Cape town

I'm a fan of Trond Espen Seim and really like his performance as Mat Joubert. The frustration and his inner conflict are very well acted and make me believe the pain he is going through. I've seen him in Varg Veum and was caught by his acting right away. He is even better now in Cape Town! I also really enjoyed the performance of Boris Kodjoe, who I haven't seen in any film or TV series before. The uneven couple works quite good. Sanctus Snook, who is an elite cop, very straight and correct, on the one side and Mat Joubert, who has a drinking problem, is overweight and not so correct, on the other side. The series is a well known and proved crime concept and even though the first episode is a bit slow, I got hooked in the second episode. The cliffhanger at the end of that second episode made me jump right into the next one and enjoy the rest of the series. All in all, a good and entertaining crime show with suspense, action and some funny lines.

A star rating of 7 at this time?? How can this be? I ask. Cape Town is possibly the worst miniseries I have ever watched, and a huge disappointment for me, as a big fan of all Deon Meyer's novels. I wrongly believed that a series based on one of his books could not fail. I was also looking forward to seeing a South African offering. If Cape Town is any benchmark, their television industry needs another 50 years of evolution.

I have been sitting here trying to find some redeeming feature and/or something positive to say. Alas I can't! (Other than that the two lead actors were very easy on the eye.) In terms of production, some things were JUST adequate, nothing whatsoever was done well. Somewhat surprisingly, very little use was made of the beautiful Cape scenery.

Overall the acting was stiff and amateurish; one or two of the female actors gave creditable performances, but not one of the men was believable. As for the accents of the two non-South African lead actors...these were not even close to an attuned ear. Boris Kodjoe was significantly better at everything than his Norwegian partner, Seim. My view is that South African actors would have been a far better choice.

I don't recall the book being so difficult to follow. As a TV story, it's just too convoluted to work. The producers could have (and should have) left out half the pretty much irrelevant subplots, which did nothing more than distract and confuse.

Anyway, no point analysing it any further...it just sucked. I hope Deon Meyer doesn't let this production team anywhere NEAR his Benny Griessel novels.

Cape Town has cleverly incorporates the tone and intrigue of Nordic noir and then drenches it in African light. The cinematography is gorgeous and the series stands up well against far more expensive Hollywood productions. Trond Espen Seims was well chosen as MAT Joubert despite the challenges of the South African accent and he deftly navigates the brutal physicality of the character in stark contrast to his internal turmoil and fragile emotional state. Cape Town's strength is in character detail and care has been taken in every supporting role. This is an ambitious series which gets stronger with each episode. Lovers of clever crime stories and intriguing characters will find much to enjoy.

As a huge fan of Scandinavian crime I came across this show starring Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. What struck me right away was the prototypical basic constellation I've seen so many times before in Swedish or Danish crime series: the broken and guilt-ridden investigator who has to delve into the past in order to not only solve his current case, but to restore his reputation and regain his original strength as a detective. This concept is neither new nor very exiting, but it works just fine. What sets this show apart from Scandinavian ones is the exotic and beautiful setting of Cape Town. DoP Florian Schilling does a great job photographing this dream destination. The actors' performance, however, is less convincing. I see why the creators chose Seim: in his physique, he just IS Mat Joubert. Sad, tired, out of shape – but charismatic. Unfortunately, his Norwegian accent is very obvious and I found it to be quite irritating. Boris Kodjoe, by contrast, masters the challenge of the foreign accent pretty well. Shame that his range as an actor is quite limited. Nevertheless, I'd recommend watching CAPE TOWN for its high production value, its unique atmosphere and its solid narrative.

There are some really terrible reviews for this series and I don't think it's at all bad. The story is good, acting ok without being memorable and locations/filming pretty good.

All in all definitely a 7 in my view. The comments about bad accents I simply don't understand. It's South Africa for god's sake. What do they expect ?!