Preston Sturges reading.
Two things are bothering me about this much ballyhooed series.
First off, the British, great actors thought the are, make little attempt to make this series seem Swedish. It's one thing to stick to their regular accents (as they always do even when playing Nazis). But couldn't they at least refrain from using British colloquialisms and dressing and looking like Brits. It takes me right out of the setting when they say "brilliant" or any number of other British phrases. They may think their culture is interchangeable with whatever one their production is set in, but it is not.
Second. I thought FIREWALL, the second in the series was fairly ludicrous. Midway through what seems like domestic murders, it turns into an international thriller. And the pace doesn't work well despite the high-speed driving. I think a plot like this needs to announce itself before 2/3 through. And we never quite learn how these three people are seduced, sufficiently enough to go along with what they do, by a man we never see until the last two scenes. How alienated do you have to be to fall for his plot.
What I do like is the angst-ridden police detective and the scenes with his daughter. And I do like the Swedish setting. I am glad they sprung for that. What do you think?
15 comments:
In addition to your objections, I offer two of my own: (1) You have already noted the British accents, but what made it all even more incompatible was the frequent appearance of Swedish in the backgrounds (newspapers, posters, signs, etc.), and that further highlighted the peculiarity of the accents; (2) you have noted the angst, but the photography, lighting, set decorations, direction, and acting (i.e., all of the production values) screamed out bleak, depressing, and horrible (i.e., watching WALLANDER has been the kind of experience that makes you want to consider suicide if anyone threatened to send you to Sweden for a vacation). Scandinavian mystery writers have suffered (sometimes justifiably) under the stereotype of writing dreary novels in which humor rarely emerges, but the WALLANDER series is, so far, another series of nails in that stereotypical coffin from which Scandinavian writers might never recover.
I feel like you are reading my mind. I have the exact concerns about WALLENDER that you have: British accents, British phases. Why didn't they just translate the series to an English setting? FIREWALL fails on several levels. It can't make up its mind whether it's a murder mystery or a terrorist conspiracy. The blend just doesn't work. That being said, I'll watch the third episode of WALLENDER this weekend.
I --generally speaking-- don’t care for Branagh, but I have to admit that shambling, sleep deprived quality he brought to the table was very true of the Detective’s I’ve known via my father’s work. (he shape too, these are guys that spend most of the day working a desk, you know?) that said, as the series progressed it felt to me more and more like he was slumming. The Accents thing is done primarily because the British are horrible with foreign accents and ‘unusual’ sentence structures.
I thought both the second and third episodes were week, primarily because both went for the ‘BIGGER’ approach (to the extent where you’re expecting the fourth to be about a small scale nuclear holocaust!) they’ve made the mistake which TV adaptations always seem to, as well, which is to adapt the books out of sequence.
What I loved about the first episode, for example, was that it felt like a full realized world wherein people already had relationships when the programmer started (I hate shows that feel like they start when you turn up to watch them) so I looked into it, excitedly, and it’s the fourth novel. Which means that they’re going to be in trouble when it comes time to produce the second 3.
The dynamic with his daughter was enjoyable, yes and they’ve got a pretty strong actress for her. Built in spin-off, there.
Well, the Branagh UK versions follow Swedish film adaptations that are playing on the small US public-broadcasting network MHz WorldView (checking now for any Detroit-adjacent clearnce) with subtitles, and might be available eventually on DVD here (Young Wallander the daughter not only has her own novels, but also Swedish telefilms from those, too...WYCC in Chicago ran one of those for pledge in April, presumably to go along with the UK and Swedish WALLANDER pere invasion).
Yes, Flint, MI's PBS station WDCQ has as one of its digital channels, 19.1, the MHz WorldView feed (on Charter Digital cable on Ch. 433). See http://www3.delta.edu/broadcasting/digitaltv.html
The WorldView network affiliate list is at http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/affiliates/
Oh, me too. For its deficits, it's still better than the rest of what's on.
Although having spent a year in northern England,(Sorry, Gordon) it's not so different in terms of gloom than Scandinavia. But the people are different, I think, and the actors are too British.
Yes, the first episode was the better of the two we've seen. Perhaps because it didn't try to take on terrorism.
'northern England,...it's not so different in terms of gloom than Scandinavia.' ---Patti Abbott.
Awesome.
You'd have been here when the Wicked Witch of Westminster was high on the hog too, woulden't you?
Brr. was grim then.
Involving Terrorism in your localized Crime story is generally a bad idea. (other that something like The Wire: Season 3 which had the good sense to be allegorical.)
94-95. It was good old John Major, I think. Unless you're referring to the Queen.
I'm just curious, why do you think you like "angst-ridden." I have a very tough time with that kind of character.
Nah, I was reffering to The Milk Snatcher.
Ah, good old Major.
:)
I guess angst-ridden conforms to my world view. That what Wallender sees around him, both personally and professionally, fills him with horror.
That he finds it hard, if not impossible, to extricate himself from the notion that this is it and what a botch we have made of it. That people will most likely to bad things and he will have to deal with it. And he can't leave it behind at night.
Interesting comments -- I cannot agree with the anti comments about the Swedish landscape which was the best part of the series for me -- absolutely loved the light, the landscape, the field of rapeseed, etc. Would have hated it if the series had been moved to in England. But preferred the terrorist plot (yes it was unbelievable -- who cares) to the first episode's plot (the whole sexual slave thing) which is SOOOO tired and seems to be used in about half of the Brit mysteries these days. That said, I love Brit mysteries on the whole, prefer them to almost anything else on TV.
Actually, I rather liked them. Within the genre the slant of light even in summer leads to gloom. I thought Kenneth Branagh was superb. His character deals with constant negative feedback. Yours included. Let's have some more !
My problem wasn't with Branagh it was with the fact that so many British productions make the whole world seem British. Maybe it was once, but not any more.
too much wasted time with well orchestrated scary music as we watch weeds blown by wind, cars going by, head shots, more head shots, more scary music. No feeling that one has learned something of interest other than the dialog.
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