Then You Run

A British-German series halfway between an on-the-road thriller and a black comedy

“Then You Run” is a 2023 Sky Original series with a British-German production.

It seems like a miniseries since it has 8 episodes and is based on a novel (“You” by Zoran Drvenkar).

 

The protagonist, Tara, who lost her mother when she was just a kid, following the death of her grandmother, must move to Rotterdam to live with her father. Three of her friends and schoolmates (they are teenagers) leave for a short holiday in the Netherlands as guests at her home, but the situation quickly worsens. Upon their arrival, Tara does not answer her phone and, when they finally reach her villa, they make a macabre discovery.

Hunted by a gang of drug dealers, the four girls are forced to flee from Rotterdam to Germany and then to Norway.

To make matters worse, during their escape, they are involved in the death of someone very close to a serial killer.

 

This series is a cross between an on-the-road thriller and a black comedy.

The protagonists find themselves in the most absurd and, at times, truly ridiculous situations and, as the corpses pile up, they emerge increasingly embittered and anaesthetised to violence.

 

Once you approach the vision with a clear idea of what kind of story it is, you will enjoy the continuous twists that are completely unexpected.

The extreme nature of the violence, of the language and of the wickedness of the characters, such that they must be at least a little bad if they don't want to die badly and that those who kill innocents can easily get away with it, make it a decidedly European work and one that we could never have found among American TV products.

 

What can I say? I enjoyed watching it and remained glued to the screen until the last minute, as I had no idea what would happen in the next minute.

 

If you like the genre, I wish you a good watching!

In the Land of Saints and Sinners

A film about revenge and redemption

“In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is a film by Robert Lorenz and starring Liam Neeson.

Set in 1974 during the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, it follows the story of Finbar Murphy, a widower who leads a quiet existence in a coastal town, between drinks in the local pub, shooting competitions with his policeman friend (Ciarán Hinds) and chats with his neighbour. 

But Finbar is actually a hired killer who has had enough of this job and wants to retire. However, he will have to postpone his intention due to the arrival in the city of a group of IRA terrorists who have just committed an attack in Belfast, in which, by mistake, some children also died.
In fact, it combines a careful look at a very particular historical period, the evocative settings of the Emerald Isle and the element of action and violence linked to the theme of terrorism and the figure of the protagonist as an avenger.
The whole thing is so well measured that the result is a pleasant work that is not at all obvious in its development and conclusion.

We are used to seeing Neeson in action stories where revenge is involved, and this is probably the reason why the title “L’ultima vendetta” (The Last Revenge) was chosen in Italia (my country). “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” instead conveys much better the dramatic soul of the story and the desire for redemption with which it is impregnated. 

The result is just under two hours of great cinema, which pass in the blink of an eye as we follow the adventures of a group of flawed characters, all of them however well-constructed and credible, through a story that, once concluded, leaves the viewer with a bittersweet sense of satisfaction.

Really beautiful!

I recommend it to you.

Cult Killer

A serial killer thriller with a noir atmosphere

One of the last films I saw at the cinema was “Cult Killer” by Jon Keeyes with Antonio Banderas and Alice Eve.

This is a thriller characterised by dark noir atmospheres that shows the unlikely alliance between a female detective and a female serial killer who both have a history of abuse.

 

It’s really hard for me to tell you anything about the story without giving too much away. I myself went to the cinema after reading the short description, and I was sorry I did so because it took away the surprise relating to an event that happens right in the first part of the film.

 

Suffice it to say that its protagonist is Cassie Holt, played by Alice Eve (who you probably also remember from “Star Trek Into Darkness”), a private detective who runs, together with Mikeal Tallini, played by Banderas, an agency that sometimes collaborates with the police. Tallini saved her from alcoholism five years earlier and represents something of a father figure to her.

The film shows in parallel the investigations on the case of the serial killer and, through a series of flashbacks, the story of Cassie and Tallini, how they met, how their friendship and their working relationship developed, but also episodes of her past abuse, which had brought her to the brink of the abyss before she met the detective.

I really loved this choice, which allows us to discover little by little what happened in the past and consequently to better understand what is happening in the present.

 

It all takes place in an Ireland with evil and corrupt characters, devoid of any sense of morality and shame, proud of their wickedness, that a serial killer is slaughtering one after the other, to take revenge for the unspeakable evil that they have caused her.

In doing so, however, she accidentally kills an innocent.

And so, as mentioned, an unlikely alliance is born between a detective and a serial killer against the real villains of this story. However, it is an imperfect alliance as it is tainted by a probably unforgivable mistake.

This film contains elements that are very dear to me, including a clever use of flashbacks and the presence of main characters with a dark side, some of whom decide to embrace it while others manage to tame the monster that lives inside them.

If you like them too, I recommend you to see it at the cinema or watch it.

Old

Growing old has never been so disquieting

“Old” is a film by M. Night Shyamalan from 2021.

At the time, I went to see it at the cinema with low expectations. I simply trusted the director in the hope of having a nice afternoon.

The story tells of a group of people who, during a holiday, get stuck on a beach where they age rapidly (every half hour is like a year of life).

I have to say I liked it. I found it extremely disturbing, but not in any way annoying. I was more curious about how it would end than worried about the fate of the characters.

The film has a horror structure, with the classic escalation of deaths, but with the substantial difference that the aim of the story is not fear (or the sense of horror) as an end in itself. The threat of growing old, and then dying, is an enemy that acts more subtly on the psychology of the characters already undermined by other problems (health, mental or family). And then, behind the events that make up the story, there are motivations that give rise to the classic final twist of Shyamalan’s films.

I admit that in some ways I found it less powerful than his other works, also because I was never able to completely suspend my disbelief in the face of what was happening. But the most interesting aspect of the film is the way in which the dynamics between the characters have been developed, who find themselves growing up or growing old in a few hours, and this completely changes their perspective on what they considered the problems of their life.

The actors are good (including Vicky Krieps, already seen in the series “Das Boot” and in the film “Phantom Thread”, and an old acquaintance like Rufus Sewell). The make-up of the adult characters who age is very convincing, as are the casting choices on the children who grow up during the film. Some of the dialogues aren’t the best, and some of the characters’ choices are a bit far-fetched, both in a negative (typical of horror stories) and a positive way, but overall I spent almost two hours of pure entertainment, so I can’t complain.

In fact, if you have the chance, I recommend you do the same.

Curfew

 A British on-the-road dystopian series

© 2019 Sky Original

“Curfew” is a 2019 British Sky Original series.

 

In a dystopian future, a virus created in a laboratory (I won’t explain for what purpose so as not to spoil) has the side effect of transforming people into primitive creatures who fear the light and feed on human beings, basically something between vampires and zombies, which brings to mind the creatures of “I am legend” by Richard Matheson and the film of the same name.

Realising that it is impossible to contain them, human beings barricade themselves in their homes during the night hours (hence the title).

 

In this context, a clandestine race is organised, which crosses the entire British Isle from south to north in a single night. The winners will be able to move to an uncontaminated island.

 

The beauty of this series is not so much the story itself (which involuntarily has references even to the recent past, given that there is a curfew due to a virus!), but the characters.

Through flashbacks expertly mixed with the events that follow one another during a single night, we get to know the characters in depth and discover where the virus comes from and how it got out of control. Everything is peppered with dark British humour, many people dying badly, and various misadventures on the road.

 

It seems it ended with a single season, even if there were the conditions to move forward and perhaps fix the virus problem.

 

In any case, I recommend it to you. At first, it may seem a little strange, but trust me, as you get to know the characters, it will fascinate you.

A freelance translator’s life

 Another way of being a writer

Image from Pixabay

As you know, I’m an author. I published some thrillers and science fiction novels, plus a non-fiction book. But being an author isn’t the only way I’m a writer. I do like writing articles and newsletters, but I especially like translating.

Actually, I’m a freelance translator for almost 20 years now, and lately I decided to dedicate a few articles to this job of mine. They are featured in a Medium publication called Babel, which you can find at this link: https://medium.com/babel

Three articles are available so far.
1)      “Why I am a translator” is about my journey to become a translator, starting from my first encounter with a foreign language when I was five, continuing with my experience studying English, French, and German, while becoming a biologist and a university researcher, and my decision to use my language skills in a profitable way.
2)      “What is translation?” explains the translation process in the mind of a translator and how being able to speak two or more languages isn’t enough to make you a translator.
3)      “Use of translation software” is about the tools a professional translator uses to deliver the best possible version of a text in another language (usually their native one).

If you are a Medium paying member, you can find them at the following links:
1)     Why I am a translator
2)     What is translation?
3)     Use of translation software
Please use these links if you’re a paying member.

If you are NOT a Medium paying member, you can use these friend links to read them:
1)      Why I am a translator
2)      What is translation?
3)      Use of translation software
Please DON’T use these links if you’re a paying member.

I hope you’ll find them interesting.
If you speak more than one language or are a linguist, please share your experience.

COBRA

An intriguing political thriller series

Sky Original (©)

This Sky Original series includes three seasons aired between 2021 and 2023 (until early 2024) and available on demand on Sky.

The story is set in a contemporary context. In the first season, due to a large coronal mass ejection, a solar storm hits Europe, bringing air transport and energy distribution to their knees. The British Prime Minister must deal with the consequences of this event through an anti-crisis unit called COBRA.

The series doesn’t talk about the catastrophic aspect of the story (and that’s the best thing!), but focuses on the way in which politics (above all), the press and public opinion deal with the crisis. It talks about difficult decisions, about characters who try to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit, and about others who risk their lives to complete their work.

Central to the plot are the characters of the (conservative) prime minister, played by a Robert Carlyle in great shape, his chief of staff, played by the excellent Victoria Hamilton, and the head of the secretariat for civil emergencies, played by phenomenal Richard Dormer (whom I had already appreciated a lot in “Fortitude”, where he was the police chief).

While the prolonged blackout brings a whole series of problems and protests to one of the regions of the United Kingdom (the one that the Prime Minister had to sacrifice, despite his intentions, since there was a lack of spare parts to restart all the power plants, and therefore he had to make a choice), the protagonists find themselves facing serious personal and family vicissitudes.

The tension rises, episode after episode, until it reaches its climax in the last one (there are six in total), in which the story is resolved with some appreciable dramatic twists.

I admit that at some points I literally cheered.

I watched the series in the original language, and this allowed me to appreciate several nuances, such as the social differences and territorial origins of the various characters.

In general, I think the story is very well written, also and above all in terms of dialogue.

Season 2 — Sky Original (©)

This first season could almost be defined as a self-contained miniseries, given that it only includes six episodes and the story ends in some way. However, two more seasons were subsequently produced: “Cobra — Cyberwar” and “Cobra — Rebellion”.

In the second season, as you can guess from the title, the crisis affecting the United Kingdom is due to an attack on the British computer system. In the third, instead, the crisis is linked to an environmental disaster.

I liked the first season so much, I wanted more. At the same time, I feared that the choice to extend the story into a second and then even a third season would have caused an inevitable fall into repetitiveness and useless lengthening. Also because it meant that there would be at least one more big crisis, which honestly seemed a bit excessive to me in the same narrative universe and with the same characters.

Indeed, this risk has not been entirely avoided, and we need to make a little effort to accept that all happens to poor Prime Minister Sutherland! But, once this problem is put aside, I have to say that the second and third seasons are also very enjoyable, and I find myself more or less confirming the opinion I expressed for the first.

I won’t say anything else to avoid unnecessary spoilers.

Season 3 — Sky Original (©)

Maybe, if you want to watch this series, you can take advantage of the fact that all three seasons are available so you can watch it all from start to finish. This way you will not lose the connections between the seasons or forget them.

In short, you won’t risk doing as I did. Since I wasn’t sure I had seen the second season, I watched it all again because I couldn’t remember almost anything anyway!

Halo (season 1)

 A review from a non-gamer.

The image above is property of Paramount+.

Let me start by saying that I’m not interested in video games. The last time I played them was on a Windows 95 PC in 1998. So I don’t know what this series is based on. I’m talking about it as a TV-watcher who loves science fiction.

It is a military science fiction/space opera series, set in a distant future, full of beautiful spaceships, planets with the most disparate characteristics and an enemy alien species with which humanity is at war. And one of the most powerful tools of war humans have at their disposal is the Spartans, enhanced and emotionless human warriors. Among these is the protagonist, John-117, known by the nom de guerre Master Chief.

I won’t tell you anything else about the plot because I think it’s better to discover it step by step over the course of the nine episodes of the series. Rather, I’ll just clarify that I’m only referring to the first season. In fact, upon seeing it, you immediately realise that all the narrative threads do not have enough space to be concluded. It almost seems like a great introduction to the rest of the seasons. In any case, there are some aspects that are clarified. Furthermore, I found the twist ending (almost a cliffhanger) very satisfying. With such a complex narrative structure, there was the risk that certain threads would be closed too hastily, but, all things considered, this was not the case.

The plot contains a whole series of elements that are particularly congenial to me.

One of these is undoubtedly the fact of having a protagonist who does not know his own identity at all, and the revelation of the latter is central to the series.

Another interesting element is the use of artificial intelligence (Cortana), which was conceived as a tool for control, but which at a certain point asks itself questions about whether it is right to follow the orders. Here, the AI, which at the beginning has a disturbing and apparently negative connotation, then turns out to be a positive character.

Then there is the presence of a deeply ambiguous character (even more than the AI) in the hands of the supervillains (the aliens), who has a particular evolution. It’s a shame that this character has to fall victim to the usual ruthless karma of American productions, in which repentance is never enough to redeem oneself.

But aliens aren’t the only bad guys. They are in fact only the supervillains, that is, those who are just bad, without any apparent reason. Even among humans are some decidedly negative characters, such as Dr. Halsey, who is head of the Spartan program. However, in her case, motivations are brought to light which, however excessive, have an intrinsic logic that provides the character with a certain depth.

Finally, the special effects are for the most part truly remarkable. The aliens reminded me of several creatures seen in the Star Wars saga. Perhaps only the setting of the battle in the last episode is a little poor.

The only thing that puzzled me was the location of the device that suppresses the Spartans’ emotions: in the lower back. Meh!

Overall, I enjoyed watching this series. The story is intriguing and well-developed. And at the end of the viewing, the curiosity remains, and you are looking forward to diving into the second season as soon as possible.

“Halo” is available on Paramount+.

The War of the Worlds (BBC miniseries)

A great adaptation of the novel by Herbert George Wells

The image above is property of BBC.

This BBC miniseries from 2019 (directed by Craig Viveiros and produced by Mammoth Screen), set in the Edwardian period, is yet another adaptation of the novel by Herbert George Wells (published in 1898) and consists from three episodes of about an hour.

 

It is considered one of the most faithful transpositions of the book both because of the historical setting (despite being set a few years later, in 1905), which further highlights humanity’s impotence in the face of an alien invasion, and for the narration of events itself.

 

What is added to the original plot is the personal story of the two protagonists, Amy and George, who live together despite the fact that they are not married and that he is unable to obtain a divorce from his wife. These two only partially replace the narrator of the book and his wife, however, shifting the attention to the female character, who was completely marginal in the original text. They are played by Eleanor Tomlinson (already seen in Poldark in the role of Demelza and in The Pemberley Mysteries) and Rafe Spall (son of Timothy Spall; seen in Prometheus, Jurassic World — Fallen Kingdom, and Men in Black International).

 

Furthermore, the main narrative is intertwined with the one in the future, in which we see Amy and her son wandering in the devastated world after the “failed” invasion of the tripods.

 

Even though I had not read the book, I immediately perceived the Wellsian imprint in the story, starting with the character of Ogilvy, the scientist also present in the novel and here played by the great Robert Carlyle, and continuing with the attempt to a scientific approach, although limited by the knowledge of the time, towards the consequences of the invasion, although this last post-apocalyptic part from the point of view of the female protagonist was added to the original story.

While reading various reviews, I noticed that the main criticisms concern a certain depressing effect of the story, its slowness in some parts, the lack of characterisation due to the limited time of the narrative (which perhaps, therefore, is not so slow) and even the acting skills of the main actors. Someone said it was a missed opportunity.

Well, I don’t agree at all. Personally, I greatly appreciated this miniseries, both from a visual point of view and from that of the actors’ performance and the pace of the narrative.

 

I watched this series in the original language, and as always in these circumstances, this led me to focus completely on the story without the slightest distraction. Furthermore, while watching it, I already knew that the ending would be sad. Some of it was immediately obvious due to the flash-forwards of the protagonist with her son in that hellish setting, and some of it was told to me precisely in these terms.

 

Faced with all this, however, I just had fun.

 

I like Tomlinson a lot (I’m a Poldark fan) and I appreciated her performance. And I also liked the way she interacted with Spall and also with the character of Ogilvy and Frederick (Rupert Graves), the co-protagonist’s brother.

 

The story between the two protagonists, who challenge the conventions of the time, goes perfectly alongside the political problems, which are shown to us at the beginning of the miniseries (with the frictions between the British Empire and Russia), in highlighting how many aspects considered important not only fade into the background, but are completely swept away by the encounter and clash with a species from Mars that intends to eliminate our civilisation and take possession of our planet.

 

Obviously, the story of the two protagonists offers a further element of conflict that is appreciable by the contemporary public and increases their involvement.

As for the rest, I found both the historical reconstruction and the special effects very effective. Watching the immense tripods move through London at the beginning of the twentieth century is fantastic, precisely because it is completely unusual and yet extremely realistic, and underlines even more the sense of human fragility towards an adversary that is too bigger and technologically advanced to be even just faced. In some ways it mocks the expansionist aims of the British Empire, which feels invincible in the face of any enemy and is instead forced to come to terms with the hard reality.

 

I particularly liked the part in which Ogilvy, together with the protagonists, begins to study what he believes to be a meteorite and then what happens when the latter wakes up, the shell opens, and we see a sphere inside capable of impressing a reflected image on itself. Not to mention what happens next.

 

The sense of helplessness of the characters is effectively conveyed to the viewer, as is the fear of the terrifying aliens, particularly in the last episode, when they find themselves hunted by the latter (whose appearance we finally see), and the story takes on horror nuances.

Here the dramatic element reaches its peak, and the inevitable sacrifice has a very strong effect due to the involvement it creates in the spectator.

 

The part set in the post-apocalyptic future, with which the series ends, actually has something depressing about it. I, in particular, don’t like post-apocalyptic stories for this reason. Even from a visual point of view, it seems it wants to oppress. But everything is saved by the bittersweet ending, which gives rise to hope in the protagonist, and in the spectator.

 

I close with a quirk. Although this version is faithful to the novel in many parts, there is another version in the form of a film which seems to be completely faithful. It was produced in 2005 in the wake of the concurrent release of Spielberg’s film starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. This is “The War of the Worlds” by Timothy Hines.
There have been numerous other adaptations of this work, ranging from the first very famous radio show by Orson Welles (1938), through musicals and video games, up to comics (including Mickey Mouse in Italy), as well as obviously films and TV series.
An almost complete list is available in an article dedicated to it on Wikipedia.

 

Here is the original trailer for the series.

 

This article is taken from a phantom episode of FantascientifiCast (Italian podcast about science fiction), recorded in 2020 but never released.

Westworld: the epilogue without an ending

 My thoughts on one of the best sci-fi series in the last 10 years

© HBO

In the past, I happened to talk about the TV series “Westworld” on FantascientifiCast (the link will take you to an English translation on my blog). However, the podcast episode and article only focused on the first season, as it was the only one that had been produced to that point.

 

It was followed by three more seasons.

 

If you have not seen the second and third seasons, stop reading, as you may find some spoilers. On the fourth, however, I limit myself to making some considerations, but which only really make sense to those who know what I’m talking about. In short, this article is mainly aimed at those who have seen the entire series.

 

The second season represented a true continuation of the first, since the story still took place within the park. At the time, I found its ending exciting, because it would have satisfied me even if they hadn’t renewed the series for more seasons. What I wanted was for the story to continue outside the park, in the real world of the future. An open ending like this, with the escape of Dolores (or rather her artificial intelligence), was at least a promise of this continuation.

 

One of the reasons I love open endings in stories where there’s a lot that is left unresolved is that I can always imagine for myself what happens next.

But then the third season actually arrived, and it was even better than expected.

What I appreciated is precisely the way in which it represents an extreme take on our reality, in which everything we do could be influenced by the data (information, advertising, etc.) that is shown to us based on our browsing habits and on what we interact with when we are online. If whatever manages what we are continuously exposed to was not an algorithm whose final aim is only to induce us to buy products, but an artificial super-intelligence, its ability to condition our vision of reality to push us to become what it wants (or what someone else has decided) does not seem like something impossible at all.

 

I must admit that while watching the third season, I looked several times with suspicion at the cookie banner that appears every time I visit a site for the first time!

For my personal taste, up to that point my appreciation of Westworld had been growing, so I was afraid of what I would find in the fourth season. After I finished watching it, however, my first comment was: wow!

 

I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of all the episodes and I can confirm that it is my favourite science fiction series after Battlestar Galactica.

It is practically impossible to go into detail without spoiling, so I will limit myself to a few scattered considerations.

 

After the finale of season three, which partly seemed to take inspiration from the basic idea of the film “Futureworld” (the sequel to the original film “Westworld” by Crichton), I didn’t know what to expect from this fourth. I certainly didn’t expect to find myself faced with a real role reversal between humans and androids. In reality, the theme of conditioning of freewill by an artificial intelligence (metaphor of the current algorithms that already influence our lives), which is dear to me (and which you can find in some of my books), should have warned me. The evolution that takes place in the fourth season, after all, seems like an almost natural consequence, in terms of the logic of developing a story. Except that it is taken so far beyond the initial premises that it leaves the viewer speechless.

 

Added to all this, there are the numerous elements inserted into the plot that brought to mind similar elements I used in my books (I can’t tell you what it is, because it would be a huge spoiler!), albeit in a completely different context. Seeing my fantasies shown in a similar way by a science fiction series of this level was truly exciting. It’s a sort of creative convergence that made me feel in perfect harmony with this work of fiction. At moments, it was as if the TV was reading my mind and showing me the story I wanted to see. Crazy.

 

All this exaltation, however, did not prevent me from pointing out some critical aspects.

 

First, I asked myself some questions that were not answered.

Is there only one city left in the world? Or are there others too, and are they all made the same way? From what we see in the series, the first option seems to be the correct one, but nothing is explained, which is undoubtedly a shortcoming.

If this is the situation, it seems a bit excessive to me, even if 23 years have passed.

And, speaking of excesses, the events in the last episode seemed a little rushed to me.

 

Honestly, I don’t like apocalyptic contexts, because that’s what it’s all about, and in particular it bothered me that in a certain sense the story, which, once out of the park, had opened up to a thousand possibilities, is now tremendously closed in on itself.

These aspects, however, do not undermine the good quality of the rest of the series, which deals with very current themes literally surrounding us, and does so by reinventing them in a dystopian future through a very complicated plot (another aspect that is particularly congenial to me). In short, it forces us to think on multiple levels, both to find our current reality in it and to put together the myriad of pieces that are shown to us in non-chronological order, in order to be able to get to the bottom of it. Its vision is a real challenge.

 

Furthermore, it must be considered that this story is not over.

The finale of the season, in reality, is not an ending. The authors deliberately left it open in the hope of a renewal for a final season. Unfortunately, however, a few months later, the confirmation arrived that the series had been cancelled.

 

It’s really a shame, because I was really curious to see what they would have come up with, since really, after the tragic events of the last episode, they had got themselves into quite a mess. Of course, they had the possibility of taking the story where they wanted, given that they had practically made a clean sweep of everything else, but the risk of coming out with an inadequate epilogue was very high.

 

In all honesty, if they had renewed it, I would never have wanted to find myself in the shoes of the creators and screenwriters.

 

Who knows, maybe one day some production company will acquire the rights to complete the story. Or I would like them to publish the ending as a novel, so I could imagine it in my head with greater freedom, and if I didn’t like it, pretend it never existed.

 

Or maybe it’s better to leave it like that, like something that could have been perfect. Thanks to the absence of a real ending, nothing will be able to deny this impression.

 

There is certainly one thing I hope for most of all, that is, that they never make a reboot of it!