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[Vultural]

Bedlam: S01 - 2011 - UK

Bedlam: S01 - 2011 - 6/10

For Lease!!  Newly refurbished living accommodations with latest mod-cons!
Ongoing construction means fantastic deals for you!
Oh, yeah, this place used to be an insane asylum where multiple mysterious deaths occurred.
That's OK, our handyman Jed sees ghosts!  Ask him to protect you!  Cheers!!!

Yes, Jed can see the lingering presences, and this place is packed with them.
All seem pissed off, have a score to settle, or an axe to grind.
Doesn't matter if living residents were in no way responsible for their plight.
Each week is a one-off adventure and watchable.  There is a S02, which I have not viewed.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Crime Squad - 2011 - S Korea

Crime Squad - 2011 - 6/10
AKA - Detectives In Trouble // 강력반

Episodic police procedural, K-drama.
The opening 15-20 minutes of E01 are sheer crap!
Really.  Flatulent jokes, toilet scenes, folks fanning the air.
Afterward, the series never returns to moronic antics, so keep this in mind if curious.
The four man team investigate a new crime every couple weeks.
Most are imperiled females.  Bullied, battered, stalked, tortured, murdered.
The rebellious Officer Park is shadowed by perky Reporter Jo.
Will they connect?  Are there clouds in the sky?
Characters are likeable.  Middling, and mid-pack as far as K-drama crime shows go.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Vanished By The Lake - 2015 - France

Le Mystère du Lac - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Vanished By The Lake

During the night of the village fete, teenage Chloe disappears.
Almost twenty years after two other girls vanished, never to be found.
The best friend forever of the original duo, now a Paris detective, appears.
As does one of the males who had been accused back then.
Within a month, the village is nothing but suspects, resentments, and ugly histories.
Short series excels in casting plausible suspicion up to the last few minutes.
Mystery fans, this is killer plotting.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Miss Devil - 2018 - Japan

Miss Devil - 2018 - 7/10
AKA - Miss Debiru: Jinji no Akuma Tsubaki Mako //     デビル 人事の悪魔・椿眞子

Addictive J-dorama proves quite the guilty pleasure.
Kyoa Home Insurance hires HR consultant, the gorgeous Miss Tsubaki, to prepare 50 eager new hires.
After two weeks training, 40 have resigned.  HR is horrified, top management delighted.
Only one recruit dares to stand up to her, the shy, timid Saito.
The Boss gives Tsubaki her own section, and she hand picks a small staff, including the terrified Saito.
Every two weeks, Tsubaki sends Saito into an area to train:  Sales, Underwriting, Marketing, Sprockets.
His task - find the weakest member for Tsubaki to remove.
The mysterious, if frightening, Miss Tsubaki is the axe-man
Nasty little series flicks deftly, rapier-like, at everyday corporate grievances.
Sexual harassment, unpaid overtime, pregnancy, all the while treading to higher stakes.
Realize, Tsubaki, known quickly as Miss Devil, has a personal agenda.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Mark Kermode's Secrets Of Cinema - 2018 - UK

Mark Kermode's Secrets Of Cinema - 2018 - 7/10

Five part documentary of the formulae used in select genres.
RomCom - Heist - Coming Of Age - SciFi - Horror
Kermode explores character types, plot crutches, mold breakers.
Aside from the "coming of age" section, I had viewed the vast majority of movies discussed.
Yes, that includes romcom.
For SciFi and Horror there were a few that had gone under my radar that I may seek out.
Good introductory doc.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Utopia: S01 - 2013 - UK

Utopia: S01 - 2013 - 8/10

"Where is Jessica Hyde?"
Brilliant series set in the near future or today!
Online gamers find clues to the sequel of a legendary graphic novel.
Independently, and then collectively, they search for it.
Nor are they alone.  Two other hunters leave a trail of blood and death in their wake.
Highly imaginative series piles on twists, revelations, conspiracy, and splatter.
Most diabolical, near the end, viewers are tempted into darkness.
Me?  I switched teams and began rooting for the bad guys.

Note:  S01 concludes with a a couple of open doors, which I could live with.
There is a S02, which I am not inclined to view.  Reading between the lines, I gather that season advances incrementally (meaning less original ideas, more padding).  Season 3 was canceled.  Caveat emptor.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Greyzone - 2018 - Denmark

Greyzone - 2018 - 5/10

Security forces in Denmark and Sweden hunt for missing nuclear warhead, then advanced drone!
Soon, they realize a high-tech expert has been kidnapped, and she may be forced into dark deeds.
Reviews for this were wide ranging, so I knew there was a 50-50 chance I might dislike this.
Within a half hour you realize the terrorists are Muslim extremists.  Really?
Woman kidnapped, and her son threatened.  Child in danger, really?
To get info, she has to copy files from a security company to drive.  Huh?
Later, load spyware to said outfit.  Say wha?  The company has no malware protection?
More?  Each episode bears a title, which turns out to be a reveal or, worse, a spoiler!
On and on and on and on.  Clichés stack into each other.
The writers are sloths, the story predictable, with characters you want to shove into a garbage truck.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

White Christmas - 2011 - S Korea

White Christmas - 2011 - 8/10
AKA - Hwaiteu Keuriseumaseu  //  화이트 크리스마스

Marvelous K-drama has nothing to do with Yule, aside from seasonal snow.
Elite high school for gifted or rich students only closes eight days a year for vacation.
Typically, every year a few students remains behind as their parents are “too busy.”
This year, each pupil receives a note accusing them of a despicable crime.
Of which, most appear to be guilty
Who sent the note?  Why?  And guilty of what?
This does not go the slasher route, though there are echoes of Lord Of The Flies.
Stakes are perilous, future employment, life trajectories, so killings may be expected.
The premise is of monsters.  Are they born, or are they created?  Nature - nurture.
Intense psychological thriller, with outstanding cinematography and evocative music score.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Bad Banks - 2018 - Germany

Bad Banks - 2018 - 8/10

Razor honed brief series will be a banquet for fans of Wall Street and The Big Short.
Not necessarily a tasty feast, depending on how the financial world treated you.  Or still does.
Global investment bank in Germany structures major loans, works a takeover, shifts money.
Shifting is loose phrase.  Shifting sums of money, allegiances, realities, relationships.
D and back-stabbings get confused at times, and some of the emotional points held scant interest for me.  (Though I daresay the "human angle" is why most viewers tune in.)    [
Drinking, drug abuse, meaningless sex, nudity, profanity, will keep interest from flagging.
Perfect for cynics of all ages.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Nightflyers - 2019 – 4/10

SciFi fans, me included, are easy suckers, desperate to watch space bits, knowing we will never personally venture there, and it is in increasingly unlikely any human will in a generation or two.
Anyway, planet Earth is dying!  Pollution, disease, global incineration, over population, the gamut!
Meanwhile, out near the rim of our solar system, there is an alien craft.
We try to make contact, it hurries away.
(Why would aliens flee from an infectious, self-destructive, crazy species, carrying weapons?)
Luckily for humanity, we have one spaceship, the Nightflyer, and it sets forth!
Early on, I knew this was going to blow, even though initial IMDB ratings were 8/10.
First warning, 20+ producers in the opening credits, including the Big Cheese*.
The plot is cobbled together twaddle, lacking logic and focus.  Acting, across the board, is Grade D ham.
Ropy special effects, blinky lights designed to excite easily dazzled boys and manboys.
The ship is huge.  Private quarters are the size of a living room.  Corridors, five can walk abreast.  Instead of crawl ducts, there is an under corridor!  For all that, interiors are dark.  As if they cannot pay the light bill.
Personnel are all nonstarters who would have been rejected by Weyland in the first interview.
I could go on and on, at this waste of time that gives zilch entertainment.
Do yourself a favor, watch episodes of the immortal “Pigs In Space” instead.

* The Big Cheese – AKA Geo RR Martin.
Working on this fiasco, instead of finishing that fire n ice thing that millions are waiting for.
Nice choice, genius.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Zone Blanche: S01 - 2017 - France

Zone Blanche: S01 - 2017 - 7/10
AKA – Black Spot

Eight part French series set in deep woods village.
Though set in the middle of nowhere, mischief and deviltry occur constantly.
Murders, missing females, shootings, run concurrent with traditions and rituals.
The small Gendarme branch is extremely busy, and is not helped when an exiled district attorney from Paris arrives.
A constant presence is the surrounding forest, a primeval wilderness, which may harbor an unknown.
This series carries a strong Twin Peaks feel, as interpreted by Dana Scully, however.
Though each episode is a singular story, there is also a connecting arc.
While I enjoyed this, the ending left me dissatisfied.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Two Weeks -  2013 - 6/10
AKA – Toowickseu // 투윅스

K-drama, patterned after “The Fugitive” finds petty level criminal accused of murder.
This is not the first time he’s taken the fall, but it is the first time he realizes he will be killed in prison.
In a traffic accident, he makes his break!
Straight off, he ain’t Dr. Richard Kimble.  He has a criminal record, is involved with criminals, and is a gigolo.
Over the episodes, his backstory gets teased out, showing the many people he has disappointed.
The first half has stronger pacing and is a hard moving thriller.  I really appreciate that he was unable to get out of his handcuffs for a few episodes.  Most shows – five minutes, free!
I’m sure I got this because Kim So-Yeon plays the obsessed prosecutor.  She was the ice cold N Korean agent in 2009’s I R I S.  Her acting borders on hysterics here, everyone else is fine.
Not quite by the numbers, but predictable.  Certainly acceptable for casual viewers.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Dickensiana - 2015 - 8/10

A bustling neighborhood in Victorian London.
Gaslight and cobblestone streets.  Air choking with fog and human activity.
Back histories, if you like, are revealed here of events and individuals before Mr Dickens began crafting their later selves.

Where a healthy Little Nell keeps company with Bob Crachit's eldest son.
Amelia Havisham is young and ravishing beautiful.
Mr Venus acts as a Bernard Spillsbury to Inspector Bucket, of the newly created Detective branch.
And where Jacob Marley is very much alive, thank you ever so much, satisfying impulses gross, sadistic and repellent.
A half dozen stories, inspired by Dickens' characters, weave and intersect.
Another dozen characters thread this way and that.
The rotten core that binds all is coin.  Coin of the realm.  Debt, bills, the workhouse, poverty that means starvation or slavery, and the means by which some will do anything for gain.
And there, three villains reign supreme in inflicting harm, ruination and despair.
Scrooge - Fagin - Compeyson

Grim series of misery and mystery, calculation and manipulation.
Fans of humanity as monsters will find themselves besotted.
Scripts are faithful, yet reverent, lacking antiseptic writing room compromises.
Excellent storytelling, masterful use of a handful of sets, superb casting.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Chefs: S01 - 2015 - 6/10

Wicked French series of sharp edged knives in the kitchen.
Once lauded restaurant suffers debts, deals with fickle fans.
New hires, a new investor, new business manager join the unhappy team.
Meals are the rarefied sort, meaning €200 will get you a large white plate and what looks like hors d'oeuvres.
Beyond my range, so I watched with little interest.
Writing is spotty.  Narrative tottered between predictability and surprise twists.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Partners In Crime - 2015 - 5/10

Noisy, busy pooh-baloo follows feckless married couple as they tangle with conspirators.
A pair of three-part episodes, the first with kidnapping, the second espionage.
Agatha Christie’s duo, Tommy and Tuppence, bicker, whine, blunder throughout.
In short, I began to thoroughly dislike the characters as written, as directed.
They went from annoying to irritating to downright insufferable.
One wonders why the government employs such a pair of dunces.
Nice production values, 1950s period clothes, this may appeal to fans of parlor mysteries.

Better, though with more limited set design, is the like named Partners In Crime from 1983.
Set in the breezy 20s, the couple have chemistry, they are more nimble socially, and the scripts superior.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Damo - 2003 - 7/10
AKA - Damo: The Legendary Police Woman  //  다모

K-drama sweeps insurrection, conspiracy, counterfeiting, along with loads of swordplay.
A sageuk (costume drama), set in bygone Joseon, this is historically questionable, but that’s probably not the point.
One of the police branches pursues a gang of counterfeiters, that gradually leads to a more sinister organization.
Royal power, surrounded by corrupt courtiers, is challenged by rebels who demand a fairer, freer world.
The police try to infiltrate the outlaws using their damo, or tea server.
Through her eyes, we see both sides of the conflict, and you can feel your allegiance shift back and forth.
Production values are lavish throughout.  Gorgeous costumes, well appointed interiors.
There are 3-4 love triangles in this.  Emotional turmoil borders on melodrama at times, so expect tears, streams of them.

Did I mention action?  This boasts a lot.  Knives, swords, muskets, and powers of flying.
I generally try to avoid these costumers, I can’t decipher rank based on hats and beads, but this was enjoyable.
Nudged an extra point for sets, music, costumes, etc …

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Beauty And The Fellow - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Bijo To Danshi // 美女と男子

Irresistible, infectious J-dorama of the fools gold that is filmed entertainment.
Sawatari works in the IT department for a major conglomerate.
Arrogant, opinionated, rude, she is unpopular.  And finds herself transferred.
She is sent to an “investment,” a tiny, third rate talent agency.
The biggest star is a one-hit wonder from thirty years previous.
Undaunted, she tries to find fresh talent, and sets out to understand the entertainment industry.
For fans of this type (eg: Day For Night), there is a tremendous amount of backstage doings.
Work as an extra, bit parts, lead role in a cheap, late night program.
As with most J-doramas, there is a degree of “japaneseness,” meaning this show was created for the home market, and not with an eye toward a Western audience.
Central themes of teamwork and family come to the fore.
At 20 episodes, this does breathe a bit, and all characters, even those in a few episodes, contribute meaningfully.
Emotional roller coaster at times.  No tears, as found in K-dramas.  Just dreams fulfilled or destroyed.
Guilty pleasure, this.

If needed, I heavily reworked marsa’s original subtitles.
Removed all overlapping lines, broke up over-long lines, corrected minor spelling errors, clarified syntax
and Westernized grammar.  Also used Ye****erina Sobkov'ya's translation for "Step By Step."
Available – https://sub.imvsdata.com/subtitles/bijo-to-danshi/english/2051104

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Karppi - 2918 - 7/10
AKA - Deadwind

Police thriller set primarily in and around Helsinki.
A body is unearthed near a recently announced property development.
The detective assigned is freshly bereaved, her new partner, a transfer from Technical.
Character dynamics surface now and then, but the wandering trail predominates.
Clues and witness statements lead to detours and false paths.
Nevertheless, those are generally engaging, one is rather funny.
A few reviewers have compared this with The Bridge, another Scandinavian cop series.
No, not close.  Karppi is not Saga, and this series is not as dark nor as grim.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Wolf Creek: S01 - 2016 - 6/10

Vacationing Yanks frolic in the Australian outback.
When a hungry crocodile snaps after junior, they are saved by the sharp shooting, Mick Taylor.
Later, after dinner, Mr Taylor unfurls his true colours, and his sadistic treatment of turistas.
All but one.  The daughter, albeit badly wounded, escapes.
When she recovers, she seeks revenge.

Twisted series follows Eve as she begins an almost futile search.
Hunting a monster in the desolate wastes filled murderers, liars, predators.
As well as Taylor, a master of game playing and patience.
A few stray coincidences can test belief, but the series wonderfully captures the heat, and raw landscape.

Edited June 12 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Parfum - 2018 - 7/10
AKA - Perfume

Brief series “inspired” by the Süskind book.
Ketherina is discovered floating in the swimming pool, murdered, head shaved, organs surgically removed.
Police quickly hone in on her tight circle of friends, all of whom hide histories and motives.
Somewhat talky, although the language is a key element.  Confessions, evasions, misdirections.
One can see how the police were simultaneously fascinated and repelled by a few.
I watched this avidly each week, without a guess regarding who or what.
The denouement, however, was maddeningly opaque.
(Eventually, a Reddit forum offered a satisfactory explanation.)

Edited June 12 by Vultural