hill-08435

IMDb member since August 2022
    Lifetime Total
    5+
    IMDb Member
    1 year, 9 months

Reviews

Criminal Record
(2024)

Good with reservations.
I'm not british so can't comment on how corrupt and racist the UK police force was or is. The show is predicated on the fact that it was and still is to a lesser extent. As an Aussie I have to go with that and assume it's true even if I suspect there is an element of self righteous- ness in the writing. I thought the production values were very high and the acting by all was fine. Occasionally the script spells out things for the audience that in reality cops would know. I also felt the feud between the two detectives was too drawn out. Kush's character's husband seems deliberately ambiguous and I'm not convinced his character is anything more than a foil for Kush's. It seemed a too obvious contrast. I will keep watching. Capaldi looks like death warmed up but he is a great actor.

Janet King
(2014)

Great and Flawed?
Since this series is now on Netflix I'm write a review despite the fact that it began in 2014.

My main problem is that Marta Dusseldorp carries the whole 3 series and that grows tiresome. Her character is driven, conflicted ( she loves her children but rarely sees them) and seems impervious to shock. Her 'wife' is murdered, her own life and that of her children are threatened and she endures being shot at in a drive by but arrives the next day at work as if nothing has happened. She is portrayed as a superwoman, and is being set up as a feminist icon. The cliche of 'I am invincible, I am woman..'. Marta Dusseldorp is a fine actress although her range is slightly limited, she does not seem to have the personal experience necessary to fully inhabit the more dreadful aspects of the criminal world.

The plots are overly complex and the machinations drag on to fill the 8 episodes of each series, 6 eps. Per series would have been better. It is also a pity so much of all 3 series is centered around Janet King, Marta is a beautiful woman and the camera loves her but the other characters are neglected.

I think this show divides people, it is certainly not a soap opera nor is it unwatchable, compared to so much b grade pap from the USA it is a marvel of sincerity. Atleast watch series tow which is better than series one.

Griselda
(2024)

Overrated
I watched 3 episodes and bailed halfway through ep 4. The disparity between the real Griselda, who in photos looks like a potato and has the dead eyed look of a cold hearted killer and the beautiful and voluptuous actress portraying her could not be more obvious. The acting is fine and the production values also but it lacks depth and meaning because it focuses on the gangsters who have no moral compass and are simply in it for ther money and power. Griselda at various times protests that she is doing it for her children or for rhe Cubans who become part of her 'army' but she turned down $15 million in cash, a huge fortune back then, so one must conclude she is doing because she likes the power or simply because knows no other way to live. The conversations are dull, no one has anything interesting to say. The male FBI detectives seem crass and usless and the female detective there to make a feminist statement. Like the two Narcos series, the show atlernates between lavish opulance, violent encounters and business meetings. After a while it became predictable and boring.

Underbelly: Vanishing Act
(2022)

Worth watching.
Seems this was brought out in three episodes in the USA. Should be two. It is fimed where it happened. It helps to know that the place where she lived is a fav. Spot for gangland murders made to look like suicide. That is the point of the second episode. It is also the Jewish quarter of Sydney, so it is very much about the that too.

The acting is not bad, it is how Australians act in real life. Badly sometimes ha ha.

Top Dog
(2020)

Becomes tedious.
The characters lack personality. There's not much to like, the criminals are boring and the lawyers bland and predictable. The dialogue has no individuality and the central criminal is dull. The plot is OK and telling the story from both sides has merit but it was not enough to sustain my interest.

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