Zen - the spoiler/review thread

[GreenEyesToo]

Second episode - first thoughts:

~ he's well rid of the wife
~ I loved the Joaquin Phoenix joke
~ that last scene, when he was walking backwards towards the bed.....

[judypatooty]

LOVED this second episode!! So much humor and plenty of twists and turns in the plot.

The look Zen gave Tania when she said something about the "older ladies" in the office finding him attractive was priceless. Only topped by the zinger that they thought he looked like Joaquin Phoenix. LOL!

You can just see Rufus feeding that line to the writers.

Edited to add:

My one big complaint about this episode was that Zen wears a T-shirt in bed. WTF?!?

I wanted to see that chest. Grrrrr.

[rai]

Definitely liked the Joaquin joke.

One question - wasn't Ed Stoppard shipped off to Sicily at the end of last week's ep?

Rai

[judypatooty]

You're right, Rai. He supposedly was. I guess we are to assume that his wealthy wife has connections, too, and he didn't go anywhere. At least that was the story I told myself.

[vmaciv]

How did the ratings hold up and did everyone like Cabal better than Vendetta. I enjoyed the Cabal novel more than Vendetta so I was just wondering.

[kissmekate]

I took lots of notes while watching so I'd be able to blubber on for ages, but I left them at home

Let's see what I can scrape together from memory ...

I like those twists to the endings, they are never quite what they seem. Liked the case, too. Less drama with Zen at the end, but we don't want Aurelio to hurt his pretty head every time, do we? (Even if we would all love to wipe off that blood ...)

The Joaquin Phoenix joke was so hilarious, I almost snorted my rosé all over the laptop I just LOVE Ruf's sense of humour!

I was wondering about Vincenzo and Sicily too, but certainly it was his connections that spared him that exile. And it was good to have him around for the scenes in the restaurant with Caterina. Aurelio's glares were priceless

Or his bashful turning away at Arianna's undressing

Only comment on the soon-to-be ex-wife: good riddance! She didn't deserve him anyway.

The chest would have been great to see, but we don't want Aurelio to be cold with no one there to warm him. Actually liked the look of him in the T-shirt.

The final scene when he and Tania slowly sank out of view was also nice. As was the "is there a bedroom" question

Another thing on the side I'm curious about: what happened to Aurelio's father? (Somehow Rufus often plays characters who have lost their fathers ... or does that only seem so to me because that's sadly something I've got in common with our green-eyed wonder?)

[numbat]

Ok so i must be the only stupid one here because i found the case to be quite complex. Which isn't to say that i didn't enjoy it, but Mr N did have to explain some bits of it to me afterwards.

Maybe like some of the twitterers, i spent too much time watching Rufus and not enough time concentrating on what was going on. It certainly turned out to be quite a different episode in the end, which was good because at the beginning it was looking a lot like last weeks with two different parties putting the pressure on him to make the case turn out the way they wanted, flirting with Tania, arguing with Fabri etc etc.

But i really liked that as it developed there was lots of humour, in office politics and personal stuff with Aurelio and Mama and ex-wife, (and i also loved that there were more glimpses of Petruchio and Jacob along the way). I think that the balance of case and personal issues works really well.

And i have to say that although i really liked Tania in the last episode, i thought she was coniving and manipulative this time. I know she explained her behaviour away to Aurelio and i watched him standing there thinking with his um, well you know what, and drinking it all in, but this whole business about asking him to get her an apartment and then going out for lunch with Fabri and asking him to get her one as well left me cold. I know it all worked out in the end, but what if Aurelio hadn't been able to get her that apartment and Fabri was able to, would she have accepted it and the implications that would go along with that? And i didn't believe that line about Fabri being dedicated to his wife and kids for a moment.

So i'm a bit iffy about her now. It seems to me she's just trying to get out of her unhappy marriage and set up a nice new life for herself anyway she can, but it feels like she's using our lovely Aurelio along the way and i don't like that. Not one bit.

Perhaps her question about 'are we going to have an affair' meant that and only that. Maybe "an affair" is just supposed to be a fling. But he seems to be falling properly for her and i'm already worried that he's going to get his heart broken. I know how it happens in the book, but already their relationship seems a little different and i wonder how it will progress in the show.

But i did love the way he kept getting Arianna to change her dress. I thought the grey looked perfectly fine - and the red. He's not that much of a silly man....... all that pretending to be embarassed indeed!!!!

And i agree with judy about Aurelio wearing a t-shirt to bed. Why does he look so sharp all day and like THAT at night. No good, no good at all!!!!

;D

[kissmekate]

I must say I was a little angry at her for going to lunch with that slimeball Vincenzo. But maybe that was supposed to be a way of making herself even more interesting to Aurelio by making him jealous? (Don't like that trait in her very much, I admit.)

What I found really lovely was their phone call towards the end. That's always so cute to watch how they look at each other down the corridor.

[walt]

IMHO it's amazing how much the story is changed compared to the book and how close it is to it on the other hand. Obviously they didn't get permission to shoot at the Vatican, so they had to change the place a little bit to a bridge, with a lot more changes going ahead.

The reference to Joaquin Phoenix was hilarious, Rufus pulling his own leg! Probably this joke was recognized only by insiders like members of the rooftop

[kissmekate]

After "Da Vinci Code" the Vatican seems to have become warier than ever about film crews on its premises ...

[anniem]

Jan 10, 2011 9:17:14 GMT numbat said:

Ok so i must be the only stupid one here because i found the case to be quite complex. Which isn't to say that i didn't enjoy it, but Mr N did have to explain some bits of it to me afterwards.

No, Numbat I didn't get all of it it either and neither did Mr am. I came here to find some answers !

[anniem]

There aren't any expanations are there ? My only hope is that someone will start a synopsis thread !

[kissmekate]

I'm sure someone will post the explanation. As I said, I can't reconstruct it off the top of my head, and I've left my notes at home ...

[kygal]

Enjoyed epi 2 very much. Agree with what everyone has said. Interesting that they did not go into Tanias "side job", so that may not come into play at all. Looking forward to the next episode. Tania was not in that book so interested to see how that goes. I like how every woman in the show wants him...very realistic! She better not break his heart!

[jothehat]

Afternoon ladies. For those who enjoyed last week's review of Vendetta, I present this week's look at Cabal (wp.me/pxHFW-1Jt). I haven't gone into the twists and turns of plot as I know there are plenty of PLA readers using iPlayer to enjoy Zen, but I thought

SPOILER: Click to show

the Cabal was real, but that the dead guy's death was tangential to the whole Cabal thing. Perhaps they would have offed him if he hadn't been about to kill himself anyway (a suicide made murkier by the fact that his lover gave him a hefty shove!).