This past week, ARD (Channel One from the German networks) ran a highly advertised six-parter TV series entitled "Blokhin". It was what some German journalists suggest....an attempt by the network to produce something in the quality and theme of the US production of "Breaking Bad".
I sat there and watched about thirty minutes of the show and came to some point where I just didn't see the direction of the script or anything really related to "Breaking Bad" other than high quality actors.
Having watched all of the American series, I will note that twenty-five percent of Breaking Bad was a comical-like theme where an average guy just walks into a situation and things go in an unusual way. You reached a point where you pulled for the bad guys as much as you pulled for the good guys, and Walter White was some mythical hero on a mission but you just didn't know the purpose of the mission until the end. The audience for Breaking Bad grew as each season passed.
I sat and read over commentary the day after Blokhin.....which came in a fair dosage. There were high expectations and it simply didn't deliver. Some questioned how you could transform Brandenburg into some seedy New Orleans-like city with infested crime and a significant underworld.
The jest of all of this? Some people would like for higher quality movie productions to be somewhere in the state-run TV movie empire. You can split the current of movie script choices for Channel One and Two into four basic groups: (1) some light romantic piece with the mountains, Berlin or coast in the background, (2) some murder-cop thriller, (3) some family drama with dementia or four-star health issue, or (4) a historical drama. Forget about science fiction, ghosts, a 'what-if' script, or some Tarzan-like hero on an open plain.
Maybe Blokhin needed some better entry story for the first five minutes....something that told the story about the story, or some character flaw introduction that made you feel for him like you did for Walter White.
Anyway, that's about all I can say for Blokhin.
1 comment:
Schnitzel, A friend told me about Narcos on Netflix. I devoured it. (I think you can see Netflix in Germany now?) First season finished; 10 episodes. About Pablo Escobar. Highly factual with actual footage of Bush Sr., Reagan, Escobars, Panama and Norreiga, etc. I have finally learned what the hell was going on in Columbia, in Miami, with Escobar, etc. vis-a-vis drug trafficking, fighting communism, Escobar running for political office, attempting to murder the President of Columbia by blowing up a jet he was to be on, etc. What's really "cool" is when they show historical footage, woven into the story, of Escobar, it is him, not the actor, who bears an uncanny resemblance. Anyhow, see the "real" Breakin Bad" story that still haunts the world.
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