McMafia

[kernelbogey]

After two episodes I remain unconvinced by this BBC4 series, despite all the hype and extravagant production. There seems very little to Alex Godman: James Norton seems to me very wooden, but perhaps because he has been given little to play. The most interesting character sor far is Keiman (Kleiman?) who is insidiously reeling in Alex. I'm unsure whether Alex is naive; he doesn't seem sharp enough to be runnng a big investment fund. I'm quite unsure whether I'll bother with further episodes.

[eighthobstruction]

....I have recommended this nonfiction book from which the story is taken/woven elsewhere on the forum. Truth is they could never have done it justice. It tells of how closely interlinked wars, social devastation/disintegration, corruption are traced back to Bosnia, Serbia, break up of USSR, Columbia, Japan, China[and UK/USA obviously] basically big time crime at a Mafia/State level anywhere in the world, all interlinked and conspiring; just about. Its a brillant journalistic masterpiece, that I couldn't put down, except to cry at injustice and be angry at the protagonista. Misha Glenny (he who was the BBC voice of the Bosnian and Kosova conflicts):McMafia.

....fhg, if you want to read it I'll drop it around.

[kernelbogey]

Thanks, Eighth. A review of the book from 2008 in The Observer.

[eighthobstruction]

...thanks kernelbogey....that's everything I wanted to say about it ....with 100x the clarity....

....it's unlikely that I will watch this serial.

[vinteuil]

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... we've watched the first coupla episodes. It's really not very good. Dull, boring, lifeless. Loadsa money has been thrown at it (trying to do a James Bond in terms of locations). The pacing is lumpen, the acting leaden, there is cliché after cliché. Appropriately for the season, I think it's a complete turkey...


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[eighthobstruction]

....gobble....gobble....gobble....

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, I was pretty bored with ep.1.... amazed to see complaints in press reviews about "over-complicated plot lines" ... evidently they never saw The Wire or True Detective 2....
I'll give ep.2 a chance to reel me in tonight....(but even the trailer looked a bit too Strike Back, a bit "Homeland-lite" transposed to finance, drugs etc....) It's embarrassingly oversold by the BBC/RT....

I hear Westworld and Divorce are on the way back..I hope The Young Pope will be too.... patience, patience...

[eighthobstruction]

....I suppose they were hoping for response as was given to The Night Manager (which for all it's locations etc), again oversold for what it was....I guess the budget /production costs were similar (almost as much as a damp squid Poliakov job....possibly)....

....I see (or don't see) nobody has mentioned the Miniaturist hereabouts....

....producers/ commissioners....Lets have a Kazantzakis revival....Zorba the Greek on Ice!!!...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

....I see (or don't see) nobody has mentioned the Miniaturist hereabouts....

Watchable - an interesting idea, some good scenes - fizzled out.

....producers/ commissioners....Lets have a Kazantzakis revival....Zorba the Greek on Ice!!!...

Bin dere, dun dat:

[eighthobstruction]

....marvellous....Ah the hours spent as a child watching skaters on TV in competition and horses jumping stuff....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

....marvellous....Ah the hours spent as a child watching skaters on TV in competition and horses jumping stuff....

- I can't think why somebody hasn't combined the two formats.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- I can't think why somebody hasn't combined the two formats.

Oh crumbs! It was inevitable, I suppose:

[Serial_Apologist]

....marvellous....Ah the hours spent as a child watching skaters on TV in competition and horses jumping stuff....

Do you remember Torvill and Dean? There was the use of Ravel's Bolero, and I remember a BBC reporter going down to Shepherds Bush market, asking people if they recognised the music, and one stall holder thoughtfully replying: "Er, yes... it's that... Bollero, by that bloke, Ravle" - which he pronounced like the word unravel, and Bollero with the stress heavily on the first syllable!!!

[vinteuil]

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... o, we can be quite sly here in Shepherd's Bush, y'know ...


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[mercia]

from the title I thought McMafia was going to be about ice-cream wars in Glasgow - clearly not. Episode 2 gave me jet-lag, within 10 minutes I had been to London, Prague, Versailles, Moscow, Cairo and somewhere in Israel. No sign of St Mary Mead though.