rbsteury

This New Zealand procedural/mystery series (4 episodes, each about 90 mins in length) follows the familiar line of a detective (Anais Mallory played by mid-30's Chelsie Preston Crayford) returning to her home town to restart her career. She previously left the area when her father was murdered by falling off a cliff and not long after her younger sister drove her car off a cliff. Yes, there are many precipices in this part of New Zealand. Each episode involves a murder case that is solved and then the longer running mystery involving her father's and sister's death runs through the 4 episodes of the series.

A plus for the series was that all of the murders were unique and pretty intriguing. Also, Mallory's four co-workers in the police station are all likable and add some humor to the episodes. (Danhu Graham is especially fun when on-screen) And there is some off/on flirtation with one of her fellow detectives as well as with a handsome, local pathologist (who basically spends all his time doing autopsies on her murder victims. The homicide rate of this village is pretty impressive.)

The title for this series makes me shake my head. I couldn't remember from one episode to the next. But the New Zealand locations were repeatedly breath-taking and they alone made the series worth watching. But the idea that the small (based on the size of its police force and the pictures of the quaint village on a lakeshore) could support all the facilities (restaurants, businesses, a robust hospital and beautiful modern buildings) is ludicrous. (I live in a small town and know first hand.)

Other than for the second episode, the murder mysteries held together logically. But the series long mystery involving her family had so many twists and turns that it was hard to keep track. And at the end of the fourth episode there were so many story lines that lead nowhere and illogical leaps of the main storyline that it was head scratching - nothing worse than the last scene which made no sense at all. Even though the series passed time the payoff was disappointing.

My wife liked the series more than me but I didn't hate it and as I said, it passed the time. But if there is a second season I doubt that I will be watching it.

The opening true stories in each episode from family members lost in this terrible chapter of medical history is heartbreaking, but it is right down the toilet from there. My spouse and I could only stomach two episodes. The idea that one all-knowing person, who appears to be a low level government investigator, knows the whole story of the dispicable Sacklers is idiotic. The frequent appearance of Arthur Sackler's ghost is bizarre. I was a family physician for 40 years and never saw a single drug company rep that resembled the characters of Britt or Shannon.

How could Matthew Broderick lower himself to be in this farce? As others have said, if you want to see a somewhat legitimate story of the disgraceful Sacklers, and all the years of work it took to bring them to some semblance of justice, watch Dopesick.

This short about a father and son living in a tiny cabin anchored on the side of an immense and icy mountain-side cliff is totally absorbing. There is no spoken word but the music is great. Father and son eke out their existence by taking ice to the village far below by jumping off their porch and parachuting down, then they come back up using a rope system. Since I am somewhat acrophobic, parts were a little difficult for me to watch (the son sitting on a swing thousands of feet above the ground - oh my!) but the basic colored line drawings were so engaging and gorgeous that one could not finish the film.

At first the ending is somewhat open to interpretation. Watching it a second and third time I picked up the hints scattered along the way as to what was happening that I had not fully grasped on my first viewing. I so appreciate being able to watch it on The New Yorker Screening Room.