13 Commandments (2016-?) 1x01
This Belgian TV drama opens with a young woman being bothered by her own family. The opening credits are dull and there is no cultural nuance here. An icily implacable blonde female cop states and another female cop who is brunette seems to have no hidden depths or pathos. This is all hellish suffering, murky circumstances, vague lunacy and unignorable inextinguishable nihilism.
A man is a nark out of financial necessity. There are load and loads of potato faced characters in this show which is not undeniably compelling or riveting or harrowing. A homeless guy finds the body of the young woman. Why do the police wear armbands that look like something out of the SS? Nobody has good morals and this deals with contentious subjects and is not a crescendo of achievement.
There is no moral fibre and there are no morally upstanding people. The dead girl was pregnant and was presumably killed by her family. The blonde female cop seeks media attention. This show manages the not inconsiderable feat of making Belgium look devoid of decency or integrity. People have chilling indifference and no moral credibility. This is all bewildering banality.
This was not finely wrought and has charmless dialogue. The brunette female cop has a comatose mother. This psychodrama isn’t unsettling or compulsive viewing and is all lurid dullness. The dead girl’s creepy uncle is a suspect. Her mother is fine with her daughter being killed for being a domestic irritation. The uncle is smug.
A cop has a lame bitchy ex and a party girl daughter. People are emotionally inconsistent. The Turkish uncle is unassailable. The victim’s mother could care less. There is a mysterious text message. There is a horrible attempted murder. The killer is apparently killing according to the Ten Commandments with causualised sadism. No thank you, this makes no sense.
Best Lines:
“Their mums won’t let them go to Syria.”
“I don’t do lunch.”
“There has to be some DNA. He’s not Dexter.”
“His arrogant mug.”
“He couldn’t hack it as a bus driver.”
“You’re Brad Pitt in ‘Seven’.”
~
Kill All Others
This has nice opening credits and is based on Dick’s story ‘Hanging Stranger’. In a dystopian future, you can’t escape targeted advertising. A fat put-upon everyman broods. There is an upcoming election which apparently only has one candidate: The Candidate (Vera Farmiga). The fat dude notices there is something very wrong with his society and it leads him on a path that ends with devastating finality.
America now encompasses Canada and South America and maybe even the world. There is a uniparty system and the fat dude becomes aware of troublesome truths. A smartwatch is slapped on him. Privacy no longer exists and The Candidate spews meaningless phrases. Apathy is everywhere. The fat dude has no supportive home life and nobody seems to do anything.
The fat dude is called a manuelist for using public transport and his views are not sought. Nobody’s views are sought. Fat dude works in a factory where he is only one of 3 workers working at meaningless jobs. His colleagues urge him to buy stuff and don’t seem to care about him.
His sensation-free life is not emotionally resonant and he is stoically trying, he is unfavoured by his wife. Then The Candidate says: “Kill all others.” People seemingly ignore this but fat guy doesn’t. People have a lack of aspirations and drive but he becomes agitated and argumentative and makes a sad redemptive try.
He’s desperate for change; a work colleague mentions the old days and the Global Trade Agreements. Where did all the other factory workers go? Fat guy is an Olympian whinger as tries to figure out what kill all others means. People have chilling ambivalence and the world is defamilarised. Fat guy sees threats everywhere and cannot engage with society and becomes socially isolated. He not unreasonably cracks up and hits his wife.
Ever more dissatisfied with his life, he runs out on Maggie his wife and his overbearing neediness results in emotional wreckage. A transparent TV remote is wielded. Nobody ever explains who or what the much despised others are. Car licence plates are now barcodes. People chase a person. There are unintended consequences to his passionate conviction that something is very wrong. A body hangs from a billboard and nobody cares. This is okay if not stupendous. Nothing is reasoned and fat guy Phil faces more than career ruin as he is destroyed by the malign overflow of his society and the sense of intimidation grows.
Best Lines:
“Stop banging routers.”
“Yes us can.”
“Why are we all pretending like we have a choice?”
“Great meganation.”
“Who are the others?”
“A little other.”
“To invite observation.”
“Don’t want to talk political.”
“Situational facts.”
“She’s an other!”
“Do you see the sheep?”