Barkingsparrow wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 1:23 pm
"Three Pines" - Amazon Prime
For the most part, we found this series watchable. We liked the characters, especially Alfred Molina as Chief Inspector Gamache. I found some of the murder plots over the top and contrived, and in one case (the plot around eps 3/4) to be ridiculous as a result of a blatant deus ex machina intervention. Some of the family melodrama felt a bit cliche and overwrought. If there is a season 2, I hope they can clean up the writing because there's a lot of potential here, with a solid cast and interesting locales.
I eventually plan to watch "Three Pines", in part, because I read (rightly or wrongly) that the detectives were refreshingly "normal", as in free from emotional turmoil. In other words, not recovering addicts, not victims of abuse, not suffering from mental illness, etc. etc. But now that you mention overwrought family melodrama, I guess the darkness and or melodrama is hard to get away from... although without knowing, the family melodrama may be around the suspects/witnesses and not the detectives themselves.
On a somewhat related note, here's an update on "Mr. Robot" for anyone who cares
... I'm nearing season three and will welome a normalcy break after this show.
The main character has multiple mental disorders, and while I'm no psychiatrist Wikipedia says they are: social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and dissociative identity disorder. I guess the latter is what explains why Elliot has an imaginary friend. The mental illness is not the part that grates -- Elliot is a sympathetic character -- it's his monotone and slowness in talk and action. There is a constant monotone narration of his thoughts with his imaginary friend.
One of the "need to suspend disbelief" parts of the show is how Elliot wanders around the city shrouded in a dark hoodie, with a sunken face and nervously darting eyes and yet everyone he encounters views him as a regular, average person. Not suspicious at all.
Or maybe it's simply because that's how things work in New York City.
Anyway, the show is getting better and it does have its moments. The series is after all ostensibly about hacking and there is a big plot based on that.