208. Web-Series Reviews – 56

More web-series reviews…

Zone Blanche (Black Spot) – Came out in 2107. French web-series. 2 seasons. Villefranche is a small town without phone reception on the edge of a mysterious forest. The number of inhabitants is dwindling but there's a sharp rise in crime. Police inspector Laurène, once the victim of a crime herself, keeps on discovering fresh corpses.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

This French series is set in Villefranche, a remote village where the crime rate in noticeably higher than the national average. As the story begins prosecutor Franck Siriani arrives in town to investigate what is going on; he finds himself working with Major Laurène Weiss of the local Gendarmerie and her small team. They are very different characters; Siriani is allergic to just about everything and Weiss is a tough woman who, when eighteen, cut off two fingers to escape after being chained up, in the vast forest that surrounds the town, by an unknown kidnapper. Each episode tends to include a 'case of the week' as well as ongoing investigations into the disappearance of the mayor's daughter, who went missing six months before the series started, and Weiss's attempts to discover what really happened to her in the forest all those years ago.

I really enjoyed this series; early on I got a real 'Twin Peaks' vibe but thankfully this didn't turn out to be a Gallic rip-off of that great show. Yes we have a town in a heavily forested part of the country where weird, possibly supernatural, things are happening but they are dealt with in a very different way. There is a great sense of mystery in the longer term story lines as well as the episodic stories. The location provides a great atmosphere; especially the forest scenes. The characters are interesting and nicely varied and the cast does a fine job bringing these characters to life. Season two closes with questions unanswered so hopefully we will get a third season some time. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of intriguing and slightly strange mysteries.

These comments are based on watching the series in French with English subtitles.

My Take – Worth a watch.

 

The Queen’s Gambit – Came out in 2020. Nine year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of sixteen, she's competing for the U.S. Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting. Based on the book by Walter Tevis.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

After her mother dies in a car accident nine-year-old Beth Harmon is sent to an orphanage. A shy, withdrawn girl she finds a purpose when the school janitor teaches her to play chess. She demonstrates a prodigious talent for the game and is soon competing at a very high level. However, she has also developed a drug addiction as this seems to help her play. She seems set on a path for fame...and self-destruction.

Enthralling drama. Very interesting plot, showing how someone can start from humble, unfortunate beginnings and progress to be a leader in their field. Also shows the trappings of success.

While fictional the story is very believable and clearly much research and thought went into the chess side as it is very realistic and accurate. Grandmaster Garry Kasparov is a consultant on the show.

Anya Taylor-Joy is great in the lead role, capturing well Beth Harmon's introvertedness, complexity and emotional issues. Decent supporting performances with the stand-out being Bill Camp as Mr. Shaibel, the janitor.

Not perfect though. In an effort to quickly progress the plot the writers miss opportunities for reflection and character development. There were several plot developments where I felt a bit more time should have been spent following up on the development: a significant event in Beth's life occurs and rather than slow down to reflect and ponder on it and see how it affects her the writers launch into the next plot progression. An extra episode or two to cover these events would have been in order.

Some characters are also inconsistently drawn. I found the character of Benny Watts quite cartoonish and jarringly erratic.

Overall though it's a great series and a must-see.

My take – Must see series!

 

Tehran –

Came out in 2020.  Tehran is the story of Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad computer hacker-agent undertaking her very first mission in the heart of a hostile and menacing city, which also happens to be the place of her birth. Tasked with disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor, her mission has implications not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world order. When the Mossad mission fails, Tamar goes rogue in Tehran as she rediscovers her Iranian roots and becomes romantically entwined with a pro-democracy activist. Tamar's soul-searching leads her to become even more conflicted about her mission, while the tension mounts as Iranian authorities tighten the net in their desperate search to locate her and her Mossad colleagues.

Recently it won the Best Drama award at the 49th International Emmy Awards!

One of the reviews from IMDB...

'Tehran' is one of the most ambitious productions of Israeli television in recent years. Israeli series have not shied away from subjects related to the conflicts in the Middle East, and 'Fauda' is the best (but not the only) example that the 'local' problems of this turbulent area are of interest to the international public and are doing quite well in what concerns the rating when they are well written and done.'Tehran', which is produced by the public television channel, is boldly addressing the conflict that has become central to the Middle East's balance of power in recent years, between the Islamic Republic of Iran engaged in reaching atomic capabilities and Israel which considers this an existential threat which it seeks to prevent by all the means at its disposal, including the Mossad's secret actions and cyber activities. It's a perfect material for a techno-thriller, and the Israeli series complies with most of the rules of spy movies and will please many fans of the genre. However, the best moments of the eight episodes series of the first season are not necessarily those that relate to action.

We are in the 21st century and it is almost natural that the main heroine of the series is not a super spy but a young Israeli woman born in Iran, named Tamar Rabinian (Niv Sultan), computer expert or in other words hacker, sent on a dangerous cyber sabotage mission in order to paralyze the Iranian anti-aircraft systems. I will leave aside the aspects related to the technical veracity of what we see on the screen, after all it is a fiction film, and as spectators we accept the rules of the genre. What is more important in this series is the situation in which Tamar, alone but enjoying the support of local collaborators and permanent communications with her home bosses, faces the Iran she had left as a child, and the realities of the Islamic Republic, a police state in which women have a different status from the egalitarianism in which she was raised. Her life is permanently in danger, as the infiltration, ingenious in her way has not gone unnoticed, but Tamar decides to continue her mission with the help of some of the regime's opponents. Among them there is Milad (Shervin Alenabi), a local hacker, with whom a romantic story will unfold. Another 'tick-box' of the genre can be checked.

The espionage and action plot itself is quite interesting and well-constructed, including enough upheavals, pursuits, shootings, corpses, double agents and failed missions. The most interesting part, however, seemed to me the confrontation between the two worlds that are political and military enemies, and between the two cultures that have many points in which they differ, but also enough that unite them. For many Israeli viewers, this film is a rare, perhaps even a first visual encounter with the realities of Iran and its capital, a huge metropolis with a diverse population living their lives in a complex political atmosphere. Of course, viewers of Iranian films by excellent directors such as Abbas Kiarostami or Asghar Farhadi already knew this world, but they are not too numerous, their films being intended for the circuit of so-called art cinemas. The filming took place mostly in Athens, and the effect was in my opinion quite realistic and authentic. The international cast, which includes several Iranian actors living in exile, also contributed to this, as well as the flexible and relatively objective approach of the screenwriters. Of course, this is an Israeli film, and at some point there is no doubt about who the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' are, but most of the characters have depth and humanity, and idealizations and demonizations are also avoided. The fight between the secret services cannot be a clean fight, the methods used by both sides include violence and no families or other collateral victims are spared, but there are also human motivations, weaknesses, hesitations and mistakes. These aspects are well integrated into the action, and add interest.

Niv Sultan plays the role of Tamar very well, adding emotion and humanity to a character who is far from the patterns of the genre. Iranian actor Shaun Toub plays the role of the Iranian investigator who is permanently following in Tamar's footsteps, adding a personal dimension to a negative character that is also remote from the usual caricatures and stereotypes. It can be said that he won on screen the duel with Menashe Noy who plays the Israeli leader of the operation. This season had eight episodes. I especially liked the first three or four, which were followed by a few episodes in which repetitions and a few expected twists according to the rules of action series could not be avoided. Episode 7 and especially the final one of the season, with surprises, betrayals, changes of situation and a well-constructed tension fully compensated the fall in the middle. The ending is completely open, it looks like an episode ending rather than a season finale. Leaving the plot at this point, the producers of the series seem to have clearly stated their intentions to make at least one more season. I look forward to it.

My Take – Must see.  The second season has been given the go ahead and may come out in 2022-23😊!

Cheers till next time😊!!

Daffy Definition

Archaeologist – The best husband any woman can get; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her😊!