rizole
It's not even my banana.
The best thing I've seen this year by far is Giri/Haji. It's a BBC and Netflix collaboration and is filmed in English and Japanese with subtitles. It's at the same time a family drama, a romance and a cop/gangland thriller and it's just beautiful and moving. Wont be to everyones taste, I know someone who wanted a finish with less loose ends and fewer grey areas but for my money, that's part of it's charm.
What I came here to say, though, is Mr Robot, as it comes silently kicking and screaming to it's conclusion, continues to enthrall, suprise and impress me. I don't know anyone who watches or is interested in watching it. I guess the nerd and hacker culture side to it will alienate quite a few people from the get go but being a nerd, its one of it's pulls for me. But that's ostensibly the series backdrop, I'd argue it's a psychological drama that takes what it wants from other genres as it goes along, crime, suspense, drug culture, global corporate corruption, and althought it's not sci-fi, it does what sci-fi does well by creating an alternative present that holds a mirror up to the world, society and current issues.
It's on it's 4th and last series/season and I love a good story that knows how to finish itself. (unlike the walking dead, for instance, which has gone on so long now that it's become a brain dead, shambling zombie of a programme itself that just wont die.) A specific finish suggests to me that the makers have a clear overview of thier own creation. They have a point A, point B and know how to get from one to the other via all the other plot points along the way. They are in it for the story, not driven by financial interests. (I'm still looking at you, the walking dead)
One of the things I love is it's playing with formats. It's takes it self quite lightly sometimes and puts fun, innapropriate or
silly stylisic spins on things that let you know you're just watching a TV programme, nothing special, just a bit of pulp. And the next minute it plunges you into full on shakepearian high drama and suspense. The latest episode is written like a stage play. It's set in 2 rooms with 3 main characters, 2 supports and is in 5 acts. It has set peices, monologues, character exposition, twists, psychological back and forths a christmas tree and thunder and lightning punctuating the action. It does all that and at the same time, it's pulled threads of plot lines and psychological and motivational whatsits from previous seasons that I'd forgotten, or thought the series had dropped, all back together in a suprising crescendo and topped it off with a shock ending.
Mr Robot wont appeal to everyone and, as it deals with some quite difficult topics and puts it's characters through difficult, sometimes upsetting, situations, it isn't always an easy watch. But the plot, the writing, the details, the production, the acting, all so well done that this is one of the stand out TV programmes that easily gets in my top ten, has got me to get off my comfy sofa, come and write it up here and spread the love.
What I came here to say, though, is Mr Robot, as it comes silently kicking and screaming to it's conclusion, continues to enthrall, suprise and impress me. I don't know anyone who watches or is interested in watching it. I guess the nerd and hacker culture side to it will alienate quite a few people from the get go but being a nerd, its one of it's pulls for me. But that's ostensibly the series backdrop, I'd argue it's a psychological drama that takes what it wants from other genres as it goes along, crime, suspense, drug culture, global corporate corruption, and althought it's not sci-fi, it does what sci-fi does well by creating an alternative present that holds a mirror up to the world, society and current issues.
It's on it's 4th and last series/season and I love a good story that knows how to finish itself. (unlike the walking dead, for instance, which has gone on so long now that it's become a brain dead, shambling zombie of a programme itself that just wont die.) A specific finish suggests to me that the makers have a clear overview of thier own creation. They have a point A, point B and know how to get from one to the other via all the other plot points along the way. They are in it for the story, not driven by financial interests. (I'm still looking at you, the walking dead)
One of the things I love is it's playing with formats. It's takes it self quite lightly sometimes and puts fun, innapropriate or
silly stylisic spins on things that let you know you're just watching a TV programme, nothing special, just a bit of pulp. And the next minute it plunges you into full on shakepearian high drama and suspense. The latest episode is written like a stage play. It's set in 2 rooms with 3 main characters, 2 supports and is in 5 acts. It has set peices, monologues, character exposition, twists, psychological back and forths a christmas tree and thunder and lightning punctuating the action. It does all that and at the same time, it's pulled threads of plot lines and psychological and motivational whatsits from previous seasons that I'd forgotten, or thought the series had dropped, all back together in a suprising crescendo and topped it off with a shock ending.
Mr Robot wont appeal to everyone and, as it deals with some quite difficult topics and puts it's characters through difficult, sometimes upsetting, situations, it isn't always an easy watch. But the plot, the writing, the details, the production, the acting, all so well done that this is one of the stand out TV programmes that easily gets in my top ten, has got me to get off my comfy sofa, come and write it up here and spread the love.
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