With Netflix series the major mystery to unravel for the viewers is: are the writers planning to bring this to a satisfying closure, or are they keeping everything open, in case the series draws enough viewers to make a second season? I always hope for the former and all too often am disappointed to find out it's the latter.
Five episodes into this series' first season, I am pretty sure it's one of those attempts to make a multi-season series. There are so many loose ends I'd call it a "spaghetti-histodrama" and not because of there being mafia included (there is). Every new episode at least 3 new characters are introduced and by now I can't even track anymore whether it's actually a new or a recurring character (wait, who was that woman in the church?)
In this dystopian alternative history, there are three levels of plots: there is international diplomacy/warfare going on, involving US, Russia, Poland, Iran, Israel and ... Vietnam (the Vietnamese connection is one of the weirder but more consistent plot lines) and it's not clear who's on which side. There is a looming civil war, involving local terrorists/resistance, the mafia, the police, the national security, the party system and the army, with foul play going on in each of those sides, while it's equally unclear which sides team up. And then there are multiple characters trying to figure out what happened to their families in 1983.
It feels like they had a team of 10 writers who brainstormed in isolation and when bringing together their story lines, no one wanted to sacrifice theirs.
A few exceptions aside -the naive party princess coming of age- the acting is not too great either but I reckon the actors had to recite their lines from script because how on earth can they figure out what their character would say in that situation. Which situation?
So why still 5 stars? I came for the Polish language and despite the fact that the native speakers seem to dislike the dialogues, I'm happy to hear the language at play. The screenplay is spectacular at times. And while they failed to choose among the zillion plots, most of them actually have great potential. The suggestion of a "reichstag"-alike event in 1983 is strong enough to support a whole series.
So I'll watch it till the end but I'm pretty sure I will be overall disappointed.
Five episodes into this series' first season, I am pretty sure it's one of those attempts to make a multi-season series. There are so many loose ends I'd call it a "spaghetti-histodrama" and not because of there being mafia included (there is). Every new episode at least 3 new characters are introduced and by now I can't even track anymore whether it's actually a new or a recurring character (wait, who was that woman in the church?)
In this dystopian alternative history, there are three levels of plots: there is international diplomacy/warfare going on, involving US, Russia, Poland, Iran, Israel and ... Vietnam (the Vietnamese connection is one of the weirder but more consistent plot lines) and it's not clear who's on which side. There is a looming civil war, involving local terrorists/resistance, the mafia, the police, the national security, the party system and the army, with foul play going on in each of those sides, while it's equally unclear which sides team up. And then there are multiple characters trying to figure out what happened to their families in 1983.
It feels like they had a team of 10 writers who brainstormed in isolation and when bringing together their story lines, no one wanted to sacrifice theirs.
A few exceptions aside -the naive party princess coming of age- the acting is not too great either but I reckon the actors had to recite their lines from script because how on earth can they figure out what their character would say in that situation. Which situation?
So why still 5 stars? I came for the Polish language and despite the fact that the native speakers seem to dislike the dialogues, I'm happy to hear the language at play. The screenplay is spectacular at times. And while they failed to choose among the zillion plots, most of them actually have great potential. The suggestion of a "reichstag"-alike event in 1983 is strong enough to support a whole series.
So I'll watch it till the end but I'm pretty sure I will be overall disappointed.