My Brilliant Friend

 
 I did an original review of the first three seasons of the HBO distributed series in  Feb 2023. The fourth and final season (The Story of the Lost Child) released this year has just concluded. The entire series spanning four years of production time.  Carrying on from the previous seasons the story continues the complex and sometimes tortured relationship between Elenor Grecco (Alba Rohrwacher) and Raffaella Cerulla (Irene Maiorino).  Elenor being the narrator and writer of their lives together. It’s a lifetimes story spanning their childhood into their old age. A vast complex detailed telling. The Tv productions being faithful to the original four volume set of books. What prevents this from being a giant soap opera, is the skill and authenticity of the original writing by Ferranti and the wisdom of the directors for following that writing so closely and  the actors for bringing their efforts to the screen with such riveting performances.

468 stars

 

At the end of his tour of Italy James May the British TV presenter gave a summation of his impressions of the country, He goes on to list that in spite of its chaotic political system, it’s unfathomable civil service its almost complete disorganization as a country in the nordic sense. But because of its many other attributes.  The food, wine, breathtaking scenery and history, unparalleled art, warmth of its people and general dolce vita ethos. The fact that the words ‘made in Italy’ add value to almost any modern manufactured item. Even its detractors who sneer and joke about the entire archipelago would secretly like to be Italian. I count myself amongst the people who would like to have come from that odd shaped piece of property sticking into the Mediterranean. Which brings me in a very Italian round about way to the TV police series:

The investigations of Lolita Lobosco

After a long period of work in the North, Deputy prosecutor  Lolita Lobosco returns to  Bari her hometown on the Adriatic coast in southern Italy.  In a world stubbornly ruled by males, Lolita chooses to remain herself without repressing her charm and beauty, indeed she uses these qualities to establish herself and fight prejudices. Freely based on Gabriella Genisi’s books. 

The backbone of the series like the dozens of other programs of this genre if fairly prosaic. A murder an investigation a solution. The thing that sets this series apart is the afore mentioned ‘made in Italy’ component. Shot mostly in the very picturesque seaside town of Bari our heroine Lolita (loli) Played by the striking Louisa Ranieri  and her sidekick Antonio Forte played by  Giovanni Ludeno . For Comic relief there is Esposito played by Jacopo Cullin.  All three with Lobosco in the lead set about solving misdeeds and murders in their town. Where this series differs from the others is the back story a kind of an elaborate rom com involving the whole extensive family, including Lobosco's mother Nunzia played by Lunetta Savino and her erstwhile romantic interest the sometimes bumbling greengrocer Trifoni played by Maurizio Donadoni and other neighborhood characters that most of the other series don’t delve into. The back stories are as engrossing and emotionally personal (often involving our lead actor) as the crime aspect. An ongoing story line is the death of Lobosco’s father early on in the series which forever haunts her, and is intent of finally solving.  Helping the cohesiveness, all the actors seem perfectly cast in their roles. You won’t have heard of any of them, its all there on the screen. Despite the crime aspect its mostly fun and romance, which is what sets this series apart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bear.

A  low level beef sandwich shop in the River North district of Chicago recently run by his deceased (by suicide) brother Michael.  Inefficient, chaotic, run by a chronically dysfunctional crew barely making a go of it. This is the world that Carmen Berzetto returns to after his years of training and work in Michelin- starred restaurants around the world. Having to deal with the chaos in every area that his brother has left behind. The staff headed by “Ritchie”, deceased Michaels best friend and completely unqualified manager.  Fiercely resisting and resentful of Carmens every move to modernize and upgrade the operation, simply adding to the turmoil. Hiring a young talented chef Sydney Adamu to be sous-chef exacerbates the tensions as a new level of authority is introduced. Trying to conquer these competing demands takes up a good portion of season one. Wearing down the obsessive “Carmy” with repeated fights, screaming matches and swearing, as in any stereotypical Italian family. This gets exhausting to watch after a while. There are many multiple setbacks which fleshes the story out in season two.Carmy persists and despite his own personal demons and private traumas, towards his ultimate goal of opening up a new restaurant. Slowly, painfully carves this iceberg into an elegant sculpture. The episodes get better as the season progresses. Thanks to (once again) The writers; Christopher Storer. Who also created the series.Matty Matheson, Will Guidara, Joanna Callo and Alex Russel.
The tent pole that holds this whole thing up is
Jeremy Allen White  as the bedeviled Carmen
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie the mesmerizing  thorn in Carmens side.
Ayo Edebiri as Sydney the gifted Sous-Chef.
The rest of the substantial supporting cast are all top rate helping round out what ends up being a well worth compelling personality realistically presented study in people under sometimes extreme insane pressure. Proof of the award winning pudding (sorry soufflé) is season three is about too be released and season four is planned.
 

 

 

 

 Three Body Problem.

This monster Chinese TV  science fiction tale was released to huge acclaim in China in 2023.  30 episodes in length (all with subtitles) is not for the faint of heart. Taken from an an epic three volume set of novels by Liu Cxin  The recipient of many science fiction awards it was hugely successful in China. The English translation was the first to receive a Hugo and Nebula award by an asian writer. Set against the turbulence of the cultural revolution  Ye Wenjie an astrophysics graduate sees her father a teacher beaten to death by the Red Guard. Sentenced to prison for her protests Ye is recruited by the military to work on a secret project to use high powered radio waves to damage spy satellites a technology far behind  what the USA and USSR are working on. Its real mission turns out to be a clandestine search for extraterrestrial life. Ye discovers that  by using the sun to amplify the outgoing radio waves success is more likely but tells no one.  Eight years later through her contacts she is told  that a message has been received from a planet in Alpha Centuri warning her not to respond or the inhabitants of Trisolaris will be able to calculate the earths location and invade. Ye responds anyway inviting the aliens to come to earth and settle its problems. Murdering her two co workers in order to keep the alien massage secret. The cat is out of the bag. By responding to the aliens message  Ye has set in motion a series of irreversible events which as the news spreads to various factions of humanity is responded to in predictably chaotic uncoordinated manner. This is just a brief historical synopsis of  the plot line It continues. In the present day a nanotechnology professor Wang is asked by the police to help with the investigations of the suicides of several prominent  scientists including Ye’s daughter. A meeting between Wang and Ye reveals people playing a sophisticated Virtual Reality game called Three Body.  The game portrays a planet whose climate randomly flips between Stable and Chaotic Eras. During Chaotic Eras, the weather oscillates unpredictably between extreme cold and extreme heat, sometimes within minutes. This unstable unpredictable atmosphere spells doom for the Trisolarans and their planet.   The game shows them building and launching colony ships to invade Earth, believing that the stable orbit will allow unprecedented prosperity and let them escape the destruction of their home.  Still not the end, which I will not reveal.The intricacies of the books plot are carried unsullied in excruciating detail into the Chinese TV production, hence the thirty episodes. Shot in weird 1960’s color gives the series and appropriately dated look. None of the actors will be recognizable although their performances especially Ye Wen Jie outstandingly played by Chen Jin and Edward Zhang playing Wang Miao and the police officer played byYu He Wei are all solid.
Then of course there is the the American adaptation. From the creators of Game of Thrones. As to be expected it is shorter (eight episodes) slicker, sexier and the effects are way more spectacular than in the Chinese version. Also a huge amount of the story is in the trash bucket. Probably, with good reason Benioff, Weiss and Woo decided that a US audience would not sit still for thirty episodes or anything near it. The casting is odd and inconsistent but dealing with such a truncated plot line took its toll. Rosalind Chao plays the adult Ye Wenjie, Benedict Wong plays the intrepid detective Da Shi.  The lead women actors. Jess Hong, Eiza Gonzales are far too good looking to be taken seriously in they roles. Liam Cunningham as the evil industrialist and Johnathon Price as the crackpot environmentalist are just thrown in for gravitas that neither achieve. As you can tell I think this version was just a money grab. Substituting glam for drama.  Glomming on to the much more authentic and compelling original Chinese tale. It’s not an entire bust though bits of the original story still poke through. My advice is to get a trashcan size tub of popcorn a case of your favorite soda and sit through the 30 episode version.

 Baby Reindeer.

In this compellingly gloomy tale  Donny Dunn the lead character played by and starring Richard Gadd adapted from his autobiographical one man show. A terrible but aspiring comedian. Working in a pub as a bartender, to barely finance his life.  One day a distraught Martha, brilliantly played by Jessica Gunning, a former lawyer with a criminal past, walks in sitting at the bar. Offering a cup of tea which she cannot pay for is the beginning of their nightmarish relationship.  She begins coming to the pub daily becoming increasingly obsessed with him and begins to inundate his account with texts and emails as well as attending the few show he’s able to perform. As her obsession spins out of control she harasses Teri, his trans therapist girlfriend, who Donny met online, sometimes violently, as well as any attempt by Donny to end the relationship.There is a segment that is quite telling about the inner workings of Donny's life. During one of his disastrous stand up routines he has a breakdown in front of the stone faced audience and veers off into stunningly sad diatribe about his own life failings and confusions. An audience member records the whole performance, posts it online and in the queen of all ironies Donny becomes a media star boosting his non existent career into visibility he'd never dreamed of. This however only exacerbates the Martha problem.  In the midst of this mayhem Donny meets Darrien O’conner a TV writer who offers him career advice and work opportunities but actually only delivers during drug induced blackouts sexual assault. Donny finally during a moment of clarity leaves. They meet up years later agreeing reluctantly to renew their work collaboration. Finally Donny is able to report Martha to the police, she is arrested, pleads guilty and spends nine months in prison. A musical comedy this is not. The subject matter is desperate and bleak with no real redeeming message other than be careful who you buy a cup of tea for. It is only the acting and authenticity of the story that make a viewer continue watch all the episodes until the end.

 

 Hacks.
            Of all the genres available, comedy is the most fraught and difficult. That is why sensible and smart people seldom try and create it and far fewer succeed, those who do become legends and stars. In this new streaming series starring Jean Smart playing a legendary Las Vegas comedian  Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as her unlikely much younger comedy writer Ava, hired to reinvigorate Vance's career. As always it is the writers Lucia Aniello, Paul Downs, and  Co Creator Jan Statsky that have made this gem possible. But it would be all for naught if it were not for the brilliant Jean Smart, as Vance. Not known for her comedy chops throughout her long acting career she comes across as a consummate natural. It is Smart injecting the deadly combination of steely unrepentant professionalism barely covering a core of vulnerability and hurt in the brassy fun loving take no prisoners Vance that makes this series so watchable . Her exploitative relationship with her protoge/mentor is fraught and sometimes hostile hiding the mutual respect and affection the two have for each other. Now in its third and best season so far it shows what can happen when truly gifted people come together with the goal of making the rest of us laugh.

After working for over twenty years as a director of research at a wall street investment management company, Amor Towles turned his considerable talents to writing. His second effort, a startlingly effective tale. A Gentleman in Moscow, now turned into a streaming series starring Ewan McGregor. Set against the real events of the Bolshevik revolution, this fictional tale tells the story of a Count Rostov spared the death sentence by the new regime but condemned to live the rest of his days inside the luxurious Metropol Hotel (a real Moscow hotel where the story is set).  The penalty for leaving the building being death.  Making the most of his sentence gives the resourceful McGregor plenty of room for his satisfyingly effective performance, and the tale its body. The gloomily romantic visual style helps the authentic look of the series, and given the historical background of the story indicates that things will not end well. With a solid supporting cast, this tale while not as sharp as the book is well worth the time spent watching.