Cape Town

A star rating of 7 at this time?? How can this be? I ask. Cape Town is possibly the worst miniseries I have ever watched, and a huge disappointment for me, as a big fan of all Deon Meyer's novels. I wrongly believed that a series based on one of his books could not fail. I was also looking forward to seeing a South African offering. If Cape Town is any benchmark, their television industry needs another 50 years of evolution.

I have been sitting here trying to find some redeeming feature and/or something positive to say. Alas I can't! (Other than that the two lead actors were very easy on the eye.) In terms of production, some things were JUST adequate, nothing whatsoever was done well. Somewhat surprisingly, very little use was made of the beautiful Cape scenery.

Overall the acting was stiff and amateurish; one or two of the female actors gave creditable performances, but not one of the men was believable. As for the accents of the two non-South African lead actors...these were not even close to an attuned ear. Boris Kodjoe was significantly better at everything than his Norwegian partner, Seim. My view is that South African actors would have been a far better choice.

I don't recall the book being so difficult to follow. As a TV story, it's just too convoluted to work. The producers could have (and should have) left out half the pretty much irrelevant subplots, which did nothing more than distract and confuse.

Anyway, no point analysing it any further...it just sucked. I hope Deon Meyer doesn't let this production team anywhere NEAR his Benny Griessel novels.

I'm a fan of Trond Espen Seim and really like his performance as Mat Joubert. The frustration and his inner conflict are very well acted and make me believe the pain he is going through. I've seen him in Varg Veum and was caught by his acting right away. He is even better now in Cape Town! I also really enjoyed the performance of Boris Kodjoe, who I haven't seen in any film or TV series before. The uneven couple works quite good. Sanctus Snook, who is an elite cop, very straight and correct, on the one side and Mat Joubert, who has a drinking problem, is overweight and not so correct, on the other side. The series is a well known and proved crime concept and even though the first episode is a bit slow, I got hooked in the second episode. The cliffhanger at the end of that second episode made me jump right into the next one and enjoy the rest of the series. All in all, a good and entertaining crime show with suspense, action and some funny lines.

Based on Deon Meyer's novel "Dead before Dying", this series should have had enough going for it to come out tops. Unfortunately due to a rather disastrous screen-play and some extremely amateur acting it has become a prime belly flopper. The two actors in the main roles are Norwegian and Austrian. Both attempt to imitate South African accents (and very red-necked ones too). Kodjoe is probably more successful but Seim never manages to get rid of his Norwegian accent and his line about growing up in Goodwood was just not credible. Both of them seemed to be in the wrong country, wrong series. And that is where the credibility issue of this series begins and falls. Continuity in the camera work was another problem. Constant interpolation of random shots of areas in and around Cape Town were constantly thrown in for no reason and only served to make this confused screen-play even more nonsensical. Most of the South African acting is awfully staid and artificial (the embarrassing scene with the neighbors commenting on Drew Wilson's homosexuality was a typical example). Good camera work (Cape Town is always wonderful to look at) but the screen play is confused, drawn out and suspense is almost non-existent.

I have to say that I was absolutely bound by this new crime mini-series. Of course it is not reinventing the wheel, but it tells an exciting story in a very dynamic way. There are several plot lines / crime cases connected, and the suspense is increasing bit by bit until the surprising finale, when all the loose ends come together. Maybe a bit conventional at some points, but quite entertaining! The drinking and overweight police captain, mourning after his dead wife, surely is a well-known character in the crime genre. Anyway, I think the role is very well interpreted by Seim, who gives it all the pessimism and self-doubts it needs. I really liked the various characters and the multiculti cast - especially the Polish Dorocinski playing the junkie coming clean. The hair and make-up stylists may have overdone their work a bit with the female actors… you won't see these loads of eyeshadow and rouge in a U.S. or European series. The city of Cape Town looks stunning in this show and the camera work is really high-quality! Well done altogether.

Cape Town has cleverly incorporates the tone and intrigue of Nordic noir and then drenches it in African light. The cinematography is gorgeous and the series stands up well against far more expensive Hollywood productions. Trond Espen Seims was well chosen as MAT Joubert despite the challenges of the South African accent and he deftly navigates the brutal physicality of the character in stark contrast to his internal turmoil and fragile emotional state. Cape Town's strength is in character detail and care has been taken in every supporting role. This is an ambitious series which gets stronger with each episode. Lovers of clever crime stories and intriguing characters will find much to enjoy.