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Current TV Boxset Addiction

Started by radiator, 20 November, 2012, 02:23:29 PM

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Hawkmumbler

The Kingdom is Lars Von Triers danish two season tv series. Based in The Kingdom hospital, built on an ancient bleach works itself built on a burial ground, the series follows the proceedures of the doctors and hospital crew as they go about there job. The series is 3 parts Holby City, 1 part The Shining and bloody good stuff it is too if, as per Von Triers reputation, among the most dower and grim material ever put to screen. The entire series is filmed in a brown hue, and the lines between the surreal and the hyperreal are blured in a way that makes the whole thing feel like a waking nightmare, the Season 2 episde Gigantica in particular see's Udo Kier as a patient with a medical condition to horrifying you'd think it was part of the shows supernatural subplot, but apparently not. A great watch, but a tough one, best enjoyed one episode a week with a lot of self love to recover from the experience, but a series that will irrevocably change you once it's done.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 02 August, 2018, 12:21:53 PM
The Kingdom is Lars Von Triers danish two season tv series.

I quite enjoyed the Stephen King-adapted US remake (at least initially, it started to ramble a bit as it went on and the tone was all over the place) and always meant to check out the original...
@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

#1892
By 'eck that Kingdom sounds right up my street, in fact, I've the feeling I've watched some of it before n late night TV somewhere.  When was it made, and where would one find such a thing, Master Mumbler?

Currently watching La Mante (The Mantis) on Netflix, a maternal riff on Hannibal Lector, very stylishly shot, and with some nice bits of misdirection.  Three episodes in and the titular performance feels a little forced, but everything else is enjoyable. I love how les flics in these things work out of these ghastly dark warrens of  windowless corridors inhabited by handcuffed suspects being shoved around, but there are gloriously modern airy prison complexes and entire chateaux rigged up with ultra-security for indiovidual special witnesses.  If nothing else it rockets through its plot - there's enough going on in the first episode for a whole series.  J'accuse the Commissioner.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: TordelBack on 02 August, 2018, 12:50:50 PM
By 'eck that Kingdom sounds right up my street, in fact, I've the feeling I've watched some of it before n late night TV somewhere.  When was it made, and where would one find such a thing, Master Mumbler?

It was shown in the cinemas and on d'telly in the 90s.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryw5vGQjOWM&list=PLu0zNOEc6tI0n3fdpYcE1RCKrgjHqGfcM

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: TordelBack on 02 August, 2018, 12:50:50 PM
By 'eck that Kingdom sounds right up my street, in fact, I've the feeling I've watched some of it before n late night TV somewhere.  When was it made, and where would one find such a thing, Master Mumbler?

Edited episodes I believe where shown in the UK in Channel 4 around 1999, after the second series concluded and the unfortunate deaths of several cast members, Second Sight have a superb boxset of the original, unedited Danish episodes, containing both Seasons, out right now and though quiet pricey online are available for about £12 in HMV and Fopp right now if you have access to one, worth every penny.

TordelBack

Cheers lads, knew it sounded familiar.   I've loved Danish telly drama since the heady days of Island Cop, so I think I'll track that down.

Hawkmumbler

Glad to help El Tordels, hope you get as much out of the fabulous hell vision as i did, I can't say i've half as much experience in Danish television as yourself does, beyond Von Triers only TV outing my only exposure to the terrestrial viewing of the great white north are The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge.

JOE SOAP

#1897

Hawkmumbler

Ah yes, the other (and better) Hobbit movie.

Sock puppet Smaug is a mood.

JOE SOAP

#1899
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 02 August, 2018, 02:48:53 PM
Ah yes, the other (and better) Hobbit movie.

Sock puppet Smaug is a mood.

That'd be the Russian Hobbit (as told by Max Normal).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Sab9LgUxg

The Finnish one is an adaptation of LOTR called The Hobbits.

Dandontdare

looking for new stuff on Netflix I came across the TV series of From Dusk till Dawn - is this any good or will it just piss on one of my favourite movies?

TordelBack

#1901
Finished La Mante in short order. Unfortunately we rumbled the identity and motive of the killer several episodes before the hero did, so a lot of shouting at the screen ensued, but it holds its course and wraps up very nicely.  Elements that seemed implausible or tonally out of place along the way turn out to be lies and in-story misdirection, which rewards the viewer for noticing them, and is a solid way of doing these mystery things.  It also has a commendable lack of focus on the killings themselves, preferring to focus on motives and secrets instead of out-and-out gore.

There's an aspect of gender politics that I can't really specify for fear of spoiling everything, and how its handled seems old-fashioned and uncomfortable, and perhaps represents the series' one big flaw (aside from really lazy translation in the subtitles: "c'est normal" does not automatically mean "it's normal") - but if you think you might fancy a Silence of the Lambs re-do where Hannibal is a French mother, I'd recommend it. 

The French justice system remains devoid of lawyers, however, or any concern for building a solid case: perhaps everyone is working towards a shoot-out.

Started Hraunið (The Lava Field), a post-banking crash Icelandic murder mystery.  Very funny so far, and some gorgeous people for both the missus and I to appreciate.


Professor Bear

Quote from: Dandontdare on 07 August, 2018, 05:27:20 PM
looking for new stuff on Netflix I came across the TV series of From Dusk till Dawn - is this any good or will it just piss on one of my favourite movies?

Little bit from column A, little bit from column B.
It blows its load almost immediately by revealing the vampires in the first episode, introduces a lot of mythology that contradicts the movies - most notably in changing the nature of the vampires and introducing other supernatural elements - and at least one character that popped their clogs in the movie survives into the second season (the first season follows the rough plot of the first movie).  It's pretty much standard tv fantasy fare (like you'd have seen on the Sci-Fi Channel circa 2000-2010 before they got all fancy hifalutin ideas about taking themselves super seriously) apart from the enjoyably OTT delivery which includes the occasional oddball performance.

Mardroid

#1903
Quote from: Professor Bear on 07 August, 2018, 07:43:13 PM
Quote from: Dandontdare on 07 August, 2018, 05:27:20 PM
looking for new stuff on Netflix I came across the TV series of From Dusk till Dawn - is this any good or will it just piss on one of my favourite movies?

Little bit from column A, little bit from column B.
It blows its load almost immediately by revealing the vampires in the first episode, introduces a lot of mythology that contradicts the movies - most notably in changing the nature of the vampires and introducing other supernatural elements - and at least one character that popped their clogs in the movie survives into the second season (the first season follows the rough plot of the first movie).  It's pretty much standard tv fantasy fare (like you'd have seen on the Sci-Fi Channel circa 2000-2010 before they got all fancy hifalutin ideas about taking themselves super seriously) apart from the enjoyably OTT delivery which includes the occasional oddball performance.

I did like the series,  but what I loved about the film was that the start is played out as a straight robbery/murder/kidnap cop drama with no supernatural stuff at all, right up until they enter the Titty Twister place, when things get crazy big time. So if you were flipping channels and chanced on it, or you were watching the film with no synopsis, you could get nicely surprised.

The series doesn't do that, so maybe it's best viewed by those who've watched the film. The supernatural is there pretty early on.
Unfortunately, since the first series pretty much follows the structure of the film, there is a strong sense of padding, as you wait for things to happen, that you've seen before. That being said, characters are fleshed out a lot more in the series. Without spoiling too much,  this [spoiler]includes the vampires who have their own Clan Cold War thing going on.[/spoiler] It's as much a character drama as a mad ride, and it still gets pretty mad.

[spoiler]If you ever wished they'd done more with Salma Hayek's character after her very memorable entrance in the film, you may be pleasantly surprised. Or not. It's gets very strange.[/spoiler]

Dandontdare

Hmm .. don't like the sound of an entire series being mined from the plot of the movie. I look at so many of these Netflix SF series and think that they sound like a great movie synopsis but can't be arsed watching that idea stretched over 13 hours.