BBC4 Saturday evenings

[DracoM]

Sat evenings on BBC4 usually have the Scandi Noir slot, or 'Spiral' or similar.
BUT
at the mo, is the Oz crime fest 'Mystery Road'.
I mean...............

If this is even a fraction of what today's Australia might be / is, then....crikey.............

1. Violent tribal / community racism more like gang warfare both in the trad white v 'blackfellows' sense, but also inside the white community and the violent authoritarian black communities than anything on the scale we probably have in UK - at least you HOPE that is the case..? Ouch!
2. Police strongly divided between the outlanders trying to do a job and the corrupt 'others' in with 'the town / province boys'.
3. The massive truck-trains [v. impressive] but running.....well, running exactly [but sssh!] what city to city to town?
4. Standard community relations conducted in undiluted hard-faced nastiness, non-stop violent etc language - or charged and threatening silence
5. Attitudes to women that make 18th century London look like a women's refuge.

[antongould]

Sat evenings on BBC4 usually have the Scandi Noir slot, or 'Spiral' or similar.
BUT
at the mo, is the Oz crime fest 'Mystery Road'.
I mean...............

If this is even a fraction of what today's Australia might be / is, then....crikey.............

1. Violent tribal / community racism more like gang warfare both in the trad white v 'blackfellows' sense, but also inside the white community and the violent authoritarian black communities than anything on the scale we probably have in UK - at least you HOPE that is the case..? Ouch!
2. Police strongly divided between the outlanders trying to do a job and the corrupt 'others' in with 'the town / province boys'.
3. The massive truck-trains [v. impressive] but running.....well, running exactly [but sssh!] what city to city to town?
4. Standard community relations conducted in undiluted hard-faced nastiness, non-stop violent etc language - or charged and threatening silence
5. Attitudes to women that make 18th century London look like a women's refuge.

Indeed DracoM - watched Series 1 Episode 1 last night and enjoyed it but that may be the end of the Mystery Road for me as Lady Gould is far from impressed ......

I see the Queen of Scandi Noir turns up in Series 2 .........

[oddoneout]

Sat evenings on BBC4 usually have the Scandi Noir slot, or 'Spiral' or similar.
BUT
at the mo, is the Oz crime fest 'Mystery Road'.
I mean...............

If this is even a fraction of what today's Australia might be / is, then....crikey.............

1. Violent tribal / community racism more like gang warfare both in the trad white v 'blackfellows' sense, but also inside the white community and the violent authoritarian black communities than anything on the scale we probably have in UK - at least you HOPE that is the case..? Ouch!
2. Police strongly divided between the outlanders trying to do a job and the corrupt 'others' in with 'the town / province boys'.
3. The massive truck-trains [v. impressive] but running.....well, running exactly [but sssh!] what city to city to town?
4. Standard community relations conducted in undiluted hard-faced nastiness, non-stop violent etc language - or charged and threatening silence
5. Attitudes to women that make 18th century London look like a women's refuge.

At a guess from whatever mine to the coast or similar rather than city to city. I watched the middle half(approx 90 mins) of The Ghan:Australia's greatest train journey when it was shown on BBC4 recently - somewhat mind-boggling journey, just under 3000km, train average length 774 m( so getting on and off at stops involves little buses going along beside the rails - not a platform as such). The scenery doesn't change much for hours at a time so must be useful in a film context for avoiding continuity errors...

[johncorrigan]

I watched season 1 and thought it interesting enough. Settled down to series two last week, but didn't stay settled...needed the subtitles too, and didn't get to the end of episode 1. Not sure if we will continue with it. Tend to agree with Draco's summation.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Subtitles.... ahh.

We watched series one of Mystery Road and found it interesting enough - not least the scenery and setting (and sorry State government, I wasn't enthused to go visit...). But the audio and in particular the principal (detective) character's speech delivery meant I had to route the audio through the music speakers, and at higher volume - to have half a chance to understand what was being said. I had to have finger poised on the volume reduction for the moments the music came crashing in at moments of heightened "tension".

We watched episode 1 of series 2 - I'm interested to continue and using subtitles might make Mrs CS more willing to watch it as well.

If there is another series of Spiral, I'm sure we'll watch it.

[DracoM]

Spiral - yes, indeed.

[subcontrabass]

Subtitles.... ahh.

We watched series one of Mystery Road and found it interesting enough - not least the scenery and setting (and sorry State government, I wasn't enthused to go visit...). But the audio and in particular the principal (detective) character's speech delivery meant I had to route the audio through the music speakers, and at higher volume - to have half a chance to understand what was being said. I had to have finger poised on the volume reduction for the moments the music came crashing in at moments of heightened "tension".

We watched episode 1 of series 2 - I'm interested to continue and using subtitles might make Mrs CS more willing to watch it as well.

These series are possibly easier to get into if you first watch the two films of earlier books in the series ("Mystery Road" (2013) and "Goldstone" (2016)), with the same actors in principal roles. These clarify some references in the later TV series and also show some of the past history of the detective's alcoholic wife and drug addict daughter. Be warned, though, that they are shown as Australian "Westerns", each culminating in the classic shoot-out between the goodies and the baddies.

[subcontrabass]

Ah well. By contrast we have two new episodes of Inspector Montalbano tonight and next Saturday.

[DracoM]

And it's - for me - lazy, with am dram acting, slovenly editing, and always with a complicit wink to the audience about 'Italy and Italians'. Totally unwatchable.
And as there was no MoD either, my Sat evening was torpedoed before it started.

[Nick Armstrong]

And it's - for me - lazy, with am dram acting, slovenly editing, and always with a complicit wink to the audience about 'Italy and Italians'. Totally unwatchable.
And as there was no MoD either, my Sat evening was torpedoed before it started.

Yes Montalbano is pretty second-rate. If I watch, I’m usually day-dreaming about owning his house

Yesterday evening here featured a further episode of a pretty good Scandi thriller on the C4 catch-up service: Moscow Noir, about skullduggery in post-glasnost Russia (1999 it’s supposed to be), led by Swedish merchant bankers trying to negotiate the perils of oligarchs etc.

Watchable. Leading man is in a lot of recent stuff (e.g. Before We Die, and Young Wallander which is now on Netflix and also worth a watch)

[DracoM]

And of course an earlier 'Bridge' series was on shamefully late which I box-set-viewed this pm!!

[subcontrabass]

Yes Montalbano is pretty second-rate. If I watch, I’m usually day-dreaming about owning his house

Yesterday evening here featured a further episode of a pretty good Scandi thriller on the C4 catch-up service: Moscow Noir, about skullduggery in post-glasnost Russia (1999 it’s supposed to be), led by Swedish merchant bankers trying to negotiate the perils of oligarchs etc.

Watchable. Leading man is in a lot of recent stuff (e.g. Before We Die, and Young Wallander which is now on Netflix and also worth a watch)

Everyone to their own taste. Montalbano has become rather formulaic, but offers gentle (mostly) viewing. His house is apparently available for holiday lets.

I tried Moscow Noir but got bored and gave up half way through the first episode. "Walter Presents" has had better series on financial corruption, such as Follow the Money and Bad Banks (with the first series of the latter being rather better than the second).

From recent shows on "Walter Presents" I found The Sect very gripping. This is a Russian series dealing with a known problem (the leader of one of the sects mentioned in passing in the series has recently been arrested). It also features an amazing child actress.