itt: non-english-language netflix series you recommend (or not) and commentary thereon

LA REINA DEL SUR (spanish): there's a thread and i must get back to its lurid pulpy bullshit tbh
FILINTA (turkish): a steampunkish bond set in the late days of the ottoman empire (must also get back to: it's very stylised and quite strange)
MARSEILLE (french): corruption in title-city, starring g.depardieu (the star is the city)
ESTOCOLMO (argentinian): media and political corruption in buenos aires -- argentina doesn't look at all as i expected (unexpectedly got into amiable discussion w/its scriptwriter on twitter: they agreed w/some of my crit -- but i basically enjoyed this a lot); estocolmo is argentinian for stockholm, as in syndrome; also features amnesia iirc
THE BREAK (belgian): small-village crime but the crime is big and nasty; more amnesia lol
LAVA FIELD (icelandic): murder to be solved by small-town cops trapped by a blizzard in their small town
ROBA (finish): procedural set in helsinki -- there's a thread abt it
BORDERTOWN (also finnish): crossborder crims (ie russians) cause trouble in the small town a cop -- possibly amnesiac, i forget -- has moved his family to to rebuild his life
HINTERLAND/Y GWYL (welsh): tbh i mostly watched this on actual realtime telly -- set round aberystwyth and borth (towns i know quite well), a mimpy cop solves abuse-related crimes by driving fast in narrow lanes and looking back regretfully at how he's fucked up his life
INSPECTOR MONTALBANO (italian): again via the BBC -- no cop is filmed swimming more or more often
THE KILLING/THE BRIDGE/BORGEN/WALLENDER et al (danish and'r swedish): the big-name nordic noirs via the BBC that put me on this track in the first place -- wallender has been played by three actors (not inc.branagh) but i only like one of them

there's a couple of others -- a french and a belgian, the belgian abt the robbery of a small bank? -- that arrived via the bbc's noir slot but i can't bring their names to mind

can i really be the only person watching LA REINA DEL SUR?

"they run like animals from the sauna to the sea": ROBA is the hit finnish police procedural

BORDERTOWN: more deadly finns and their procedurals (includes russians, generally even deadlier) (entirely forgot i started this one)

(also i just now started SUBURRA: BLOOD ON ROME, which kicks off with a massive on-brand roman orgy hurrah involving the mayor hurrah)

hurrah

The bbc4 phenom always makes me think that there must be tv snobs in Denmark or wherever going fucking nuts for midsomer murders & lewis

Nobody seems to like Gommorah, which has a lot going for it imo. Naples social housing ruin pron, some pretty cool gang bosses (including bald sex symbols and women), everybody dies - even main characters. It is probably rather silly, but I do enjoy it.

one of the nordic noir producers or directors or writers has explicitly said that it was bingeing on midsomer and hamish macbeth a few years back that mainly led to the noir outbreak (that and girl with the dragon tattoo)

(i watch all of them also) (except hamish macbeth, which i entirely missed at the time doesn't seem to get repeats anywhere i can find it) (off to check if it's on netflix) (also midsomer post-nettles is not my jam)

happy valley and the one in the orkneys (forget name) also fit here but only the latter has subtitles and it isn't on netflix

the belgian abt the robbery of a small bank?

I think I might have seen this although I also can't remember the name

SUBURRA is a riot of unlikely youth-gangster haircuts so far

mark, do you recommend everything on that list? In trying to improve/maintain my French I will watch virtually anything en français that is available in Canada, but I haven't gotten to MARSEILLE or THE BREAK yet. I also have HOTEL BEAU SÉJOUR, DEEP, and THE CHURCHMEN in my queue, though not sure about the last one in particular.

I did just watch CANNABIS, which wasn't great but I found it compelling enough to get through its relatively short run (there's also lots of Spanish and Arabic if you're in it for the linguistic diversity). There's an American actress in it who never speaks English, and her accent gave me heart though I think she might have been kind of crummy at the acting part.

This morning I started the second series of WITNESSES. The first series was a fairly generic rip of Scandinavian detective stuff (lead female detective even has uncommented upon OCD), filmed in the Normandy winter to make it as grey as possible but also providing enough local flavor to sustain interest. Second series seems somewhat more promising though I've only watched one ep.

Definitely not in the vein of anything else listed here, but I think the best French-language thing I've watched on Netflix was THE LONG LONG HOLIDAY, an animated miniseries about children in Normandy during the Nazi occupation.

I think my mum watched Hamish Macbeth - it's much older than midsomer in my head

Sorry I'm just talking about English language stuff lol

marseilles i liked a lot, the break was perhaps a bit run-of-the-mill (or anyway i don't remember much about it)

caveat: i will on the whole watch any old rubbish* and most of them are somewhat flawed, some wildly pulpy (reina del sur), some over-involved and garish esp.at the end (probably estcolmo), some an acquired taste (filinta), some just a bit silly (hinterland)

*eg this is amazingly bad and unmissable: the netflix series GUILT

wins it is a continuum: ppl who think that brits don't do this well are idiots (we kind of invented it, don't get me started on MARPLE)

oh I forgot about CALL MY AGENT, which was a very French and quite delightful show about talent agents. Lots of French actors who I don't know play themselves

some over-involved and garish esp.at the end

Cannabis was mostly even-keeled throughout but there is a shoot-out in the final ep that was grafted in from a John Woo movie or something

wins it is a continuum: ppl who think that brits don't do this well are idiots (we kind of invented it, don't get me started on MARPLE)

Just to clarify I totally agree, my initial point was just that I get the sense there are a lot of these idiots and they make up a significant % of the audience for this stuff

*fistbump*

(restarting SUBURRA ep1 from the beginning as i spent most of the last 10 mins rereading the GUILT thread and hence not paying attention)

(apparently it means slums rather than suburbs)

I don't really make time in my life for a lot of tv so often the only time I see this stuff is when I'm visiting my 90yo granny, it's perfect for her as a seasoned viewer of itv crime dramas who doesn't want to admit her hearing's failing to watch basically the same thing but with subs

yes i got into my midsomer/lewis habit sitting w/my invalid dad: he wouldn't have been averse to non-english language, his hearing was excellent and he spoke -several tho not danish -- but his eyesight was poor and anyway the noirs didn't start till after he died

(replay allows me to notice, as i didn't before, that the backdrop to the orgy is a rather amazing film of or possibly aquarium full of undulating jellyfish, good work there a.n. designer)

he'd have loved hinterland despite its annoying lead: he too adored that part of wales :(

love that so many euro corruption thrillers -- esp.southern europe but not exclusivly -- are abt (a) drugs and (b) ZONING

(ie where the real money is)

in this SUBURRA overlaps with MARSEILLE

shd probably give SUBURRA its own thread actually (since i'm liking it and will doubtless post lots): but one thing i enjoy the (non-UK) ones for is gorgeous filming of cities i know a little bit (marseile) or have never seen (copenhagen, rome)

https://typeset-beta.imgix.net/rehost%2F2016%2F9%2F13%2F6b92d25d-b10d-4614-a148-9b4c73688f7d.jpg?w=1200&h=630&fit=crop&crop=faces&auto=format&q=70
Naples looks amazing in Gommorah, probably the true star of the show really.

a belgian, the belgian abt the robbery of a small bank? -- that arrived via the bbc's noir slot but i can't bring their names to mind

Salamander?

(which I started to watch but never finished, so no commentary here, but I will report that my parents v much love Montalbano with the excuse of practising their Italian; I am looking forward to German-language shows being mentioned here for similar reasons, although I admit I never got round to watching Deutschland 83 even though everyone said it was v good and it's right up my street of historical interest, so who am I kidding)

Salamander is the one I was thinking of

(Didn't amount to much when all was said & done, wouldn't bother finishing it)

I am only one ep deep into Suburra but I'm liking it. I read the book a few weeks ago so I'm still trying to sort out who is who/what has been changed or removed or altered. But I like it. The haircuts are terrible but maybe that's what roman club kids looked like in 2008. On the Italian tip, highly recommend Romanzo Criminale, though it's on Filmstruck and not Netflix. Set in the seventies-into-the-eighties, also in Rome. It tells the story of the Magliana gang, who at that time scrapped their way up from armed robbery to the major drug/sex traffickers in Rome. I would like to watch Gommorah; I liked the film and I'm on a bit of an Italian crime kick it seems.

Still lots upthread that I need to check out. I liked the Lava Field & Wallander. Been wanting to watch Spiral for ages but never got around to it. I do like the Annika Bengtzon telefilms abt the lady reporter. Her home life in those sorta reminds me of one of the things I liked abt (US tv series) Medium.

xxp

Deutschland 83 looked very nice, but was hampered with some awful expositional dialogue iirc. The one clunker too far for me was something like: This Cold War is getting Hot!

also just finished suburra e1: will start a thread for it shortly, after i finish handwashing my jumper

(it's a nice plain black jumper but i totally covet the fabulous tentacular octopus-pattern jumper worn by giacomo ferrara as alberto: no pix on the internet yet which is a sorry state of affairs)

SUBURRA: BLOOD OF ROME aka sex, drugs, violence and ZONING (and the wickedest of these is zoning, my son)

love that so many euro corruption thrillers -- esp.southern europe but not exclusivly -- are abt (a) drugs and (b) ZONING

also The Wire!

one day i shall watch the wire

I have a fair tolerance for this stuff (e.g. watched the entirety of the very mediocre Black Lake on iPlayer) but could not get through more than half of Salamander or Witnesses - be warned.

The bbc4 phenom always makes me think that there must be tv snobs in Denmark or wherever going fucking nuts for midsomer murders & lewis

― "The" Blink-182 (wins), 15. oktober 2017 17:42 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They're on almost every saturday night. I'm not sure that many snobs watch it, though. I used to watch so much Rebus growing up, I picked up an awful fake scottish accent.

They're on almost every saturday night

this is bizarrely pleasing to me

Tonight it was Inspector George Gently, followed by Murder City and The Honorable Woman. Then a couple of episodes of Upstairs Downstairs to end the night.

Actually my ex-girlfriend was watching all this, when she wasn't busy writing queer analyses of ancient greek tragedies. She was kinda snobbish, and so so cool :(

There are 3 worthwhile Japanese shows

MIDNIGHT DINER - endearing and heartwarming story about the people who frequent a late night diner in a working class Tokyo neighborhood. This is a phenomenon across Asia with a (good) Korean version and a (bad) Chinese version and a bunch of movie spinoffs. Heartwarming in the best possible way.

SAMURAI GOURMET - not as good as midnight diner but it’s the story of a salaryman who deals with retirement by exploring local restaurants.

JAPAN STYLE ORIGINATOR - possibly the only lifestyle magazine show on Netflix but it’s great for the insight into Japanese culture and features such informative episodes as the 50 cheapest things to eat with rice, 25 ways to eat your New Years mochi and a goat of ‘how it’s made’ type segments where they look at how various Japanese crafts are made. Very relaxing TV.

A goat?

I loved OCCUPIED and very much want the second series (basically, fossil-fuel-rich Norway goes completely green and shuts down its oil/gas industry, and Russia stages a "soft" invasion to take over)

More soapie-ish but very well done: 30 DEGREES IN FEBRUARY: various Swedes head off to Thailand to escape their troubled lives, discover that unfortunately they are still themselves

finished SUBURRA (italian), began MAR DE PLÁSTICO (spanish)

Salamander is the one I was thinking of

oh, that was quite good!

I have a few of these Euro-tv streaming subscriptions, so I forget which series are on Netflix vs. the other ones.

Spiral/Engrenage (might be on Netflix?) is French, and was billed as France's answer to The Wire. It isn't quite as intricate, but it is really good in other ways.

Oh, another Netflix one I watched recently -- Silver Spoon -- it's Russian. A bit silly and over the top in parts, and it would make for an interesting discussion whether it's implicitly/explicitly critical of Putin/oligarchs or not.

SPIRAL was on UK TV in the noir slot, and I liked the little bit I watched but I missed too much of the start to get properly embedded.

MAR DE PLÁSTICO is kind of boring, also the chiselled cop who's the lead is like a bland pierce brosnan mini-me

ok it just woke up a bit -- murder leads to nasty racial tension in a southern spanish town -- but the lead cop fights off 20 ppl like he's batman, that's the boring bit

seriously - just watch "Mafiosa" on CH4/Walter Presents ..
so good.
S1 was ok despite the presence of some over acting, but things really improved from S2 onwards.

season 2 of Okkupert and 3 of Gomorrah - hurry up!

where are you watching gomorrah?

from torrent sites, always. I work on the flawed presumption that if the torrents have subtitled versions of a Euro series, then it must be on Netflix.

haha yes it's available via amazon but not amazon prime (which i do pay for) so i guess that's why it's subtitled -- so i can stump up some more when i'm feeling flush

Spiral (S2 and S3 especially) is super good

Method is up now (at least in the UK). Based on the first episode it seems like the synthesis of every other loose-cannon-profiler-with-personal-demons cop show. I’ll stick with it though. Khabensky is usually good.

I just watched the first episode of the South Korean procedural Stranger. Some of the acting/exposition was way over the top (A string of surprise witnesses, each more surprising than the last!)but it was strangely compelling.

At the more serious end of the scale, the French sky show the Bureau on amazon prime was excellent, easily putting to shame the similar stuff I've seen from the BBC recently.

previously mentioned midnight diner + hibana: spark is decent too, from a novel by matayoshi naoki that won the akutagawa prize, about a struggling manzai duo who try to break into the world of japanese standup.

I finished Method and though it seals liberally from The Bridge, Sherlock, Dexter, Nikita, and pretty much every other crime show of the last two decades, it ends up being pretty great. The tone is all over the place at the start but it settles into an OTT nihilist bleakness that would be difficult to get away with without such good leads. It’s completely ludicrous, pitch-black and Problematic in a number of ways but Konstantin Khabensky and Paulina Andreeva pull it through somehow.

I think there must have been some legal action threatened wrt plagiarism as the producer of Dexter is credited as one of the creators. It’s vastly better though.

Terrace House: Boys and Girls is the only answer to this.

just started THE METHOD and also APACHES (which literally has *record scratch* "my name is miguel, you're wondering how i got here" as its kicker)

just finished WITNESSES s2 (on bb4 rather than netflix) -- which was colossally silly with a handful of half-realised ideas

think APACHES is going to be garbage, so far (6 minutes in) there's been a double flashback and then a flash forward

I loved Au Service de la France and have been eagerly awaiting S2 for some time now.

Spiral is back on BBC4 this week, i think.

On an (almost) completely different note, i found the first season of Call My Agent / Dix Pour Cent quite charming and am pleased that the second is now up on Netflix. It's a fairly gentle comedy with French stars (including Audrey Fleurot) playing fictionalised versions of themselves. Adjani and Binoche are apparently in S2.

That looks like something I need to see.

Spiral is back on BBC4 this week, i think.

whaaaaaaaa

anyone watch dad of light yet

Xp, season six starts on the 30th!

Flag Post Permalink

Terrace House: Boys and Girls is the only answer to this.

― Yerac, Monday, December 18, 2017 12:28 PM (two days ago) Bookmark]

aloha state starts getting wild in the later parts

Yeah I watched Aloha State first because I was living in Oahu while they were filming it, but the Tokyo one is overall better. There were some serious duds on Aloha State.

Two episodes into La Mante and...it’s not good. Cheapo copycat serial killer drama though Carol Bouquet obviously elevates it.

Dark looks good after one episode. Shades of Donnie Darko and the unfortunate comparison's gonna be to stranger things but it looks suitably creepy. Had to switch off the dubbing after like 5 mins ugh it was bad.

Eight episodes into Dark and the plot still hasn't completely fallen apart yet so that's good I guess. Compared to the bright consumerist Germany of Deutschland 83, the 80s we see here is dull and rainy and still looks like the 60s or 70s. Pity the characters are such non-entities.

Not a series but we watched An Off-Day Game, a Malayalam art film that Netflix is carrying for some reason (with subtitles) and thought it was great. For a fairly low-budget film, the shots are gorgeous and the story is brutal but reveals itself gradually. Basically, it's about four middle-aged guys who get drunk on an election day [which are holidays in Kerala] and the way their dark sides are progressively revealed in the way they treat each other. It probably helps to have a basic understanding of Kerala politics and Indian caste and colour prejudices and discrimination. (Broadly, the two main political coalitions are a coalition led by the Communists who are probably the most anti-caste party and a Congress-led coalition who would be centre-left by mainstream Indian standards but function as the more right-wing side in the context of Kerala.)

There’s a dystopian Brazilian thing, name is something like SIX PERCENT, that I didn’t see mentioned yet which I watched a little of once, wasn’t compelled enough to keep watching.

no hype yet for THE SWEET TOOTH SALARYMAN?

http://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/qeWRJXU.jpg

Pity the characters are such non-entities.

Yeah the actors/acting doesnt sparkle much, but I'll give it a go.

no hype yet for THE SWEET TOOTH SALARYMAN?

― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Saturday, 30 December 2017 3:11 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mentioned it on the other Netflix thread. It’s a fun show and inspired me ordering anmitsu in Tokyo the other week.

haha i don't know what the experience i had watching the first episode was but it certainly wasn't 'fun'

the obsessive pleasure kintarou finds in desserts seems ... hm. positive coverage normally says it's about the necessity of small pleasures among a dehumanising work culture, but it seems a bit of a moral void. the necessary complement to the dehumanising work culture ... kantarou's joy itself a capitalist product ...

tho mb if i wasn't prejudiced against hyper-sweet asian desserts already i wouldn't have had this reaction, to be fair: i found all the food porn shots about as appetising as had they focused instead on glistening, beautifully-framed, superlatively-lit lumps of human excrement

I watched 3 episodes of Salaryman but it's not really grabbing me. The visits to sweet shops are a little too tedious/tidy.

There’s a dystopian Brazilian thing, name is something like SIX PERCENT

restarted FILINTA: can't reeally remember who anyone is, still intrigued by its mix of slapstick silliness and genuine nastiness

Have you tried Turkish on Duolingo yet, mark?

it is on my list but some way down :)

EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ (finnish): just started, three series

WRT to kantaro this seems pretty representative of Japanese tv. I’m sitting in a hotel room in Yamagata watching a completely different show where the protagonist is getting erotic satisfaction from the architectural details in the restaurant he’s in. The comedy comes from this and the fact that he is very tall and keeps hitting his head on the the aforementioned architectural details. ( Also he is waiting for a parfait).

the japanese shows i try all seem to have anime-featured schoolkids as primary characters and (as a very old person) i find this quite unengaging -- are there any with more grizzled ppl?

lol my filinta-layoff means that i have stopped being able to distinguish between all the many beards w/fezzes and can no longer follow the plot

More grizzled - midnight diner on Netflix

La Mante cleverly worked out it could get even worse if it threw in gender politics ripped from a 70s giallo. Looking forward to catching up on Spiral though.

Destroy: LILYHAMMER, in which Little Steven’s Sopranos character (in everything but name) goes into the witness protection program in Norway and comedic culture clash ensues. If only.

another vote here for CALL MY AGENT aka DIX POUR CENT when you guys have finished brooding over blasted scando hellscapes

^^ OUI!

Just started that a couple of days ago, it's loads of fun.

dudes i have been baskjng in the drug-tossed med all year

SAME THING

🎶 la reina dul sur, traficante muy famosa 🎵

Eight episodes into Dark and the plot still hasn't completely fallen apart yet so that's good I guess. Compared to the bright consumerist Germany of Deutschland 83, the 80s we see here is dull and rainy and still looks like the 60s or 70s. Pity the characters are such non-entities.

― Choco Blavatsky (seandalai), Saturday, 30 December 2017 02:17 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This completely fell apart in the last episode btw

New Spiral is chugging along nicely in the groove we know and love. Will probably never again feel as exciting as it did around Seasons 2/3.

EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ (finnish) is abt a debt-ridden middleclass family to turn to petty crime to make ends meet

(the dad appears to own a sonic screwdriver to override car alarms)

has quite a funny scene abt app-dating praxis and mores among teens (as explored actually during a coding class, naturally)

enjoying it, so i gave it its own thread: EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ: let's go do some (finnish) crimes

lol there is a series just starting -- THE FROZEN DEAD -- for which the blurb is: "a haunted detective. a shrewd psychopath. and a town overrun with dark secrets. this deadly game is just getting started."

THIS IS ALL OF THEM

*(not to be confused with WITNESSES: A FROZEN DEATH obv)

naturally i am about to start watching it

am i the only one who has gotten a bunch of recommendations for turkish comedies and heartbreakingly unfunny looking polish standup specials

i tried SPIRAL for a while and it was pretty good, but most of the mystery for me was trying to figure out how the french criminal justice system works

but tbt my netflix viewing is done mostly during housework so i couldn't keep up with with the subtitles

in french THE FROZEN DEAD is called GLACÉ -- translation shd have been ICED imo (it's set in the french pyrenees)

WITNESSES: A FROZEN DEATH was just called LES TEMOINS (s2)

i get a ton of turkish stuff, but then i've been on-off watching FILINTA for months

https://78.media.tumblr.com/840bf735199af7fb42095e77089cd932/tumblr_oe93kgNtmb1s71q1zo1_1280.png

Dominik Graf's "Im Angesicht des Verbrechens" is a breezy, offbeat magic realist crime show about Berlin cops vs the Russian mob. The polar opposite of Scandinavian bleakness & probably the best thing on German TV ever since Fassbinder. Idk if the series is available worldwide as the netflix.de version doesn't have English subs.

"merd-uh!!"
translation: "dammit"

:)

(from GLACÉ)

(which is by the way basically a pyrenean rewrite of silence of the lambs, with flayed horses

)

i think that's a pretty good translation tbf! "merde" not as strong as "shit", said around children with impunity

in this instance he *definitely* meant shit

they just translated something else as "blimey" -- sadly it was on a grainy and blurry bit of video the flics were watching so i couldn't make out what was being said

"oh la vache!!"

yes it might be!

if it was my father-in-law it would definitely have been "putain"

everyone should be watching this:
EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ: let's go do some (finnish) crimes

it's good not bad

don't normally have the patience for Korean dramas but am finding the supernatural/crime show "Black" strangely compelling - about a girl who can see death and a guy who's possessed by death. First few episodes are uneven and confusing (iirc the second episode was actively bad) but the way it juggles multiple genres at once is kinda entertaining: it's basically a supernatural thriller, crime procedural, family tragedy, conspiracy drama and rom-com all rolled into one. Also every episode has about 23402908243 subplots.

Friend of mine recommended Dark, which was discussed upthread. Will give Black a try as well, I guess.

We've been watching the french comedy 'Au Service de France' (A very secret service). On the one hand there are some great jokes about bureaucracy and the importance of rubber stamps on the other using 19060s Algeria and the things the french got up to as a situation for comedy seems to, at best, display a complete lack of sensitivity. I was trying to think of a UK analogy and it seems a bit like setting a sitcom in a Derry RUC squad in the 70s.

Where the fuck is OCCUPIED series 2?

quite tempted by CSIC, a CSI knock-off set in taiwan -- tho a few minutes acquaintance suggests it's a bit too wacky office-humour-based

(ie like o/g CSI became)

i went with WHEN A SNAIL FALLS IN LOVE aka 如果蜗牛有爱情;, which has been a huge hit in china and worldwide

DARK should have been called German Things
also it was not very good

agreed :/

i got a pleasingly tart alg-referral for DARK: "In a small town fraught with sins and secrets, history repeats itself in terrifying ways. It's happening again." Because of your interest in FRIENDS

WHEN A SNAIL FALLS IN LOVE has very watchable low-key location work in various chinese cities (also in myanmar acc. the internet) interspersed so far w/not very interesting stylised but unambitious martial arts sequences in which the main cop defeats all-comers

also a bit too much in-office comedy business, stop trying to make me laugh non-english-speaking world, that's what ilx is for

there is also a siow-burn romance promised between the main boy-cop (lean, rugged, moody, fighter) and the main girl-cop (slight, clever, warily watchful, psychological profiler)

(everything about this -- its rhythms, uits mix of elements, what it highlights as the interesting crimes* to be focused on -- is different enough from TV i routinely watch that i am already hooked) (it is not much like noir -- too silly a lot of the time -- and it seems mesmerised by fanciness)

*e.g. someone has buried a load of fine-art imitation antique papercutters in parks and playing fields, where people are cutting themselves

good long tense perp-follow where all the girlcop has to grip onto is a big wrench: she's not armed (tho the way she's filmed toting it is very gun-like)

(are chinese cops routinely armed? i have no idea -- more just turned up who do have guns)

ok lol that rescue initiative could have ended very disastrously

luxury, criminal decadence, martial-arts cops and profiling on the streets of the people's republic of china: WHEN A SNAIL FALLS IN LOVE

^^^more ppl shd be watching this!

2 episodes into Babylon Berlin -- 1929 Germany, political intrigue, Expat Trotskyists, PTSD cops, urban squalor, art deco cabaret stuff -- some odd musical choices w/Bryan Ferry involved.

I still don't understand why it defaults to playing the dubbed version rather than the German w/subtitles

a russian netflix show i for some reason cannot quite bring myself to commit to, even tho it sounds interesting = ]FARTSA: "as four Russian friends grow up in the early 60s, life, love and the curse of success threaten to derail their dreams" :(

Babylon Berlin is great, defaulting to subtitles with me.

Odd musical choices indeed. The singalong cabaret song in the second episode felt very modern and out of place.

Looks really great, though.

The singalong cabaret song in the second episode felt very modern and out of place.

yes, and now it is the closing music for all the episodes that follow (at least the next two) -- I can't really read the credits anyway, so ... I think a lot of it is the mix between vocals and instruments, or ... idk, it's like the dialog dubbing with most things, there's something really off.

And yet the gay club in episode 4 has some great and seemingly fitting jazz going on.

tt and I have discovered Kantaro independently of Scott and Ed but found them to be rapturous about it on here

it's probably the greatest television programme ever made

Dark seemed ok for 3 eps. Does it get bad later?

(lol @ German things tho, even one of the male leads looks like Steve!)

tt and I have discovered Kantaro independently of Scott and Ed but found them to be rapturous about it on here

it's probably the greatest television programme ever made

― imago, Wednesday, 7 February 2018 11:54 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Kanataro popped up on tokyo morning tv when we over there last month. He is a classically trained kabuki actor specialising in female roles. The segment showed him going back to his roots in the theatre.

I ate anmitsu in his honour and also went to the chocolate shop, Minimal that he visits in episode 11.

OTCB looks good. Cop show set in pre-handover Hong Kong. Only tested 5 minutes but they had me at archival footage of a plane landing at Kai Tak.

probably should give Babylon Berlin a whirl, it will no doubt feel like slumming it after watching the searing masterpiece Alexanderplatz last year, but let's give it a chance.

MARSEILLE s2 is on netflix uk

the overhead shots of the city are so exciting (i love marseille)

I am so thrilled the new Terrace House will be on netflix soon.

Yes!! I watched everything that’s on Netflix in the space of a month. We need a Terrace House thread. Ryota Yamasato is the best presenter of all time.

All of the hosts have such great chemistry together.

I think my favourite stretch so far was the Nacchan episodes. She was good at stirring up shit.

https://abload.de/img/angry-house54u6q.gif

I know - such a perfect balance of perspectives. I love how Yu and Tokui play down their lasciviousness for Torichan’s benefit, and Kentaro’s frequent mute horror.

I feel like just watching Han-san made me a better person in dealing with difficult people.

Han-san! Otm. What an amazing presence. I’m still not over his departure. Minori taught me how being brazenly belligerent in the face of anything is actually a reasonable way to get by.

The meat incident was unforgivable though.

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one taking personality tips from Han-San.

There's some episode where Tokui off-handedly mentions wanting to 'touch Kentaro's man parts' (something like that) that just killed me.

That was amazing. How he sort of casually enacted it too. My phone is full of screenshots of TH.

Even how You was groping Reina as an example of older people trying to relive their youth. I was like, ummmm.... well yeah, it's a bit different in asian and with women.

What was Han-san saying when they were going to confront Nacchan? It was so amazingly good. I am going to look for it tomorrow because everyone should memorize it.

Like, it was something about not judging her for her actions because they still valued her as an individual and that was not in question.

Minori became my favorite, I think largely because of how she handled the situation with Natsumi.

I think Kantaro the Sweet Tooth Salaryman might be better if the episodes were shorter.

Natsumi was decent in how she spoke to Uchi in the case of the meat. I was a big fan of Minori's sister in that episode too.

I have some Aloha State left to finish, but...I dunno, I'm getting bored of Taishi dominating this season.

The beauty queen shenanigans of Aloha State is the only thing really that made the end of the series worthwhile. And I guess Taishi comes out ok.

Yes! Cheri’s transformation into this great spirit of wildness was excellent, although the series was never quite the same after Guy left. His terribly-judged beach date was the highlight of Aloha State for me. With Taishi, I feel like the whole ‘guilty samurai’ routine expressed some kind of universal truth that was compelling enough.

Someone like Natsumi not just becoming a show villain is one of the strengths of Terrace House. Aloha State could've used a Han-san.
I agree that Aloha State became too Taishi-centric. I wonder if the other people just weren't really doing anything or anything the producers wanted to air- unlike American reality shows it seemed like they actually prefer not showing some of the "trashier" behavior.
Taishi was a recognizable and not entirely unsympathetic type but he was never really taken to task for some of his behavior and attitudes which was annoying given his own self righteousness.

I really enjoyed the Guy-Niki interlude.
Minori's sister was always good.

"Break up caused by meat! Break up caused by meat!" - The official TERRACE HOUSE thread

Every bit of Babylon Berlin is so good.

I just discovered this thread by searching for Babylon Berlin opinions. I just noticed that one this weekend and wanted to check the ilx reaction on it. Looks like that comes mostly recommended. Will check it out along with other stuff on this thread. I hadn't realized that Netflix was bringing on so many foreign shows until a month or so ago.

I've brought this one up a couple times on the regular Netflix thread, but since it hasn't been mentioned here: Tientsin Mystic is a really entertaining Chinese supernatural detective drama.

I have gotten a copy of Babylon Berlin season 2 but I'm waiting to watch it till I really need a treat.

Looking forward to THE RAIN, out on Friday: Danish post-apocalyptica about people who can't go out in the rain or they turn into monsters

Been mentioned on the other netflix thread, but Aggretsuko is well worth it - A Sanrio Red Panda eases the stresses of work with a secret life of Death Metal Karaoke singing.

don't normally have the patience for Korean dramas but am finding the supernatural/crime show "Black" strangely compelling - about a girl who can see death and a guy who's possessed by death. First few episodes are uneven and confusing (iirc the second episode was actively bad) but the way it juggles multiple genres at once is kinda entertaining: it's basically a supernatural thriller, crime procedural, family tragedy, conspiracy drama and rom-com all rolled into one. Also every episode has about 23402908243 subplots.

― Roz, Saturday, January 20, 2018 9:01 AM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Friend of mine recommended Dark, which was discussed upthread. Will give Black a try as well, I guess.

― Eloi's Comin' (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, January 21, 2018 7:06 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Started in on episode 1 of this one last night. Do all Korean tv shows run this over an hour per ep? It's not that I lack the patience, but am liable to fall asleep.

"run this long - over an hour per ep" is what I meant there.

the El Chapo series produced by Univision is pretty good. if you like Narcos you should watch it

first season is decent, mostly detailing his rise to power and his first stint in jail. second season is better, it goes into full-on cartel war and gets really nuts. but they're both worth watching

Finished Babylon Berlin not too long ago, and it's as great as has been mentioned.

When they first performed the "Ashes" song, I would've bet good money that it was a cover of a Bowie song!

Any reviews of The Rain? Yah/nah?

Yah-ish: well acted, leaves one too many big questions unanswered, end disappointing

Oh man, so many netflix shows have a disappointing end.

my faves so far, all-time

TRAPPED - Scandi murder shows are my favorite thing in the world. Grim, cold, deeply disturbing.

HOTEL BEAU SEJOUR - murder again with hyperreal supernatural vibe a la Dead Like Me or Six Feet Under. weird & twisty turny & i learned that Belgium loves motorcross

BABYLON BERLIN - i loved this so much i seriously contemplated finding a german language class for like an entire week afterwards.

the first ep was really off-putting but maybe it's because i accidentally watched the dubbed version

I thought it was absolute rubbish tbh, but I watched it after recently seeing Berlin Alexanderplatz, and possibly me became too pretentious and highfalutin a fool for Netflix period fluff.

saying "I watched it" I think I got as far as first couple of eps and can't remember much other than thinking it was all very pretty but not very engaging.

booooo

Kind of enjoying Octb. Lots of explication and recapitulation, makes it good for viewing with partial attention.

Is Baron Noir on Netflix yet? I found both seasons on the dark net and got pulled in.

Net Noir

Powder: Indian version of the Wire kinda

Scrolling through this thread trying to find something fun to watch, comes across this:

Not a series but we watched An Off-Day Game, a Malayalam art film that Netflix is carrying for some reason (with subtitles) and thought it was great. For a fairly low-budget film, the shots are gorgeous and the story is brutal but reveals itself gradually. Basically, it's about four middle-aged guys who get drunk on an election day [which are holidays in Kerala] and the way their dark sides are progressively revealed in the way they treat each other. It probably helps to have a basic understanding of Kerala politics and Indian caste and colour prejudices and discrimination. (Broadly, the two main political coalitions are a coalition led by the Communists who are probably the most anti-caste party and a Congress-led coalition who would be centre-left by mainstream Indian standards but function as the more right-wing side in the context of Kerala.)

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), 30. december 2017 03:26 (seven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've been looking for this everywhere, the director then won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam for his followup film Sexy Durga, which was on my top ten last year. Netflix is weird.

Also, have just started on Terrace House.

Oh, it doesn't really matter, but I also saw that ten months ago I posted a comment about what I used to watch with me ex-girlfriend and how cool she was. Now we are moving in together and watching cool Japanese reality shows :)

Ghoul, a Netflix India horror co-production with the makers of Sinister, Insidious, etc, about a black site for detaining Muslims in a near-future Fascist India is good.

(finally watching the movie of GOMORRAH on mubi)

U.S. Netflix seems very well loaded with South Asian content; anybody know why?

I have no idea, but it's the same in Denmark and I'm planning to watch a whole bunch of it. Saw Chauthi Koot yesterday, and it was really interesting. On the watch list is also Court, Ajji, Masaan, Dhoobi Ghat, Thithi and Peepli Live.

If anyone knows something I'd love to read it. It's really weird, but someone, somewhere, somehow, made a good deal to bring the best of new Indian art house cinemas to Netflix. For some reason.

Winning market share in India is one of Netflix’s top priorities, and something they’re currently failing to do as quickly as they wanted, so it’s an area of great investment for them. I guess it’s easier to build credibility if you’re competing against Zee, etc, with the diaspora as well.

That sorta makes sense and there might be similar reasons as to why there's so much Korean and Japanese content. I still don't quite get why you would buy and show films such as Chauthi Koot and An Offday Game, those are minuscule art films. Oh well, I love it.

Expat communities as well, lots of Indians and and Koreans in lots of markets around the world. Hulu, in the early days of subscription went big on Korean content as Korean Americans was a big enough niche without any designs on going overseas.

Second series of Au Service de la France is up and while not as immediate as the first hits it's stride about 4 or 5 eps in. Excellent stuff.

wasn't feeling series 2 as much, but the red telephone gag did make me laugh for 2 minutes straight, and mary jo is awesome.

Most enjoyable thing I've seen this year is 'A Korean Odyssey' Fun, the clothes were great, and the guy who plays Devil King Woo is terrific.

'Something in the Rain' is good too, be interested in knowing if it's a realistic portrayal of workplace dynamics in Korea. Also all the characters seem to stay up drinking half the night p much every day!!

I know we've already been over it, but it blows my mind that Netflix has Gandu available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6vqxPLxkUE

Only in India...

i am now watching gomorrah the TV series as advised by calzino ages ago (on amazon prime arrow free 7-day trial rather than netflix)

Naples looks amazing in Gomorrah, probably the true star of the show really.

― calzino, Sunday, October 15, 2017 6:05 PM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^cosine this totally, urban or rural

tfw the chief top villain physically reminds you very much of someone you know who is sweet and by nature unvillainous

some of the flats in gomorrah sort look like the pre-refurb Park Hill flats in Sheffield, but brutalist concrete decays differently in the Mediterranean sun or something, and their slums in the sky look way more sexy! I never got into S3 of this, but this was more to do with tv series burnout or something. Apparently some of S4 is being filmed in London.

Glad to hear there's a new season coming, this was probably my favorite show that I watched recently

there's some fantastic gang bosses in this, in some cases they look like factory workers that have just won 30k on a scratchcard last week.

http:/✧✧✧.r✧✧.2✧✧.it/images2010/Editrice/ILSOLE24ORE/ILSOLE24ORE/Online/Immagini/ArticleGallery/Cultura/2016/06/Ritagli/2-gomorra-ansa-U304181132292AE--835x✧✧✧@IlSole24Ore-✧✧✧.j✧✧

that Don Salvatore though, he doesn't even smoke proper tabs!

https://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://www.studiopedagogicopavese.org/images/criminologia/Gomorra/salvatore_conte.jpg&key=28747f0d750affb6bdd6b6a4b49c0044daf65d14d9d050789b58791865d05e5a

whole lotta vapin goin on

this is not a good photo (you can' t see his pointy ears) but i love* the long-haired gang member -- he also reminds me a bit of a friend
https://occ-0-901-999.1.nflxso.net/art/f7dd9/f95d5c6539c7a41bb3588f98c90299a7c76f7dd9.jpg

*you know what i mean, everyone is terrible

here he is with his ears -- his name's zecchinetta

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sw0mln7mcQ4/VGeYv35_wgI/AAAAAAAADOM/JH4Wf3f0gyM/s1600/Zechinetti.jpg

typical ageing raver!

"imboscata"

an interesting thing in gomorrah series one -- i'd have to rewatch to firm up how i feel abt it, and whether it "works" -- is there's an odd mobility to yr feel for some of the main characters, not just yr identification with them but how on top of their own story you feel they are. partly this is bcz the action takes place over several years, and two or three of them grow up and grow hard and perhaps grow "bad" (a very relative idea in this drama), and their relative capabilities w.r.t. one another shift

(don't spoiler me! i'm watching e12 s1 right now -- i think i know how it will end but i could be completely wrong!)

series two is nuts

LA MANTE!

bcz a friend came to stay who also likes this kind of stuff but between us we'd watched nearly everything except this

it's bad! hannibal lecter retread except hannibal is an elegant enigmatic lady of stonefaced sorrows and clarice starling is her son

i: everyone's house is VAST and FANCY! evidently kevin mcloud was on hand when it was designed and didn't believe they'd get it finished before the ep ended
ii: lol turning a chateau into a makeshift lecter-cage (who is tending the GARDEN?)
iii: the key tec -- the son -- is a charisma-free pod
iv: the lecter lady's name is (and this is honestly where suspension of critical faculties turned into hooting disbelief) MRS CARROT

I would watch this if she were a large animate carrot who is a vegetarian cannibal.

If you haven’t reached the end yet, it gets even worse.

I like Carol Bouquet and Frederique Bel but this was ghastly and, in the end, enormously offensive.

http://imgur.com/FfA3gdUl.png

i like how three of the six-strong crime team never do anything and one of them never says anything either

very feeble of french to have no word for copycat

ok lol the commissioner just said "why not bring hannibal lecter onto the team?", which is brass balls chutzpah on the part of the scriptwriter

anyone watch dad of light yet

― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Tuesday, December 19, 2017 11:38 PM (ten months ago)

somehow i watched all of dad light three times, at least

all of dad of light

very feeble of french to have no word for copycat

― mark s, Saturday, 27 October 2018 8:26 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Of course they do but Le Copiechat is banned by L’Acadamie Française.

CALL MY AGENT SEASON TROIS BEECHES

its perfect herself fodder she pours wine down her and snorts laughing and i can get the ironing done unencumbered

also everyone kills it and the guest roles are great

it is the best show, genuinely surprising and moving

noemie is managing to steal the entire series imo

^ good recommendation imo.

DEADWIND (= finnish)

my trivial pleasure is whenever the cops shout "police" they have to shout "poliisi!" which sounds like "policey!"

deadwind update: the two little girls whose mum died are heartbreaking, esp.the smaller one :(

Oh man, I watched one episode of La Mante and seeing this thread it looks like I should stop right now.

The French also have no french word for 'weekend" and...there are lots of jokes there.

her estranged son DAMIEN CARROT

deadwind update update: a key strand in this story is ZONING

deadline theme is VERY like judy nylon's "information rain" off of pal judy

New season of Money Heist!

Is Trapped (the Icelandic series) on Netflix? I just watched Season 2 on Amazon Prime and it's really good.

fairly sure trapped was originally broadcast on BBC2 in the uk: it is indeed very good

I really enjoyed Babylon Berlin and wish more people watched it.

Friend of mine loved it and has been reading all the books - in German- but I haven’t really latched onto it yet.

Trapped is excellent - sent me down a rabbithole of grim Scandi-et-al crime dramas for a long while after but this one really was one of the best of them for me. Olafur Olafsson is so good!

Loved Babylon Berlin SO much. They’re doing a second season apparently.

Babylon Berlin mostly hooked me for how well-studied the look was. That whole thing of dressing up but still looking sweaty & desperate is very specific & they pulled it off amazingly well. Plus lots of Bryan Ferry Orchestra :D

Trapped is pretty much perfect VG, I agree, and it really is better than most. I've got the second season lined up. Love me some grim Nordic viewing in the summertime.

i have started watching "The Could’ve-Gone-All-the-Way Committee," alternatively translated from the Japanese as "The Almost Got Laid Committee." In each episode, a guy (I think they're all guys) comes before the three-member committee, comprising a karate master, a businesswoman, and a rock star in a floppy hat, and tells them about a time he almost got laid. The committee investigates and rules on whether or not he could've.

okay that sounds like a dream I've had

the only way that could be more ilxor-bait was if it was called The So-Not-Gonna-Happen Committee

I'm sold on it just by the poster

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTdiOWE5ZmMtZTk4MC00ZTMzLWIzYjUtZmY2NjE1NWYzYzJhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjY2OTU0MTg@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,705,1000_AL_.jpg

Money Heist is very good, even though season 2 is approaching Breaking Bad levels of ridiculous brinksmanship. Subtitles are very bad, clearly produced by a non-native speaking robot.

El Ministerio del Tiempo is goofy fun, I'm only 3 episodes in but so far it seems more light soap opera than high stakes drama, even when they were actually plotting to kill Hitler. Doesn't look so good, ep 2 in particular looks like it was shot at ISO 256000.

I watch Money Heist with the subtitles and dub on (I don't know if that is different for everyone) and it's weird how they don't match.

Even with the ridiculousness, I still love it. I want another season.

^ just reached the end of season 3 cliffhanger, noooooooo!

Marianne, the French horror series, is very silly and enjoyable half way through.

I only watched the first ep and it really was terribly silly. Is it worth continuing? Found it hard to take it seriously tbh.

i've started MYTHOMANIAC, abt a small-town french family who are likeable enough (if v neurotic) except they have webbed themselves into a net of mutual lies

3rd series of OCCUPIED is up

for some reason i didn't register FLAVORFUL ORIGINS with this thread last year: second series is now up, 15-min eps, a fabulously filmed and extremely addictive chinese-made guide to regional chinese cuisine and ingredients, with a weirdly written or translated english voice-over, so far set in chaoshan and yunnan provinces

I’ve started watching Gogol on Amazon Prime, which is a deeply silly, but entertaining, cross between Sleepy Hollow and Penny Dreadful.

The Platform (originally 'El Hoyo' in Spanish) is decent if you like dark, dystopian sci-fi/horror type things. Its social commentary may not be the most original, but it's pretty well executed all round and nicely shot and acted.

Spanish language read probably best for after you watch it: https://www.espinof.com/criticas/hoyo-que-alegoria-social-mordaz-satira-voracidad-humana

I was wondering about this. I put it on my list to watch but I hadn't heard anything about it. (watching new season of Money Heist.

A friend suggested it, with a not for the squeamish proviso (which I'd reiterate), so my partner & I gave it a go last weekend and both enjoyed it. It's not spectacular, but worth its 90 minutes or so, if you're in the mood for that kind of darker thing.

yeah, i am not squeamish at all. But I don't want to be really disappointed by the ending which is what ends up happening with a lot of things that I have watched recently in that spirit (High-Rise, El Bar).

that weird cam-girl horror? thing on netflix.

i watch quite a lot of k drama but i'm always dubious about the translations. is "punk" really the go to insult in korea? lot of "you rascal" and "gosh" as well.

anyway the lead actress in 'My Love From Another Star' is really good at comedic scenes.

The Platform was pretty fun except for a few short scenes of ultra-violence. Social commentary was both far too on-the-nose and (by the end) confused, it's much more rewarding to just take this things literally, i.e. it's a film about a prison hundreds of storeys high where prisoners can only eat the leftovers from the cells above them - that's it. No other readings required.

Betaal, the new series from the makers of Ghoul / Blumhouse, seems pretty good so far. Fascist Indian police vs the zombie remnants of a imperial British battalion.

the first episode of 'It's Okay To Not Be Okay' really blew me away. beautifully shot, ridiculously stylish lead character, much more serious and i guess ambitious than I was expecting and a couple of lovely animated scenes. kinda bummed that i have to wait for new episodes weekly tbh.

okay episode two is good too. got even grittier and just how over the edge the lead female character is is open to even more question. also features the most incredible office chair I've ever seen plus an a + book signing outfit.

I'm enjoying 'Unit 42'. A belgian cybercrime police prodcedural thing.

i finally and extremely belatedly got round to bingeing ENGRENAGE/SPIRAL, all eight series

just three series if they edited out the words merde, putain and pute

Looks like I'll never get to watch a whole series on the platform

I don't think anyone's surprised by this, and pouring millions into transphobic comedy specials to court controversy was hardly a longterm solution, couple that with the price increases that offer no additional value, and the compounding cancellations that led to viewer apathy... https://t.co/XMHnHQui82

— Sleepy Sloth (@CaseyExplosion) April 20, 2022

be more interested in this off-the-cuff laziest of tweet-takes if it in any way addressed netflix as a platform for non-english-material

(or perhaps less parochially as a successful platform for cross-linguistic consumption)

this thread features a more interesting thesis (material non-english if you stretch a point lol)

from the replies it seems like the main thrust of this criticism is that that one viking show has a woman in it https://t.co/qjmaA7RwuR

— flglmn (@flglmn) April 20, 2022

Would subscribe.

Netflix should have a feature where if you are browsing the menu for more than 10 minutes it just starts showing RoboCop

— rubot (@rubot) April 20, 2022

heres how you fix netflix. if theres a movie that netflix doesnt have you put in a request on the forums and then if someone has the movie, they upload it so that now its available

— suncoast employee in button up flame shirt (@gun_toucher) April 20, 2022

not noticed this thread before.

watched all the bbc4 things except montalbano which never clicked with me.

More 4 has ok to good Walter Presents stuff every week too, currently Crimson Rivers (french)

would always laugh at spiral because they seemingly had one shot a week just designed to shock. dead prostitute in a skip, dead baby, head in fireplace and the scene with the drug mule they gave laxatives to...

Not series, but still.

80% of what I watch on Netflix is non-English-language action trash. I do not give the tiniest fuck about their original content; gimme 90 minutes of Indonesian dudes kicking, stabbing and shooting each other and you've earned my $15 for the month. https://t.co/kympWdiNCT

— burning ambulance (NOW A RECORD LABEL!) (@burn_amb) April 20, 2022

Quite an option interesting piece (though a bit long) on showrunning and how that's changing because of streaming.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxeze/television-is-in-a-showrunning-crisis

Though it's good that 20+ ep seasons are shortening, in the main..

Recently:
Dead Water: Finnish ... felt a bit like The Bridge and The Killing ...
Capitani: season 2 is quite different from season 1

Gloria -- Portuguese; set in 1968; I really am liking it (2 more episodes to go) ... it makes me want to ask Daniel_Rf a bunch of questions about politics!

Haven't seen! My Portuguese netflix knowledge revolves mainly about the upcoming series about that time a shipload of cocaine sunk near the island I lived on and everyone went coke crazy for a few years (my mum ran a club at the time and all the musicians turned insufferable).

Happy to answer any questions :)

oh, the show is a spy thriller where the main character is a KGB agent and son of a government minister. The main character Joao appears to have been "converted" after serving in the military in Angola ... so there are issues re colonialism, and Portuguese "independence" from American influence ... like there are KGB agents, CIA agents, and PICE (?) agents?

Salazar is the head of the government -- I think you mentioned something about him in another thread -- re the revolution?

as in I have questions about historical background lol, not the show!

There was a military coup in the 1920's and Portugal basically stayed a dictatorship from then until 1974. Salazar first made a name for himself as the finance minister and then rose to become head of state, ushering in the Estado Novo regime, initially very much aligned with Hitler and Mussolini but this aspect got phased out a bit in the regime's public presentation when WWII erupted and Portugal decided to stay neutral (many ppl will still bring this up as a point in Salzar's favour, though personally I think "yeah we're sitting this one out" is a morally indefensible stance to take on that particular conflict). Cultivated the image of an austere, frugal, religious man - his most famous quote is "if you knew how hard it is to lead, you'd be happier to obey".

He actually died a few years before the revolution - famously fell of a chair, which is awesome because any online interaction with a Portuguese facist can be concluded by just posting a chair. His successor, Marcelo Caetano, promised democratic reforms (primavera marcelista) but failed to follow through on that, ultimately leading to the Carnation Revolution (but that might be spoilers!).

The Portuguese Communist Party was for decades the only real resistance to Salazar. Very much aligned with the Soviet Union, as most communist parties in Europe were. They're still around, and a bigger party than you'd think, though their voter base is very much aged. I have...complicated feelings about them, they def fucked up on a lot of social issues for a long time and the fealty to Moscow was often indefensible. But anyone living in Portugal now owes them a debt, innumerable stories of bravery and intelligence in the face of an absolutely horrid regime.

The colonial war really kicked off in the early 60's, though before that Portugal had already lost colonies in India. But what's viewed as the Colonial War in Portuguese ppl's mindsets was the conflict against liberation movements in Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde and above all Angola. The many many lives lost in these were the defining factor in bringing about the revolution, so one could say without much exageration that Portugal also owes its freedom to the liberation movements of these African countries.

Relationship with the US is tricky...the US knew the main opponents of Salazar were the commies, and obv preferred a fascist to a communist. That being said around the same time the liberation movements sprung up there were motions from the US in the UN for Portugal to give up its colonies, which caused a lot of friction obv. This was of course not only due to postcolonial solidarity but also because the US wanted stronger access to those countries, Angola in particular being v rich in natural resources. Pretty much every liberation guerrila in any Portuguese colony was funded either by the CIA or the KGB, as these things go. Salazar reacted by trying to rebrand the colonies as not colonies at all but rather part of Portugal - thus the famous slogan "Portugal is not a small country".

thank you! this is the exact context I was hoping for! All of these things are alluded to or play a part in the plot of this series. ... In the previous episode I watched Salazar had had an "accident" (lol at the chair) and there was a new leader. The PICE, as represented in the show, are horrible and make the CIA people look humanitarian.

also watched: Unpermitted Living - Spanish - organized crime patriarch with alzheimers - and issues of succession. The first season is pretty compelling, lots of melodrama, no one is 100% horrible except for Freddy the upstart Colombian drug dealer, and then the relatives that show up near the end who were living in Mexico ... it made me interested in perceptions/biases of European Spain vs. Latin American Spanish ... I started watching the 2nd season and it started out with a few ridiculous things happening, so I stopped watching it.

The PIDE were the secret police, just basically the Gestapo of the regime. Very adept at torture, just the worst scum.

The only reason the Carnation Revolution had a death toll at all was the director of the PIDE saw a crowd outside and just fired into it at random.

Very adept at torture, just the worst scum.

so this show's version is a fairly accurate portrayal

I’ve been kinda wiped out on the feel-bad organized crime shows, I stopped watching Gomorrah which is objectively well-done but the characters are such abhorrent ppl that I feel like I get the point. Got to that point w ZeroZeroZero too which looked amazing and had some great acting but it lost me by the end.

Mostly been sticking w/Engrenages, Stranger, and Entrapped.

I fucking loved Au Service de la France, but it's not on netflix anymore.

I think I am 4 seasons behind on Engranages ...