You need rubbish like Murder in Provence to bump up tourism. Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) as a juge d’instruction in Aix-en-Provence. Everyone is an English-speaker, even the bad guys. You know they’re bad because they speak with regional British accents.
I don’t mind Madame Blanc with Sally Lindsay though.
Or Cannes Confidential, although I’m not sure why the chief police officer in Cannes has a strong American accent.
SBS has quietly dropped the 3rd (and I gather final) season of Pagan Peak.
Yet more carnage and grimness in the quiet mountain forests of the Austrian/German borderlands around Salzburg. Anyone who has seen the previous seasons will know what to expect. A local legend or 2 is bound to be involved somewhere.
Quite a bit from S2 continues so this new season cannot be watched independently.
Gedeon looks a bit suss.
I’d have thought that wealthy family would have been in more sh*t than a Werribee duck.
I’m back into Blood Coast.
Black Spot on Netflix (Zone Blanche) - 2 series
Set in Villefranche, the nearby forest seems to be the main star of the show.
There’s a sawmill which is about to be closed down by its owners, which include the mayor. The mayor seems to have a long-lasting affair with the police chief, Lauréane Weiss, whose daughter is simpatico with the secretive protectors of the forest. And there’s a prosecutor, maybe a juge d’instruction, who’s odd. I wish the sub-titlers wouldn’t translate into peculiar American terminology. He’s not a DA.
Each episode seems to be almost self-contained, i.e. there’s a common thread but no real continuity.
Fairly reminiscent of the Baztan Trilogy, set in the Basque Country and Navarre in the north of Spain, with its pagan beliefs.
Enjoyed this one. A whole series of the Roman soldier episode would be nice.
Haven’t got there yet.
Done 4 episodes. The high school night in the forest one.
It’s an atmospheric slow burner, maybe gets a bit lost in the supernatural element but it’s a pretty unique and gritty take on all of that, and the main actress I like.
I watched the next episode tonight…with the gunmen in the bar…and yeah…I rate the lead actress.
Into the second series now…the Roman soldiers bit is a good arc.
Finished Black Spot last night. There might be an opening for a third series there with Laurène’s blood line.
2 episodes to go in Pagan Peak which is the German-Austrian version of The Tunnel.
And just had a wander through Amazon Prime and saw Red Queen, which is the first book in Juan Gomez-Jurado’s trilogy (so far). The two main protagonists are both from Antidisturbios. She’s a suicidal savant, and he’s a gay Basque policeman from Bilbao. He has to persuade her to investigate the kidnapping of a rich girl.
The translation of the second book, Black Wolf, has just been released. I’m only 2 minutes in so will report back.
A couple of nights ago i watched the first episodes of the French series Perfect Mother and the Spanish series Muted, both on Netflix. Will continue with both.
Those who enjoyed the original Belgian version of The Twelve may want to have a look at The Cinderella Murder, essentially De Twaalf S2. Same concept and structure, obviously a different court case.
All 8 eps currently up on SBS on Demand. Came across this one by accident, don’t think SBS has given it any publicity.
Would like to know what you think, been eyeing it off
I’ve finished one episode. All I’ll say is that so far it’s remarkably faithful to the book. Jon Gutierrez is from Bilbao, and he seems to have moved in 2 days from being sacked in Bilbao to meeting up with Antonia Scott…and I’m assuming she’s based in Madrid as in the book. The overhead shots looked more like the rainy north so maybe they’ve moved the story to the Basque Country, not that it really matters at this point, but it will later on.
I got an email saying there are 4 seasons of Babylon Berlin available on SBS. They only showed 3 on Netflix and someone here had said that he’d seen that Season 4 had been filmed but not yet translated.
Finished Babylon Berlin. The last scene confused me. It seems it related to something early on in Rath’s move to Berlin.
Not sure if they’ll continue, since it gets even more ugly as the Nazis come to power shortly.
Also finished Red Queen. It seems to be an extremely faithful adaptation of the book. There are two more books, so far, in the series.
Started Between Lands on Netflix. Megan Montaner is from Almeria, in the southeast corner of Spain, and agrees to marry a guy from La Mancha to pay her family’s debts. Pretty standard fare…but Megan Montaner from 30 Coins and If Only.
Ashamed to admit a i’ve started couple of English-language films…The Vanishing Triangle about an Irish journalist who fears the man who murdered her mother is back on the prowl.
And The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies on Foxtel…covers an English woman who discovers the husband who disappeared on her with all her family’s money is now back on the prowl. He is an absolute rotter.
I thought BB S5 was already commissioned. Haven’t got to this one yet. Weighing up taking up an Amazon 3-month free trial or committing to all 4 seasons.
Finished Vanishing Triangle last week. Quite enjoyed it. Doesn’t paint an overly appealing picture of Ireland in the 1990’s.
Started Following Events around a month ago. Gave up during the first ep. Too many other things to see to waste time on it.
Babylon Berlin is on SBS, no cost involved.
Red Queen was what I was watching on Amazon.
Finished Babylon Berlin the other day. Quite a marathon, 4 seasons back-to-back. Fabulous series, well worth the effort.
Some knowledge of German history 1929-31 is helpful given the number of different groups involved, each trying to wipe the other out.
Great tv
I’m obsessed with Turkish shows at the moment.
I just finished The Forest (La Forêt) on Netflix.
Set in a town on the edge of the Ardennes in northern France with a new boss of the local gendarmerie…the dude who was the detective in SBS’s Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games…and a schoolgirl who’s gone missing and then found murdered in the forest.
6 episodes with a number of storylines, but concentrated on the missing girl.
Interestingly, the three main stars aren’t French - one Swiss, one Belgian, one Canadian…but probably not such a surprise with Aussies, Poms, Kiwis figuring prominently in English-language stuff.
8/10
SBS On Demand
Wisting - a Norwegian police procedural series set in Larvik, coastal town south of Oslo.
William Wisting is the senior police investigator, recently widowed with twins in their early 20s. His daughter, Line, is a tabloid journalist.
Series 1 is two stories, the first 5 episodes are in winter and follow from the discovery of a body in the snow. It transpires that this guy had connections to an American serial killer who disappeared 20 years ago. Two FBI agents, led by Carrie Anne Moss, head to Larvik to “help” in the pursuit . Meanwhile, Line has written a human interest story about a neighbour who’s died and no-one discovered him. Everything ties together.
The second 5 episodes are where Wisting is accused of tampering with evidence in a murder case that sent a man to prison for 17 years.
I’d watched 5 episodes before tonight and thought I’d watch the last episode tonight. Europeans only do 6-episode series, don’t they? No, they don’t. I got to the end of ep 6 and it said there was more. Four more, so for the first time in ages, i watched 5 episodes.
Very good, but being Norwegian, don’t expect people frolicking through sun-drenched meadows.