jpmist

I am shocked that this show is rated so badly. TMany of the bad reviews didn't even finish the first episode. This series is not for those who are reluctant to pay attention and simply take in what they're viewing. There are plenty of other series you can watch passively if that's your taste. So, my review is for those temped to watch and engage.

My advice is to simply focus on Rene and Mira as they are the heart of the series. It's perhaps a failing of Assayas to start by simply dropping the character of Mira into the first week of film production. There's little context here to ease the viewer in following the story to be revealed, but please be patient and you will be rewarded with Assaya's valentine to Cinema as he explores here remaking the 1999 film that changed his life.

If you get to Gottried's scenes and still want to bail, at least you gave it a fair chance, but please don't attack the production simply becuase the show wasn't to your taste. . .

My first chance at viewing this via HBO Max and am quite horrified that the English overdubs are so bad. I gave up in horror after 20 minutes with the awful translations and unintelligible Latvian characters. Then the soundtrack while often beautifully done is often intrusive and completely off in tone compared to what we're watching.

UPDATE: So I did find an Italian language version to watch that unfortunately had the exact same translation only as subtitles but somehow I could deal with that better than hearing badly accented english not in sync with their lips. I did get thru the movie and so for that at least moved my rating up to 6 stars from 4.

I ended up being very impressed with Marco D'Amore who played Ciro and also directed himself. But perhaps if another director was looking over his shoulder he might have persuaded Marco that more than 3 scenes where Ciro does nothing but glower dramatically and smoke a cigarette is far too many . . .

This series starts with the end of WWII in Sweden, We meet a family of two brothers, a sister and mother who run the formal restaurant and follow them and others thru divorces, betrayals, triumphs and scandals involving a cast of characters not quite as large as "Downton Abbey" but equally as engaging.

The cinematography beautifullly captures the vintage post WWII era similar to "The Godfather II" with very careful framing, lighting and camera movement. The production quality as well as acting is on par with any top notch Masterpiece Theatre production. It's plotting isn't as crass as "Dallas" but it's very much a family drama with triangulation conflicts every which way you can imagine. The pacing is a tad slow and languid but that gives you time to admire the sets, costumes and lighting as well as marvel at where they got all the 1950's era cars they pack the streets with during outdoor scenes.

I'm astonished I'm writing the first review of this show on this site. One month of Sundance Now is only 5 bucks and it's the best money you'll spend to watch this series. This is a very high quality show I'm going to regret finishing. I pray it goes to season 3.