It’s the Scandi equivalent of Midsommer Murders: an improbably high murder rate in a very small, tranquil setting.
1 Like
That’s as may be - but Midsomer Murders is crap: it doesn’t have Alexandra Rapaport.
2 Likes
I’m trying to work out why all the episodes are in summer.
Having watched a few Scandi shows (plus Finnish) recently, it’s always gloomy and the weather’s awful.
PS not really trying to work it out.
Not disagreeing with you. Does make a change from the usual Scandi stuff. Also, the bad things only seem to happen during summer time.
That’s far from the only reason it’s crap.
1 Like
There’s a good doco on the Stasi on SBS. Some of the Stasi operatives were cold bastards.
Anna Funder, the Oz writer who wrote Stasiland, was interviewed.
A new series on SBS - Sambre
It’s a 6-part French series set on the (fictional) river Sambre.
A rapist attacks women as they’re on their way to work, starting in 1988. The first victim and her husband handle it very differently - marriage dissolves.
Subsequent episodes (I’m up to 3) actions at different periods after the first rape. The mayor, very much one of the people, has a press conference with one of the victims which puts egg on her face. Victims don’t want to publicise it. She’s making the local area unpopular for investors etc.
May be worth a look if you’re interested in how the French justice system works and how victims are affected.
1 Like
Hundred Years of Solitude starts Wednesday on Netflix (I think).
I have heard it called unfilmable, so let’s see. Seen a couple of episodes, which goes way past where I’d got to in reading. I have copies in both Spanish and English to help the vocabulary.
Picked up on a very rare offering on Amazon Prime…Perfekt Verpasst…a German rom-com, and moreover both parties are over 50 and there’s no mention of WW1, Hitler, WW2, the DDR or the Stasi. Problem was that the subtitling dropped out from time to time although it was reasonably easy to follow. At the end though, Ralf, the main man, said something I hadn’t realised…probably when the subtitles were down…which cleared up a major thread I hadn’t picked up.
It was still good fun.
3 Likes
Finished a few, started a few
BTW the river Sambre I mentioned earlier isn’t fictional. It’s almost on the Belgian border.
Netflix - Saw this Spanish series, 1992, where someone is burning to death people involved in the Seville Expo of 1992. I didn’t even know there was an expo, but there was, and it left Seville almost bankrupt and there are still many many buildings left, although dilapidated. I checked up where it was held - towards the eastern end of the canal of the Guadalquivir and wished I’d seen it in May. Amparo’s husband is a victim in one of the firebomb attacks, as is one of the organisers of the Expo. She is rescued by Richi, an old friend of her husband, ex-cop now security guard and full time drunk. Weekly episodes.
The Åre Murders in Sweden, written by Viveca Stern, author of the Sandhamn Murders. A young Stockholm police officer has gone home on stress leave and immediately gets involved in a young girl’s disappearance.
And The Law According to Lidia Poët, set in Turin in the late 19th century. Lidia is attempting to become the first female lawyer in Italy, but blocked at every point. It’s not really that realistic, everyone is stylishly dressed (or undressed).
Been watching cricket nearly every night, so that’s all but over - at night anyway.
The final series of Valeria is coming soon.
And started on I Love You to Death on Apple TV. The Age bloke compared it to Fleabag. I’m not seeing it. Raúl is a 40-odd bloke who just discovered he has cardiosarcoma (cancer of the heart) and needs an operation in a fortnight. Veronica Echégui as Marta turns out to be an old schoolmate of his and is a real playgirl with lots of conventional friends. One of her pregnant friends is talking about how sick she feels, and Marta goes “hmmm”. I’m not sure Marta is as horrible a person as Fleabag.
Finished Valeria…pretty good finale, although it might have gone over the top with the Five Years Later ( a smidge Hollywood, even though they’re incapable of doing the series).
You might enjoy a movie called In Family I Trust (In Spanish, it translates from People Who Come and Go but with a pun). Clara Lago (Gangs of Galicia, Neighbour, A Spanish Affair as a Basque girl who’s dumped on her hen’s night in Seville and returns to her home followed by the Sevillian barman trying to take her bag back to her)
Carmen from Valeria is in In Family I Trust with a dilemma, also in a new show on AppleTV called I Love You To Death before her fiancé is found to have a very serious condition. The Age reviewer thought it was just like Fleabag. I think the reviewer is a fool.
I’ve seen the first 2 episodes of Envious and enjoying it, but Argentinian Spanish is much harder to follow.
I’ve started a few which I’m trying to decide if I want to continue.
But just finished The Gardener (Spanish - Netflix) and L’Éclipse (French - Acorn) which weren’t bad.
The Gardener is set in Pontevedra in Galicia, NW Spain, and is about a gardener who also kills people. But one job he’s asked to do, he develops an attachment to the intended victim. Has a lot of twists, but not bad. I’ve seen that victim in a few minor roles, but she’s in a main role here and does it well (Catalina Sopelano from The Neighbour and Sky Rojo). Not bad at all.
L’Éclipse is set in Bouzols in southern France where a young girl disappears during an eclipse. The two female gendarmes are conflicted because their teenage children are involved. It’s a smallish farming community in an area where the Cathars were involved in the 1200s (The Da Vinci Code and a show on SBS, Labyrinth). You keep seeing the town in the credits, and a strange one in that houses are on a crag in a gorge and either side of the gorge but the geology doesn’t figure in the story. A show called Monsieur Spade was out a year or two ago, also where it was filmed and didn’t figure the gorge in the story. It was Sam Spade from the Maltese Falcon, starring Cilve Own,post war.
One episode to go on Valhalla Murders, Icelandic drama on SBS.
Not far from the story that prompted the last few seasons of Line of Duty. Vengeance being taken on those who committed crimes at an orphanage (boys’ home) 30 years ago.
It’s good, but the ambience doesn’t permit. These Scandi shows (not Sandhamn Murders) are all filmed in winter…or look like they are. Brrrr!
Juliet…Belgian series on SBS…Juliet is a detective from Brussels who comes to another Flemish town on the death of her father because her 14-yo niece is alone in the house, and her father is a bit of a loser now living in Berlin. I was a bit surprised because I thought Brussels was French-speaking and all the talk is in Dutch.
The Black Forest Murders (SBS)…it’s acted but tells the story of a new superintendent coming into a town in the Black Forest and being confronted with the murder of a young wife, and later being compared with a murder 4 years earlier in Austria. I found it interesting because of the investigating techniques and the interactions of the 50-odd task force members
Spring Tide - a Swedish 10-parter - which is a cold case from 25 years before where a girl is buried to her waist and droiwned as the tide came in. It’s used as a test for detectives with the L-plates on. The main girl is one whose late father was one of the chief detectives. As a side story, young thugs are beating up the homeless, one of whom played Bäckström on SBS recently. Quite enjoying this one.
Further on Spring Tide
There were a few threads to this one. The dénouement was one out of the blue, but you kept crossing possible culprits off the board. Bloody good show though, except that the last 10 minutes were a tad Hollywood.
Just went through the available European shows and realised I’d never watched much of Happy Valley, so watched that first ep and realised I had seen it before. It was 10 years ago and a very young Charlie Murphy (Irish actress) popped up.
Hadn’t realised that second series of Spring Tide (Prime) has been sitting there. @Albert_Thurgood would be happy to know that Alexandra Rapaport is in this series.
1 Like
I didn’t know who Alexandra Rapaport was until I googled her name. Maybe someone else would be happy about that. I did see Spring Tide a couple of years ago and will now check out the other series you reviewed.
Brussels is officially bilingual, with Bruxellois dialect a mixture of both. There are Flemish and Walloon communes around Brussels which have bilingual affiliation status ( education in both languages).
I thought it was you fondly remembering her performances in “Murder in Sandham”.
I think it was me. I haven’t seen “Spring Tide.” Thanks for the recommendation.
I’ve just finished watching “Secrets We Keep”. It’s a Danish mystery thriller series on Netflix that follows Cecilie, a wealthy woman who investigates the disappearance of her neighbor’s au pair, uncovering dark secrets in her seemingly perfect suburb. The show explores themes of class and privilege while keeping viewers engaged with its suspenseful narrative.
The series is set among the Danish version of the idle rich. I thought at first that it was over the top, but I got sucked in very quickly.The au pairs are Filipinas; it seems as if every house in the neighbourhood has one, raising the children for a pittance from the over-privileged parents. It’s brilliantly done, and explores themes of racism, class privilege, violence against women and the way those who have wealth and position will do anything to maintain their usually unwarranted status for themselves and their heirs.
The series is presented in three languages. The Danes speak Danish among themselves and English when speaking to their au pairs; the au pairs speak Tagalog amongst themselves. To taste the full flavour of this situation, it’s best if you set the language preference to “Danish” with English subtitles.
The show is worth watching for Marie Bach Hansen’s performance in the lead role alone. Not to be missed !
2 Likes
Aah, that show was the Swedish equivalent of Midsommer Murders or any of those Pommy series that have too many murders in a very small village. I didn’t watch more than a few episodes so didn’t register her name, but you get bonus points for a good memory.
Just finished a true crime movie The Widow’s Game (set in Valencia). Spanish title is La Viuda Negra (The Black Widow) - US title should be The African-American Widow.
Ivana Baquero (the little girl from Pan’s Labyrinth) has grown up and is now a 30-odd nurse in Valencia who’s married to Arturo. She’s bored with him and falls for another guy, all the while having a much older workmate lusting after her.
Carmen Machi is in a movie or two every year, and seems to have taken over from Carmen Maura (Volver) as the sixty ish female lead. She’s the homicide detective who persists - there’s an interesting mention of her in the closing credits.
Now onto a Brazilian series on Netflix - Criminal Code - about a paramilitary department trying to clear out a gang using the Brazil-Paraguay border as a handy legal protection. Quite violent but not in the same grade of violence as some Mexican series.
Did you enjoy The Widow’s Game? Glanced at it yesterday.