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

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

sarahell, Sunday, 2 April 2023 15:45 (one year ago) link

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".

Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 2 April 2023 16:13 (one year ago) link

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.

sarahell, Sunday, 2 April 2023 16:17 (one year ago) link

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.

sarahell, Sunday, 2 April 2023 16:34 (one year ago) link

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.

Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 2 April 2023 17:37 (one year ago) link

Very adept at torture, just the worst scum.

so this show's version is a fairly accurate portrayal

sarahell, Sunday, 2 April 2023 17:40 (one year ago) link

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.

omar little, Sunday, 2 April 2023 17:59 (one year ago) link

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

Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 2 April 2023 18:18 (one year ago) link

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

sarahell, Sunday, 2 April 2023 19:26 (one year ago) link

one year passes...

it isn't on Netflix but I am gonna use this as a catch-all for non-english language series on streaming services ... would love to hear other ilxors recommendations, reviews, etc .

I just finished watching all 7 years of A French Village (occupied France during and after WW2)-- it's really good imo and relevant to current events in terms of Occupation and tactics and repression as well as history stuff.

Features Thierry Godard and Audrey F from Engranages

sarahell, Thursday, 16 May 2024 01:44 (four months ago) link

also has communists and communists having meetings! And passive-aggressively calling each other Comrade

sarahell, Thursday, 16 May 2024 01:45 (four months ago) link

Currently watching Furies on Netflix — a dumb John Wick-esque show about a woman, "the Fury," who is in charge of enforcing the bylaws of the French underworld, murdering gangsters who step out of line in order to preserve the balance of power between the six big gangster families who run Paris, or whatever. Could just as easily have posted this in my international-violent-action-trash thread. It's only eight episodes but each one feels as long as a Bela Tarr movie.

Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, 16 May 2024 02:39 (four months ago) link

Danish prison drama Prisoner (with Sofie Gråbøl) on BBC iPlayer is excellent.

bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Thursday, 16 May 2024 07:08 (four months ago) link

Really enjoying Prisoner, thanks for the recommendation

badg, Saturday, 25 May 2024 05:15 (four months ago) link

Started watching Hidden Theories (portugal) and I am somewhat confused about how banks work there

sarahell, Sunday, 26 May 2024 16:46 (four months ago) link

as posted on the other streaming thread, I started watching the Korean ad agency drama AGENCY on Netflix, and it hits a similar sweet spot as my other recent Korean fave STRANGER while being completely different. Two episodes in and it's already extremely twisty with a couple thoroughly despicable male agency execs engaging in a Succession-type war against the female lead. She's similar to one of the two leads in Stranger (Cho Seung-woo as Si-mok) in that the trauma of her childhood has informed her superficial coldness and callousness, which leads to those around her misunderstanding and underestimating her. Absolutely soapy OTT kinda stuff, I love it so far.

omar little, Thursday, 30 May 2024 19:10 (four months ago) link

Spymaster on iPlayer is familiar but not. it's another cold war spy drama set in the 70s with all the necessary retro fashions but this one is Romanian (and German and Russian and American)

koogs, Sunday, 2 June 2024 10:22 (four months ago) link

(a joint Hungarian Romanian production based on the credits)

koogs, Sunday, 2 June 2024 10:56 (four months ago) link

three months pass...

Parlement seems to be the Euro version of The Thick of It… anyone else seen it?

sarahell, Thursday, 5 September 2024 14:55 (four weeks ago) link

No, never heard of it! downloading now..

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 5 September 2024 17:46 (four weeks ago) link

two weeks pass...

Fourth and final series of My Brilliant Friend now streaming. Loving every minute of it so far, the new actresses are great and the script is as sharp as ever.

bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Tuesday, 24 September 2024 11:31 (one week ago) link


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