Clona

Flawed, but I liked it

Okay. First the negatives. The Lens is a very simple series with simple storytelling. You're not going to see any twists. You'll find yourself thinking, "Oh. a closeup of the guy with the tattoo. I wonder if he did it," The setup for the first episode made me think there was going to be a story arc through the series, but then they wrapped it up in the last few minutes and I'm left thinking, "oh, they're gonna really make it that simple?" If this were a UK drama, I'd probably be giving it 2 or 3 out of 10. It's also a bit hard to relate too much our main character. He seems too much like a student who's only in the Police because his dad got him the job - which IS essentially what happens. Okay to watch at first, but when he's messed up for the hundredth time you start to wonder why anyone would even want him around.

But I found myself watching the whole series of The Lens. The fact that it was a Czech drama made it interesting. If you took away the modern phones and cars, and it was in English, I would swear I was watching a drama series from the early 90s: People smoking inside public buildings, the style of the clothes and the buildings, the feel - Everything. Does modern-day Prague feel and look like 90's Britain? You'll have to ask someone who's been there whether this is all a stylistic choice or reality. I found I had to remind myself several times that this is set in present-day Prague and it's not 20 years old.

I found myself watching for just the general weird cultural differences. Episode 1 involves a scene where father and son go to a pub and get drunk IN THEIR POLICE UNIFORM and fall in their home legless - Something that would get them the sack from any UK police force probably from the inception of the idea of having a police force. Then contrast that with later scenes where the Czech police seem highly professional and working at a high standard.

This Czech lead was in a terrible BBC show RAW- that lasted 4 season- he was on about 1-1/2 yrs. I half watched, bec it was in English, and it didn't require much attn. whereas, French I have to listen and others I have to read. I can't say I like him. He is "cute" like a puppy, and boyish.

At a time when there is so much bad TV and movies, including indie and foreign, as well as US, Aussie & British , there is more and more unwatchable shows. This is not the golden age of TV even if a few good original shows. Czech can be very artistic, and creative filmmakers- 1960s they made 2 really good films- that were distributed here- before on line streaming. it's not the worse; not the best, but watchable for the most part.

He becomes enamored of a pretty Redhead police woman. As one of his colleagues advises him: Get a hobby. Everyone is in love with Nikola. They mention it in the blurb- This is like having a crush on the most popular girl in school, or Pam Anderson, or whomever is today's hot crush. Who wouldn't, She is coy and demur when asked out- really, a Czech Police woman, bec she is cute redhead- not a burly man-man. So this plot line is really silly. that is the caliber of this show. the writing could really use some improvement- as I said, there are very talented Czech, so don't be fooled. Also, everyone still smokes everywhere- at least hey aren't drinking and driving.

A crime drama series without supernatural forces is always a sound choice for me - I have never "dropped out" in the middle. However, I am really unaware when I saw a Czech film or series last time - apparently not this century... But thanks to redirect options within IMDb, I decided to find time for Clona - and I am contented I did.

I have visited Prague once, and it is one of the most beautiful cities I have been, but this series did not include beautiful panoramas, but shabby areas and unpleasant wrongdoers. In a way, a realistic world of police, without both luxury cars/clothing and officers resembling models - as we often see in U.S. police series... I started to like the atmosphere, and seemingly famous Czech actors provided decent performances (particularly Kryštof Hádek as Roman and Vica Kerekes as Nikola), with each character having his or her troubles. True, there were some clichés and links to more known series, but - it is no HIV or cancer medicine requiring totally new approach and effect... And a certain scene with 2 pairs of feet in a shower was really splendid.

Therefore, bearing in mind the number of episodes and the country of origin, I can easily give 8 points, and I will have my eyes open for similar productions coming from Central Europe.

This is a commendable effort from the Czech Republic. It's not to the standard of TV productions from its wealthier European neighbors but it is entertaining and does manage to hold the viewers' interest. It's obviously low budget, and this shows in some of the stunts and rapidity with which the story is solved. There are a few episodes where the editing seems to put the scenes out of sequence, and this lack of continuity does make it difficult to follow the plot. In other episodes, the conclusion is just a little too abrupt, giving one the impression that maybe too much time was spent on previous scenes and the ending scenes had to be compressed to fit the episode into the allotted time slot. I would imagine that if there are later seasons for the series that lessons would have been learned on how this may be corrected. The fact that one no longer sees in North American series, much heavy tobacco use that one sees in many European films and TV series, it's difficult for an audience from the USA or Canada to understand that heavy smoking in public places is still quite commonplace in many European countries! Overall, it's an entertaining and enjoyable series if the cultural context is taken into account.