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Shadowmover81
Reviews
Criminal Record (2024)
Enjoyable and Well Filmed
This Apple series is well written and acted in a streaming show in which London is beautifully shot, particularly the night scenes where I'm sure Apple uses a specific filter to make it twinkle.
The show tackles some longstanding issues in British policing, including the MET, even though the MET is never mentioned, nor do you see it written down. The problems include historical cases of racism, sexism, misogyny and the behaviour of male police officers while undercover. Look up the Spy Cops scandal for more information about that torrid situation.
One oddity I'm increasingly finding in non-US shows is the Americanisation of situations to appease the American audience. For example, a sign saying 'Group Home' instead of something like 'Care Home' as the former does not exist in the UK, and when looking at the police database and the weight of someone, it is in lbs. This depiction is wrong; it should be in stones or kilograms; the UK does not use the US weight system.
Small things like this take you out of the story and place you in the real world.
Overall, it is a very enjoyable show, even if it is a bit obvious in which direction the story is travelling.
The Commander (2003)
A Review of the Entire Series
The leading actor, Amanda Burton, was never suitable for this role as it was too similar to her other role in Silent Witness, where a female senior figure in a male-dominated world is far too involved in the cases for someone of that rank.
The show peaked with its first two episodes and was an enjoyable, if not farfetched, nonsensical watch; however, the show's quality gradually declined as each series became ever more surreal and detached from reality.
The final episode jumps the shark of credulity for a show already stretching believability and credibility beyond its natural norm.
And although this show is a drama, like all good dramas, it should be grounded in some recognisable form of reality in which we all exist and understand.
This police unit of the Met was hugely unprofessional, incompetent, and, at times, corrupt. You would hope that in the real world, if such a unit were to exist, it would be disbanded, starting with the so-called Commander.
It didn't help that an actor from the first series was recast and that the middle and later series dropped some other characters entirely.
At the start of this series, I rated it an enjoyable but implausible eight, but by the ludicrous end, it was an unbelievable five.
Squid Game: The Challenge (2023)
American Game Show Ripoff
This show entirely encapsulates America.
Take something that is not American, Americanise it for an American audience, regurgitate it and spit it back out to the world as an inferior, all-be-it American product that people in America will watch as they don't have to go to the effort of using subtitles, or more likely if they are American, use the awful Americanised dub.
Consequently, it is filled with people who exhibit the worst traits of the American personality: Loud, obnoxious, arrogant, overly and unwarrantedly confident. Oh, and they all thank God for making them and putting them there, which is another oddity of the American persona, as if God did not have more pressing matters to attend to.
This personality trait is summed up by the bully 'Jock' type character who thinks he is somehow an athlete because he played some American football in 'college'. Utterly ridiculous.
The best bit was the British fellow standing up to him and calling him 'frat boy' to his face even after the 'Jock' had threatened him with violence.
Of course, not all Americans are like this (the mother and son and the oldest 69-year-old contestant, for example). Still, this American show chose to select American people who predominantly portrayed those characteristics and personality traits.
Also, the original South Korean show examined the brutality and inhumanity many feel is at the heart of capitalism. On the other hand, this show seems to revel and celebrate capitalism and the undignified clamour for money, which is another American trait squeezed into this unoriginal game show. The secret box-giving game is a total rip-off of another British reality game show, 'The Traitors'.
Finally, player 278, Ashley, was a lying, gaslighting woman who did not agree to the 50/50 challenge on the glass bridge and refused her turn to go past Trey and then immediately demanded the next contestant go past her when it was her turn. Consequently, Mai was right to call her out.
The Mosquito Coast (2021)
First series good, second series bad
The first series was interesting and enjoyable with an interesting, if not believable story.
The second series is just boring with nothing really interesting happening. It's too easy to zone out as the viewer does not care for any of the main characters, which is in contrast to the first series.
Also, American youth have to be the most annoying of any youth groups portrayed on TV and cinema. I don't know if American youngsters are really like this, or if they're always portrayed this way because of the writing. Either way, they're annoying and the viewer is never on their side.
American story tellers should stick to the USA and not go abroad where they embarrass themselves.
Efterforskningen (2020)
Another great Danish drama
A brilliant show from Denmark based on a true story of the disappearance of a female Swedish journalist.
This is a show for adults with a brain so there are no silly CGI scenes with constant cuts every few seconds.
As usual the BBC subtitles were fantastic; this is something Netflix can and should learn from but probably won't because they're too arrogant and truculent.
The actors were also very good and I'm now used to seeing them in various Danish shows and films.
Karppi (2018)
American Cultural Hegemony Is Ruining Subtitles
This is a fantastic show although the second series is not as good as the first. It is well written, directed, and acted.
However, the heavily Americanised subtitles are ruining the experience of watching non American shows on Netflix. I know why Netflix is doing it. It is doing it to appeal to the American audience as much as possible. This comes at the expense of other non American cultures that are being homogenised by a hegemonic America media that is taking other people's language and culture, adapting it suit an American audience and spitting it out to the rest of the world. This is especially egregious considering the rest of the world knows that Americans absolutely refuse to use subtitles, instead relying on ghastly overdubs usually done by American actors; which is yet another mode of American hegemony.