The Commander is a very visceral, compelling psychodrama which touches on multiple film genres. It is not for the faint of heart nor weak of mind. Burton does a brilliant job as the protagonist, a police chief who lives and loves intensely and passionately. Everyone is a suspect in this detective thriller series, and no one gets out clean. Julius Caesar's Roman Senate pales in comparison to this group for backstabbing and corruption!
The series is an exercise in filmic intensity and anxiety. Everyone is on the edge, including the viewer. The semi-documentary film style contributes mightily to the tension, and is impressively original and fresh. Echoes of Hitchcock at his finest, no exaggeration. You can watch and re-watch it for that alone.
LaPlante's writing here is also genius-level; she creates characters with very mixed, ambivalent lives, some of the most interestingly complex I've seen in film or TV. Marcella, the more recent series, comes to mind as comparison.
The situation each and every character in this ensemble drama is suffused with troubling challenges; no good guys or bad guys here. The sexual and gender tension is present at every turn, and the viewer is drawn deeply into this world, as one of its suspects and victims. All is in doubt, at the deepest psychological level, and this is captured visually at every moment.
The sound track and sound effects contribute to the overall mood. The story is rich with tragedy, and competes with Macbeth and Hamlet in its exercise of that genre.
Just an amazing ouevre; I must seek out what else LaPlante has done.
The series is an exercise in filmic intensity and anxiety. Everyone is on the edge, including the viewer. The semi-documentary film style contributes mightily to the tension, and is impressively original and fresh. Echoes of Hitchcock at his finest, no exaggeration. You can watch and re-watch it for that alone.
LaPlante's writing here is also genius-level; she creates characters with very mixed, ambivalent lives, some of the most interestingly complex I've seen in film or TV. Marcella, the more recent series, comes to mind as comparison.
The situation each and every character in this ensemble drama is suffused with troubling challenges; no good guys or bad guys here. The sexual and gender tension is present at every turn, and the viewer is drawn deeply into this world, as one of its suspects and victims. All is in doubt, at the deepest psychological level, and this is captured visually at every moment.
The sound track and sound effects contribute to the overall mood. The story is rich with tragedy, and competes with Macbeth and Hamlet in its exercise of that genre.
Just an amazing ouevre; I must seek out what else LaPlante has done.