Pantano

If you are watching from Neflix, ensure to watch from the beginning of each episode as for a certain reason Netflix skips the beginning as if it was a Recap and actually it gives key elements of the story. The subtitles are terrible. I usually prefer to watch in original language but I realized there was a lot of flaws, so I switched quickly to English audio and it was better.

This is top notch- not to be faulted on any front. Beautifully shot, wonderfully acted and directed. The storytelling is utterly impressive: each scene builds anticipation and you end up watching actively, with many mysteries, small and large, to solve. What is told and not told, what must be revealed and when- these are the crucial questions that only the best writers know how to convey. And aside from that, the revelation of a moment, a cultural ethos, is outstanding. At this point in tv watching we are spoiled by easy access to fanatstic tv and drama- but this then has ended up raising standards and expectations. There are a lot of very good shows out there - few that are excellent and outstanding. This is one of the outstanding ones.

Its a good and authentic story that is well played by the actors. It's grey, yes, but that's how life were back then.

The first season of this Polish series opens in the mid-1980s with the discovery of two bodies in the forest near a minor city. One is a local senior communist official, the other a prostitute. The militia quickly make an arrest and the suspect confesses however veteran reporter Witold Wanycz has his doubts. His investigation, with the help of young editor Piotr Zarzycki, uncovers truths than others wish to keep hidden... putting them on a collision course with some very dangerous characters.

Twelve years pass before the second season starts; this means there have been major changes in Poland; most obviously the communist regime has fallen and it is now a democratic country. As the series starts the body of a boy has been discovered following a flood caused by a breeched levee. The flood has also exposed a cemetery where victims of a massacre that took place shortly after the war; few people want the truth about that incident to be revealed. Senior police officers accept that it was just a tragic accident; newly transferred Sgt Anna Jass looks at the case more closely and starts to wonder about how convenient the flood was for a new upmarket housing development. The story is picked up by Piotr, who is now editor in chief. Intertwined with this investigation we see flashbacks of what happened in the aftermath of the war and Witold's connection to it.

I really enjoyed this series. The first season nicely captured the feel of life under an oppressive regime where towing the party line mattered more than the truth. The central mystery is intriguing and doesn't always go in ways one might expect. The second season, which I enjoyed just as much, shows how many things may have changed but attitudes take longer to moderate. There are plenty of genuinely tense moments with real danger for many characters. One might think the series would be pretty grim but there are enough lighter moments to mitigate this. The cast does a really fine job; most obviously Andrzej Seweryn, Dawid Ogrodnik and Magdalena Rózczka as Witold, Piotr and Anna respectively. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of subtitled drama.

These comments are based on watching the series in Polish with English subtitles.

Living in Czechoslovakia/The Czech Republic in the 1990s so much of this rang true as far as life in this part of the world at that time. I would say they got the architecture, decore, fashion, and the way people behaved and communicated down very well, it was so much like what was still around and what I was told about (though in a different country), I saw the remenents of it, this, I would guess, was was it was really like. It was also shot and acted very well. As far as the story goes, I don't get how so many reviewers complain of being confused. There were the usual multiple threads, suspects, and gaps in the story for the viewers or protagonists to fill in. People should watch a little more closely and accept the fact that not everything is laid out for you and that things tie up, or sometimes don't, in the end. In general there was nothing flashy, the impressive thing was the everyday detail and convincing human aspect, like I said, they kept it simple in that sense, and got it right. I would hope there will be another series.