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MarkCommode
Reviews
Rojst (2018)
Outstanding story telling, beautifully filmed and acted. Watch in order though!
I've just finished watching all 3 seasons of this wonderful Polish drama on Netflix. I found it wonderful in so many ways. I've only read the positive reviews and would concur with their sentiments. The stories and threads intertwine beautifully but you must watch the series in order. I feel sorry for anyone who starts with series 3, they will probably wonder what the hell is going on, get confused and possibly stop watching.
A slow burner, but stick with it, you will not be disappointed. Set in a humdrum and drab small Polish backwater town which hides a million secrets going back as far as the 2nd world war, the various threads seemingly unrelated come together, and what originally may appear as confusing makes perfect sense several episodes later.
As an English speaker I started with the dubbed version, but as with virtually all non English speaking shows I found the dubbed version dreadful and annoying, and very quickly reverted back to the Polish original with subtitles. I find it concentrates the mind better and believe me you have to concentrate on the dialogue otherwise you will miss out on so many details. The stories flit between 1945, 1985, 1997, and 1999 so keep listening and reading! If you're one of those people without the patience to follow the storyline closely, or indeed need every little detail explaining and conveniently resolved each episode then this show is probably not for you.
Renegades (2022)
Apalling
It's really difficult to write 600 words about something quite as bad as this film. Truly awful, but not in a nice way. The script appears to have been written by a 12 year old, cartoon characters, an actress touching 80 who apparently is a chief constable, another actress playing possibly the worst version of a Met detective ever. I don't think there was any British crime drama cliche unused. Literally no suspense, the ending was pathetic, and amazingly it was left that there could be a Renegades 2 in the pipeline. Honestly who writes this stuff? I can't believe I watched it all the way through, though to be fair I did laugh out loud at times at the absurdity of the storyline. Oh well it's back to 20 year re-runs of The Bill on the Drama Channel for me.
Oppenheimer (1980)
Brilliant and now available on BBC iPlayer
Firstly let me say that I have not yet watched the 2023 Christopher Nolan film so no comparisons from me. All I will say is that I binge watched all 7 episodes over a 24 hrs period. Compared to modern day offerings the production values from 1980 seem positively prehistoric but the series loses nothing and the superb script and acting more than makes up for it. If you're after CGI action and big bangs look elsewhere. If you want an intelligent script that doesn't treat the viewer as an idiot then this is for you. I'm not sure I want to watch the 2023 film anymore to be honest. Once finished I read the Wiki page on Robert Oppenheimer to find out even more, the script appears to be a truthful telling of the tale. Thoroughly recommended.
Vilsen (2016)
It might be Scandi but don't be fooled, it's garbage
Self isolating with COVID19 means I've got a lot of time on my hands, hence watching this nonsense. I knew after 10 minutes that it wasn't very good and it got progressively worse. The fight scenes in particular were laughable, and as for the final climax, well I laughed out loud even harder.
Engrenages (2005)
Wonderful and addictive.
I have just binge watched all 8 series in February and thoroughly enjoyed them all, though I felt Series 8 was the weakest with a barely credible and rushed ending (Covid19 restrictions in 2020 maybe, suddenly the series norm of 12 episodes becomes only 10?)
Really engaging characters throughout with top notch acting. The writing has been a joy, albeit some aspects a little too contrived at times but that is just nit picking. Characters such as Judge Roban and Josephine Karlsson will be sorely missed.
Definitely not a show produced by the French Tourist Board and it concentrated on the dark and seedy side of Paris with barely a landmark to be seen anywhere. No chases up and down the Eiffel Tower or around The Louvre here folks.
I've deducted one star for the final series as I thought it was the weakest by a long way and definitely the show had run its course. I can't see any scope for a series 9 even if they wanted to but the whole show will live long in my memory.
It's up there with The Wire for me.
In the Dark (2017)
Average at best, but one question SPOILER ALERT!
I'll not go into any detail but a distinctly average northern cop drama, and in episodes 3 and 4 a quite ludicrous and unbelievable plot.
One question though. I maybe thick and blind, or both, but the newborn baby at the end was black, or am I imagining this? If so, who was the father then?