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Did anyone watch Zen on Beeb 1?

Deckerd

Fleet Arse
Premium Member
It's achingly stylish, good old-fashioned laidback stuff with exciting bits. I loved it.
 
I saw about 5 minutes of it, but only in between ad breaks while watching something else on one of the the channels (I think it might have been Norton's Hulk). Didn't immediately click with it (the few minutes I saw seemed Dolce Vita pastiche), so flipped back to whatever else I was watching.

Trailers looked quite fun though.
 
I was in two minds whether or not to watch it or even Sky Plus it, but Sky+'d it and watched it about 10 minutes behind the broadcast. Am glad I did. I'm not familiar with Michael Dibdin's books, but I really enjoyed it. Lovely stylish camerawork and direction, strong actors and a decent plot. Sewell was better than I've seen him in years - had a nice quirkiness to his performance. And I actually liked the lack of Italian accents - it would've been off-putting to see Brit thesps 'mamma-mia-ing' it all the way.

Did anyone else feel that this was intended as this year's Wallander? Foreign 'Tec drama, starring an esteemed UK theatre/ movie star, based on a series of best-selling novels. Of course, stylish Zen is more upbeat than crumpled broody Scandinavian Wallander and the original novels are by a Brit, rather than an Italian (or a Swede, as per Wallander) but it struck me as them trying to repeat that success. Still, with shows that good, who's arguing?
 
I enjoyed it. But it was strange seeing Ben Miles look so old. I remember him in V for Vendetta, but mostly from Coupling, and I suppose that's been almost 10 years. Still...
 
Yes, I agree. Apart from the amazing way it looks, looking beyond the beautifully dressed actors; imagine a city like Rome covered in graffiti - it's like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa. The thing that strikes me most about Zen (the character) is his unnerving lack of fear. Last week he was in mortal danger, this week he's wandering around buildings where people have disappeared and the power's mysteriously cut off. He still exhibits no fear. I've never seen this in a 'normal' cop story, which is what this boils down to in the end. It's quite exhilirating.
 
I've still not got round to watching the first episode, and second hasn't recorded some reason it's recording the BBC HD repeat.
 
Just got round to the first episode. I quite liked it, I must admit I'm tired and didn't concentrate all that well but it seemed well done, I'll definitely watch the next two.
 
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