Zen - the spoiler/review thread

[nell]

Nice little review Tipou - thanks for posting.

I'm later picking this up. It must have got buried under the "very bad news". I hope you're fully recovered now. No doubt Dottore Zen helped immeasurably !

[zenina]

Just some nice review

fandangogroovers.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/recent-bbc-tv-shows/

Another recent show that I would like to see get a second season is Zen. Produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC in association with the German ZDF and American WGBH-TV networks the series consisted of just three, ninety minute episodes based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. Shot and set in Italy the show looked stunning and featured a great cast lead by Rufus Sewell in the title role. Each episode had a standalone main plot but also contained an ongoing story. Containing an interesting mix and a perfect balance between gritty and glossy it offers something a little different to the usual British TV drama. It doesn’t look like the BBC will pick up the show for a second season but it has been suggested that another network may do, I certainly hope they do.

[robela]

Thanks for posting that article Zenina!!

It gives me some hope that another t.v. company may pick up Zen. It must become more popular as it is shown in the other countries around the world!

On the whole the t.v. is pretty dismal I think, so spend my time now mostly watching the works of Rufus!

I find I don't watch the BBC anymore, if I watch the news now I will watch on channel 4.

I'm remaining positive that we will hear some good news about Rufus and Zen soon!!

I must just say I am so jealous of your wonderful banner which keeps changing. You have some wonderful pics on that. I am having trouble even changing the pic on my avatar!! It is just not working for me.

[kissmekate]

Thanks, zenina - sounds good. I still refuse to give up hope.

Re-watched Cabal yesterday and was ravished again

[walt]

Thanks for posting the article, Zenina!

Now let's hope that the right people read it and act accordingly.....

[robela]

Likewise to that KMK and Walt,

I am rewatching Zen again and again, watched Vendetta last night for about the fourth time. I find I am enjoying it more and more, will watch Cabal again probably tonight. I am getting more out of them each time and seeing more of Rufus' delightful mannerisms and just noticing more about the whole production!!

Someone has got to realise that this is big and make some more!!

[PrairieGirl]

Hi RoofToppers, Yesterday I posted this in the Zen DVD thread, but probably belongs here since it's really a review, guess I just got carried away with all the hoops I had to jump through to get a UK DVD to perform here in the US:

Hi gals (and guy!). Just wanted to point you once again to FlixChatter. My good friend Ruth asked me (well, more like bugged me every day for a week ;-D to write a guest post on Zen for her blog, so I relented. If you're so inclined, check it out here: tinyurl.com/3pejr3y
IMHO, I think it's the best review out there, (chuckle), what do you think? Feel free to leave comments on her blog - she loves 'em!

[PrairieGirl]

And I want to include this comment on FC I made to kissmekate and kygal, can never give everyone here too much credit where credit is due:

Hey fellow Rooftoppers kmk and kygal! Glad you enjoyed the review. I especially wanted to delve deeper into Rufus’ character than I had seen anywhere else, so thank for your appreciation.

And I have to give a BIG shout out to everyone at The Rooftop. rufussewell.proboards.com/index.cgi
I used many of the Zen threads on our board to help me put this together. Couldn’t have done it as well without all of you!

[kygal]

Thanks for the shout-out PG, but that was all you. Wonderfully written review! Happy to give support. Like I said, you made us proud.

[kissmekate]

Oh, thank you too, PG, for the shout-out and the wonderful review!

[dreamer]

A new review about ZEN, it's similar to what I said here after seeing Zen. ;D

www.blitzquotidiano.it/libri/aurelio-zen-detective-italiano-inghilterra-835676/
Here the translation.
LONDON - The detective story has for centuries a privileged history with England: this is the land of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock was born here, and here he directed many of his films. Italy, far from a tradition of narrative forms of detective story, a genre essentially Anglo-Saxon, seems today to be going to conquer the British market. A television series set in Rome and the translation of several Italian authors are forming in England a new horizon of crime. After the vogue of the popular novels of the Scandinavians, the time has come for those Italian? After the mists of Sweden, the Italian squares?
Actually, the leader of this new wave italian, is Italian only for the imaginary passport. Aurelio Zen, known thanks to the BBC, is the character born from the mind of the writer Michael Dibdin and aired on television in these weeks (not yet!!! ). About forty-year-old, policeman, separated from his wife, lives with his mother. You add to the uplifting portrait an "unfortunate reputation for honesty" (Aurelio Zen always pays the coffee, even when the bartender asks him not to do it ..) and offhanded in certain occasions.
Aurelio Zen can pass himself off as Italian how much he wants, but he is the son of 'perfidious Albion', more for the essence and bones, perhaps, than for the ways. The icy composure does not remember the "lolling" Italian inspectors (Montalbano in the lead), and Aurelio Zen, like his creative father, is probably more british than "Romano de Roma" (roman of Rome, expression that means "true roman"). To understand this, however, just look at some footage of the series.
The famous "suspension of disbelief" - the first act of poetic faith of the reader - is especially difficult when the cop juggles in perfect Oxford English. An English journalist then, commenting Caterina Murino (with a role in the film), notes in fact as, by his side, Rufus Sewell seems really English.
If the men the series are all British and seem, according to testimony of a critic of the Guardian, just "come out of a magazine" glossy men's fashion, women are almost all Italian. Apparently, the Italian woman would be a local product difficult to imitate. As explained by Andy Harries, one of the producers of Zen, "British women can not interpret the Italian women, because there is something distinctive in the Italian form. "
In addition to seductive women, in the repertoire of cliches that concern the Italians, there is room for the absurdity. Even the absurdity is, in fact, according to the Guardian newspaper, a part of the (exotic?) image of Italy. The observation may become a pretext for considerations on the state of Italy. If this absurdity is a component of the detective story, "there is fortunately a place where, with a ceaseless work - the boundaries of absurdity have been redesigned. The name of that place is Italy." And the journalist continues, " it is the ideal place for a police drama because there is no need to waste valuable time creating a story of corruption and intrigue. These things come on their own, rise on the ground, as the shaded squares and buildings in ruins. "
A film about Italy, even when adjusted by the everlasting and universal mechanisms of detective story, it's still a film about Italy, and thus, to some extent, an exercise in modern exoticism, as shown in the bottom of these few observations. While enjoying the adventures of Aurelio Zen for the small screen, pretty welcomed by the critics, you can't not to wish the success to those detective, really Italian, with certified and protected origin, which have been or will soon be translated into English. And there are not few, from Giancarlo de Cataldo to Michael Guittari, going for more established, like Andrea Camilleri (the author of Montalbano).

[stama]

Thanks Dreamer but it's not the whole article translated, there is one more page. Could you also translate the rest, please? (I know, Google Translator, but it makes a terrible translations.)

[kissmekate]

Thanks for posting!

(But they obviously didn't get that Zen is not supposed to be a Roman )

[dreamer]

Sorry, I didn't see that page. I added it to the previous post.
We have already read some of that quoted interview.

Apr 28, 2011 6:18:44 GMT kissmekate said:

(But they obviously didn't get that Zen is not supposed to be a Roman )

Sure, but surely italian.

[rueful]

Thanks for the translation and for posting the article, Dreamer. It is always funny to see one's own culture through the eyes of other nations (or even other cities--I am often critical of shows set in my hometown). Zen's character as an "Italian" is distorted because it was written by non-Italians and interpreted by a non-Italian. But at least you should be pleased that it imagines Italians as verrrrrrrrry sexy!