Monday 2 July 2018

Tau

An original film from Netflix. Well, not that original. Tau is quite like Ex Machina in that it has a "bad man" making an ultimate AI. But in many ways it is more enjoyable because the guy is just mental and his antagonist is more believable.

There are some nice touches, but plenty of annoyances too. I get a bit tired of the "mad scientist" trope. Come on. People clever enough to make something that advanced a) don't do it on their own (especially the building) and b) are not psychopathic killers.

Nice touch having a "Julia" ... I wondered if the other guy was a "Winston".

One thing that disappointed was that I was convinced there was more to it than there was. If this project was so important to Alex then what was he doing going out all day every day and leaving Tau to deal with Julia?

There had to be a reason; and I was sure that Alex was watching the whole time and it was all about how Julia would teach Tau stuff that Alex couldn't.

But no. Alex was actually a psycho who just had to go out a lot. And...

Well, never mind. It was quite entertaining. Just not very clever.

Sunday 1 July 2018

The Bridge [Broen] [Bron] (series 4)

The Bridge (this one) is my favourite TV show of all time. Ever.

Nothing comes close in breadth of story and depth of character. The acting is superb. The writing is brilliant. The atmosphere is absolutely mesmerising.

I was very sad to hear that series 4 would be the last (and also that Martin would not be returning, again). And why only 8 episodes, not 10? But if you have to go, best to go out on a high with another cracking story rather than go on too long and risk a steady decline.

It is another roller-coaster ride. There are always a few strands of story that we assume might come together at some point... but you never quite see how until it does. People do terrible things, then you end up feeling for them... not sorry, just a speck of understanding. People get trapped in a corner, and you can't see any way out for them.

And all the while we see the personal lives of our well-loved characters being played out. Oh, how they suffer, but carry on living as well as they can...

The brutality of the crimes is shocking. Especially when turned on Henrik... how can anyone think the poor man hasn't suffered enough? I guess someone who buries a woman up to her chest and stones her to death (episode 1 - micro spoiler).

Even at the last, when everything seemed resolved, I was still worried that there might be one last cruel twist. And that last line of dialogue was absolutely spot on - it made me cry.

If I was forced to have my memory wiped and could only retain one TV show from the whole of my life... I would not hesitate to choose The Bridge.