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True Detective (2014)
Season 1 is Tops
My rating is valid for the first season only which I found to be quite excellent indeed.
The writing and the embodiment of the characters was more than compelling. I found the whole adventure to be immensely intriguing and entertaining. The acting was first class as was the writing.
I gave season two a try but my expectations were so high after the first season that I was unable to get on board.
Season one will remain on my "tops of the decade" list.
The New Pope (2020)
The New Pope, The Second Time
The New Pope was worth a second watch as I still had questions about a number of things after having viewed it the first time. The second time, binging it all in three days as opposed to following the series from week to week, turned out to be a more enlightening way to enjoy the it because the details of previous episodes were still fresh.
So here it is.
What I loved:
The incredible cinematography, lush and just gorgeous, pared with beautiful scenic-design and costumes.
The writing. The dialogue is stylized, with an individual beauty and respect for the use of language and it pulls the viewer into a living novel that floats in and out of familiar and less familiar levels that most of us associate with reality. The twists and turns of the story are utterly impossible to predict.
Sorrentino, whether by intention or not, holds up a mirror to the viewers, often giving them the opportunity to trigger themselves, if they are so inclined, into strong, knee-jerk, emotional interpretations and various thematically diverse expressions of righteous indignation in the early episodes, only to have the perspective completely turned around in the later episodes. It is therefore, usually quite easy to tell which authors judged the entire series without having seen all episodes. There is a certain poetic justice in this.
The music.
Voiello. Everything about Voiello
An awakened Lenny
Any scene with Leopold Essence
Paolo Sorrentino introduces Federico Fellini to David Lynch and they get along famously
Episode 9
What I loved less:
The accent. Malkovich's character was given some of the greatest eloquence and most of the most beautiful verbal expressions in the entire series. I deeply respect John Malkovich as an actor. While many have come and gone, Malkovich, at his age, is right in the thick of things. He's in Billions, The New Pope and whatever else is next on his agenda. I wanted it all to work but I was pulled out of the story from time to time, asking myself just what accent that is actually supposed to be. Perhaps a back-story with an American nanny or some such would have helped.
Wrapping it up:
As you can tell, I was enchanted by The New Pope. It has an unadulteratedly unique voice which means that there is nothing even remotely like it that has ever appeared on a screen with the exception of The Young Pope.
I, for one, am hopeful that HBO will continue in the tradition that has made the company legendary, producing excruciatingly high-quality content, by soon inviting Mr. Sorrentino in to discuss the particulars of his POPE WORLD PREQUEL.
The Wire (2002)
A Classic That Re-Wrote the Rulebook
This was a bucket-list show that I always wanted to get around to. I am so happy I did.
I don't know whether to call it the birth or the re-birth of really great television but either way, I believe it would be a shame for anyone to miss this.
Welcome to America
Peaky Blinders (2013)
Incredibly Well-Made Television
Thank goodness for subtitles. My ear is not attuned to many of the accents to be heard in this series as I am not from the island but for anyone else in the same boat, immersing oneself in the perilous world of the Peaky Blinders is more than worth the effort.
It would seem to be yet another saga of yet another group of outsiders banding together in the beginning for mutual protection but then with mercilessness and smarts, rising financially and attempting to carve out a place in the upper reaches of a class system that would do everything it could to keep them down and reduce them to their humble beginnings. The production is, however, of such high quality as to raise this series near the neighborhood of works populated almost exclusively by opuses of a certain Mr. Scorsese.
The writing, acting, camera work, design and costumes are all quite respectable on their own but they all come together harmoniously to pull the viewer into the story.
Among the Peaky Blinders, everyone is damaged and/or deeply flawed and every character seems somehow to be searching for redemption in some way. Others are drawn to them to experience the sexiness of the danger of underworld they represent. Though it may occasionally lead to love, more often than not, it leads to heartache and death.
Why watch something described thusly? Because once you have begun, you cannot stop. Will they make it? Will they rise to the top? Even if they do, will they find redemption or satisfaction?
I am in season 3 and have just watched an episode that may have temporarily answered the question as to whether or not Thomas Shelby is a psychopath. I am therefor not able to answer the larger questions posed above. But I have every intention of watching this excellent series till the end to find out.