Infiniti

I have to speak as I find and what I found was a series that is half in heavily-accented English. Despite the virtual impossibility of being able to follow what some of the actors were saying in that language, there were no subtitles for the English parts. I sat right by the television and it didn't help at all in many scenes.

EDIT NUMBER ONE

//The proficiency of some of the cast in English was variable. There was a couple of real stinkers. However, virtually none of the cast was what I'd call completely fluent. So often it seemed that they were reciting their lines and not acting them. Dialogue was stilted and unconvincing. This even affected those whose first language was English - or maybe they were just useless actors. //

A further disadvantage was that someone had decided to use a small off-white font for the subtitles provided for the non-English parts. Due to the terrain of Kazakhstan, vastnesses, deserts and bright sun, this meant that they often could not be read.

EDIT NUMBER TWO

//I found subs for just the English parts that I added. These were actually better than the hardcoded subs as they had a black background. So at least I was able to follow the entire plot//

Both of these defects conspired to irritate me and finally forced me to switch off. This was a shame as so many of the reviews are good.

EDIT NUMBER THREE

//So, I managed to get it all seen. I was really pleased to see Daniyar Alshinov in a leading rôle. I'd seen him in A Dark Dark Man a couple of years ago and he was just as good here. In fact, the Kazakh and Russian actors were far more convincing when speaking their own languages. Alshinov though was good in both languages having proper fluency in English.//

EDIT NUMBER FOUR

//I'd left a mark of four last time and I'm not going to change it. The plot was pretty ridiculous and the philosophical flights of fancy did not convince. I wanted to find out what happened but it was perfectly ludicrous.

Can I recommend this? Not really. //

An intriguing mix of international crime thriller and science fiction, set in the decaying "Soviet" space and nuclear testing bases in the Kazakhstan desert. Pace is a bit slow to start, and there seem to be significant plot holes, although maybe I missed things due to the lack of subtitling of heavily accented English dialogue. But if you like shows like 'Dark' and 'Outer Range', it's well worth watching for the intriguing mystery, cinematography, incredible twists in the final episode, and some great performances, notably the Kazakh cop. A bonus is seeing Céline Sallette-Julie from the brilliant 'Les Revenants'/'The Returned'-in another lead role.

Great series really. At first I had doubts because at the same time interesting, at the same time slow.

But the pace and the storyline justify watching the whole series. Don't rely on the notes of people who couldn't see it in full.

Stunningly shot with excellent performances, but very slow moving and more concerned with being ambiguous and leaving mysteries unresolved than addressing its convoluted plot. There is no satisfying ending to this genre mash-up, and it left me scratching my head in frustration as to what the hell actually happened. Too long with no actual pay off or meaningful explanation for the paradox that drives the first episode. This show gets lost in its bleak setting and smoke filled interiors, assuming that the audience will find these unusual locations compelling enough to not worry about the narrative. Perhaps the meaning we are looking for is that there's literally no meaning, and that's a bummer because there are loads of other shows out there that provide smarter and compelling resolutions to their mysteries. Sadly, this show is beautiful to look at but a complete waste of time that will make you feel cheated and angry.

I don't know whether this was an unusually high budget production for a European series in this genre, or whether the cinematographers and set crew just made strong stylistic choices allowing exceptional work within their resources, but the end result is a seamless cinematic piece of work. At various times scenes reminded me of S. O.2001 in it's sparse beauty, at other times of unusually realistic sci fi, while the terrestial action in Kazakhstan is wide screen panoramic arthouse.

The action unfolds slowly enough to allow the viewer to drink in the atmosphere of the locations and keep dialogue at a natural pace but not so slowly that it becomes art for art's sake. The narrative isn't always spelled out in all caps and if you approach it paying the same low level of attention needed for a lot of TV, you're likely to miss cues. The central conceit of the story might not necessarily be all that groundbreaking or climactic, but the execution is so good that it papers over a few cracks.

Alshinov in particular delivered a charismatic performance here, although to be fair, there's nothing sub par about the entire cast. Hopefully we'll see more of him and the team who made this production.