instance where it would have been customarily in an American cop show? Not in the least. But this does strike me as the kind of twisty, morally compromised kind of undercover work that would need to be done to bring down a ring of criminals. While it can be a sign of the bankruptcy of new ideas in the entertainment world that too often what folks come up with is just transmogrifying a successful show from one place into an almost complete replica set in another (or even worse, since someone else brought up the example of Professor T, doing so with what seems to have the main intent of bumping up ethno-racial diversity), I believe that this iteration stands on its own as a highly worthwhile watch.
Forsvinningen - Lørenskog 31. oktober 2018 (2022)
Impeccable, honest and sometimes hard to watch
This is my first IMDb review, and I feel compelled to write after looking at the less positive reviews here. The Scandanavian dramas on Netflix have been among my favorite of all of their programs, and this one is near the top. The performances are consistently compelling, natural and believable, the directing taut, and, in the best sense, drama-free. The viewer really feels like s/he is in the middle of this complex drama. The story holds a mirror up to issues of class, sexism, police and journalistic bias without providing any easy answers. I was a bit taken aback at the end of Episode 5 that there was no Episode 6, but after some reflection, thought the ambiguous ending suited the series; however, seeing a note from other reviewer about it being missing, I"m sure that if it exists, it will do justice to what preceded it. If you're looking for something fast-paced, easy and prone to putting its thumb on the scale for the topics it covers, this show isn't for you, but if you want something superbly made and thought-provoking, I think you'll find this series well worth your time, whether 5 episodes or 6.