Towards the end of the 6 episode series you realize you were DUPED. Stupid, stupid STORY. Ludicrous. Pie-in-the-sky storyline. In episodes 5 & 6 a couple of the characters actually SAY IT — ‘all of this for just a million dollars’! Come on. Adult fairy tales. Too pat. Not believable. I am mad at myself that I allowed them to dupe me.
I like movies set in the Australian ‘bush’. Just appeals to me. Never been to Australia & I now know I never will. So, enjoy seeing bits of it in movies. Actually that applies to most countries. I watch a lot of movies/series just to get a better feel of a foreign country. On that front this show did not disappoint. Showed me parts & aspects of Australia that I had no idea about — e.g., THE OBESITY.
The first two episodes are decent. Suck you in. Promises much. Then it goes rapidly downhill. Absurd. Yes, I will admit, it does have some REALLY FUNNY parts. Borderline comedy!
Don’t bother watching it. I hear they are working on sequel — set in Ireland. I am NOT going to watch that. SMILE.
It will write about ‘The Tourist‘ once I finished watching all six episodes — in the next couple of days. Quite the STORY. Quite the show. Wow.
But, 20 minutes into Episode 1 I realized that they were showing a LOT — & I mean a LOT — of fat & obese people. Initially it looked like a joke. I was like “no way”. Australians aren’t fat. But, they showed so many, I had to Google it. I was blown away. WOW.
I then even asked an Australian friend. He, this morning, CONFIRMED it. Wow. Australians.
The MINI-SERIES was the first thing that crossed (my admittedly perverse) mind as soon as I heard the news Sunday. Yes, it has become, for better or worse, an iconic sign of our times — the Netflix mini-series. Maybe they might even make a blockbuster movie.
I can already come up with some of the potential titles, but I will not since it will be ‘ghoulish’ this early. I will leave that up to others. I do not want to trivialize this tragic accident, but I am certain that this tragedy will spawn a new generation of ‘Titanic‘ specials. I just wanted to go on record. Mark my words.
It was a 7 episode SERIES (albeit each episode under 50 minutes) — & I get leery that I might lose interest before I get to the end. NO FEARS with this series. It truly exceeded expectations. By the time I got to episode 3 I was riveted.
It is based on a genuine tragedy, with the loss of 59 lives, that took place on June 13, 1997.
I had not heard of this fire or the case that AMAZINGLY dragged on for 24-years. Quite the story.
Given that series covers New Delhi society, Indian politics & the Indian judicial system for those 24 years it gives you quite a glimpse into unvarnished, contemporary Indian life. Though most of the folks shown in this series are middle class & lead a very affluent, highly westernized life at its CORE India is still India from 50-years ago or more.
There is an actual line in the show that says something along the lines of: “India will always remain a third-world country”. I am not qualified to comment on that. But, from what we see in this series India, despiste the outward trappings by the city-dwelling wealthy is still very much mired in the PAST.
Class distinction, RAMPANT CORRUPTION, bribery, graft, bureaucratic chaos still exists in bucket loads. I am familiar with much of this from my own upbringing in Ceylon as well as the amount of time I did spend in New Delhi in the late 1960s. My parents lived there from 1969 to about 1972. I was in boarding school in London. I would go home, to New Delhi, for my 3-month summer holiday & the 3-week break for Christmas. A lot of what I saw in this show, though 30 years after my time there, hadn’t changed much.
As with most Indian shows I was also stuck by how overweight or obese many of the people are. It is their carb-rich diet. In this show, somewhat atypically, you also saw a LOT of alcohol consumption.
I had expected to see more courtroom drama. There wasn’t that much. Just short & sweet snippets — but most of those were telling & clever.
I enjoyed it. But, I am sure it is not for all. Check out the trailer. If you like this kind of stuff this series will NOT disappoint. Netflix did good (again).
‘Lonesome Dove‘, which I read 20-years AFTER it was published, blew me away. I don’t need to sing its praises. It has been a resounding success both in print & on TV. I know I read at least two of the other 3 in the series — though I thought the 1st, i.e., Lonesome Dove, was the best.
I am just about to finish LISTENING to the entire 4 volumes of the ‘Berrybender‘ series. It was great to listen to. A huge, varied & fascinating cast of characters. At first I had to carry around a list of the names to keep track. {That, alas, is one of the drawbacks of audiobooks. You can’t easily flip back to check on names or anything else.}
Amazing story. Yes, it is fiction. So, he can rein free. I am not sure whether this superb yarn is even partly based on reality. Doesn’t matter. Quite the story. Lot of violence, tons of deaths & an ABUNDANCE of SEX! Very salacious — with lots of talk about sex, incessantly.
I see that his works have had tremendous success as movies & TV series. {Refer to the Wikipedia entry.} The Berrybender Narrative would make a wonderful Netflix miniseries. I am surprised it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe this post will get someone thinking. I would have thought that his ‘estate’ would have been agitating to get something like this done.
Though I live in dread of getting it, I am not that knowledgeable about diabetes. But, I knew of Type 1 & 2, & the difference between the two. {So, I knew that IF got it it would be Type 2.} I had never heard of any other types of diabetes.
So, I was surprised & a bit put out to hear them talking, in some detail, about Diabetes Type MODI in this surprisingly GOOD French mini-series the ‘Black Butterflies‘. I first thought that it was a French thing. The series though amazingly well DUBBED into English is very French. So, my first take is that MODY must be a French term for Type 1 or 2. So, I had to Google it. Fancy that. There is indeed a Type MODY & it is not even a French term. Wow.
So, something else I have now learnt from watching Netflix. I learn a lot from the Netflix stuff I watch; e.g., frequency of earthquakes in Japan, the open existence of Cannibalism Forums on the Web with REGISTERED USERS!
‘Black Butterflies’ is worth watching. Quite the story. I had to go check whether it was based on a real story. Appears not. Quite the clever plot.
Here is an ‘Anu Special‘ aside. Struck me that two of the BEST original French cinematic efforts I have seen both have ‘Butterfly’ in their titles. Just a coincidence. IF you haven’t see this 1973 movie — or READ the very long book — you should think about doing so. I have read the book & seen the movie.
The production of ‘The Empress’ cannot be faulted. It is lavish & sumptuous to a degree that leaves you wondering as to how they managed to pull it off. It would appear that no costs were spared. So in terms of the ‘Bollywood factor‘ (i.e., WOW factor) it is certainly on par with ‘Victoria’ & probably better than that of ‘The Crown’ (which portrayed a more restrained era of monarchy).
What makes ‘The Empress’ less compelling, alas, is the story! And that is kind of sad. All three of these series are biographical with emphasis on historic accuracy. So, ‘The Empress’, in this initial season at least, had a less dramatic storyline. It is interesting, but not as gripping as what we got with the other two.
I had no familiarity, at all, at all, with this period of the Austrian Empire — my meagre knowledge of this Empire related to the early days of the Holy Roman Empire (given its significance to my work on the popes). So, I had to look up the Emperor & his wife, i.e., the Empress. I am glad I did. The series appears to be true to the facts — more or less (with possibly a wee tad of poetic license here and there to make it a bit more appealing). But, now that I looked it up, I kind of know how it is going to end — & the definite need for a 2nd, if not 3rd season.
Netflix has not commented on the next season. I am sure they are waiting to see how successful season 1 is going to be. On that count I hope it does well because the story sure gets better from now on. So, now you also know.
IF you have Netflix & like historic drama, you should give it a whirl. I doubt you will regret it. As I said, up front — it is NOT bad, just not as good as Victoria or The Crown.
I am a BIG fan of Netflix. I was late joining the party (like only 3-years ago) BUT these days I watch Netflix most days. Though we have paid subscriptions to Prime, BritBox & Acorn (at a minimum NOT counting my cricket channels), I tend to watch Netflix near daily at the expense of the others.
Prior to this unfortunate series I had always enjoyed (& admired) all other Netflix produced (or sourced) series. This one, however, was a total DUD. Yes, I will confess that I was a bit reluctant to get into watching it. I feared that it might end up being just fluff. BOY, was I right. It was so, so, so LAME. No substance. Everything got repeated at least 4 times. FAKE. Wow. Netflix must have been DESPARATE.
The compelling ‘Netflix’ ‘Mindhunter’ series about how FBI profiling came to be has quite a few scenes shot on aircrafts in flight — as the two protagonist fly across the country to interview serial killers.
They have done a great job in trying to accurately depict the interior of these planes.
I did a LOT of flying, in the U.S., in the 1980s & 1990s. In 1983, my first year as an adult in the U.S., I was in the top 2% of frequent flyers on BOTH ‘American Airlines’ & ‘United’ — despite only moving to the U.S. in February of that year. I now am a certified MILLION MILE frequent flyer on AA. So, I remember planes & flights from that era.
Seeing these shots was quite nostalgic.
EMPTY SEATS.
Near empty planes.
In 1970 I flew on an ‘Air India’ 747 Jumbo, from London to Frankfurt, with JUST 14 passengers on board! I kid you not. 14 passengers. Yes, there was more crew than passengers.
Click to ENLARGE. From ‘Netflix’ ‘Catching Killers‘ Season 2 Episode 3 (below).Click to ENLARGE. Search results from ‘Google‘.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1OH1EvPoug
WOW! WOW! WOW! Who would have thought, who would have believed? Of course, it would appear, not I. Never even occurred to me. Yes, I can be naive in matters such as this. While I fully appreciate & applaud, free speech, free expression etc., I just kind of thought that someone, somewhere enforced some oversight over the Web. I guess I was wrong.
Plus the stupidity. If you think that multiple ‘agencies’ are NOT going to monitoring such sites then you sure deserve everything that comes your way & more. Well it would appear the cops in Toronto were unaware until they got a tip from Switzerland &, MOREOVER, the ‘guy’ managed to get away by claiming that it was all just role-play & fantasy. AMAZING.
NO. I have not gone looking & I have no interest. Plus, I have NO DESIRE, whatsoever, to have my IP Address associated with such sites. I have my standards.
I am posting this because I was shocked. I was amazed. Not sure how many others knew about such things & we are NOT talking about the ‘Dark Web’. This is the normal Web that our kids frequent. Just think about that.
AMAZING. I really do despair.
Despite being a Web denizen, I liked the world pre-Web!
Yes, if the Web was eliminated all together, I would still manage. I managed for 35 years without the Web. SMILE.
