mrfrane

I wasn't really prepared for this show, based on the cast and the producer, and for me it took several episodes to really get me engaged. It's not laugh out loud funny or zany, but it's warm and engaging. If you're a geezer, it's as if it was written for us. So much honesty buried in an unlikely mystery.

Lots of familiar faces, from recent shows and from years past. And welcome cameos from the showrunner's history. Ted Danson is always a marvel, whether he's a buffoon, a villain, or sympathetic professor who needs to get back in the world. Stephanie Beatriz is so not. Rosa Diaz it's astonishing. I have no idea where Mary Elizabeth Ellis came from but she is brilliant.

I do not understand the negativity here about. I do have my suspicions but I hope I'm wrong. I found the movie wildly entertaining so maybe non-stop action is not popular. The family can get annoying with the chanting but they clearly do it out of love. I encountered Blue Beetle in the animated DC shows so maybe I just had a clearer idea of the origin story.

The whole Blue Beetle origin story is weird, true. There is a mystic element plus alien element that makes for an unusual mix in a comic book and maybe I had a head start with the story, so I can more easily appreciate the unique character. Also, I'm old enough to just let go when comic stories get crazy. Maybe some of the reviewers could stand to go back and watch the movie again, maybe without mentioning it to any of their friends who hated it. I don't know. But the reactions here don't make any sense to me.

I don't know the first thing about Brazil or Paraguay or the complexities of the region between the two countries, so I won't pretend to define this show as "authentic." But I was hooked from the beginning and all the way through the entire series because the characters were beautifully drawn and superbly acted and the complexity of the story was fascinating.

My only real confusion is what communication is like on the border of the two countries. It's a Brazilian production and naturally focused on that country and its language but Paraguay (I thought) is Spanish-speaking and Brazilians (I thought) spoke a version of Portuguese. I know a teeny bit of Spanish and Portuguese may as well be Greek to me. Yet there never seems to be any question of how the police forces of the two countries communicate. Is everyone in the region fluent in both, so that it's not an issue? I can only reference Nordic police shows when communicating with Finnish police requires anyone from a Scandinavian country to fall back on English (of all things) as a Lingua Franca. I may just be American Ignorant here but I wouldn't mind a little help.

I would definitely watch more stories with these characters and this production company. I do hope there is more in the pipeline and that I don't miss it if/when it appears.