Spiral (Engrenages) Series Four

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 82
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    parthena wrote: »
    In two episodes the team have been tailing a baddy's car and the message has been phoned thru by the tailer "They're turning gauche" - but each time the car was shown turning droite. Did they reverse the 'film' or what?

    I noticed that (once anyway) - it even said left on the subtitles so I knew it wasn't my hazy GCSE French! I wondered if they turned left then right straight away but the camera moving between the two cars made it difficult to tell?
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,550
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    parthena wrote: »
    In the list of Euro-dramas I would place Montalbano higher - hope Straker doesn't follow this thread :o I watch that when I want a warm and cuddly, insightful companion...


    Ahem.......

    You could get the same effect as a Mentalbaldo ep anytime you want simply by reading a travel brochure over the shoulder of a short, stocky bald man as he queues in an Italian deli. It’d be worth the effort if it meant not having to actually sit through an episode again! :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 9,517
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    Straker wrote: »
    Ahem.......

    You could get the same effect as a Mentalbaldo ep anytime you want simply by reading a travel brochure over the shoulder of a short, stocky bald man as he queues in an Italian deli. It’d be worth the effort if it meant not having to actually sit through an episode again! :D

    Inspector Monty is nothing like as soft as you suggest. Just like the other Euro dramas virtually every episode is about drugs and illegal immigrants. Each episode does , I admit , contain shots of attractive girls on mopeds, and very elderly men living in shacks, but it's not like Midsomer for instance.

    And Monty and the rest of them manage to have a shower and a change of clothes each day unlike in Spiral, and it is filmed in sun light .:D
  • 1066andallthat1066andallthat Posts: 1,793
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    I'm really sad that Spiral does not seem to attract the same interest as many other foreign language BBC4 programs.

    I think Laura is a fantastic character.

    I love the fact that there has never been any questions or references to the fact that she is a woman who is a team leader in a tough, "The Sweeney" style team.

    I posted a hidden "spoiler" early in this thread.

    Basically, I said that you should not go to IMDB and look at the credits for each episode.

    I had done that and I was shocked at the credits for episode 9 vs. episode 8.

    As such, I'll be watching episode 8 with interest...
  • doom&gloomdoom&gloom Posts: 9,051
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    I think Laura is a fantastic character.

    It's Laure :p
  • 2-Pot Screamer2-Pot Screamer Posts: 34,238
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    Escoffier's got himself in a right pickle (as they say in France)...
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    Uh oh! I'm worried about Tintin.
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    I posted a hidden "spoiler" early in this thread.

    Basically, I said that you should not go to IMDB and look at the credits for each episode.

    I had done that and I was shocked at the credits for episode 9 vs. episode 8.

    As such, I'll be watching episode 8 with interest...

    I'd never put too much faith in what IMDB says, it's notoriously inaccurate. Plus someone being missing from an episode doesn't necessarily mean anything ominous.
  • 2-Pot Screamer2-Pot Screamer Posts: 34,238
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    I've forgotten who "Sami" is. :o
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    I've forgotten who "Sami" is. :o

    I don't know him at all, but I never saw series 1 or 2. I'm assuming he's one of Laure's exes. I'm not googling though, in case I get spoilers.
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,550
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    david1955 wrote: »
    Inspector Monty is nothing like as soft as you suggest. Just like the other Euro dramas virtually every episode is about drugs and illegal immigrants. Each episode does , I admit , contain shots of attractive girls on mopeds, and very elderly men living in shacks, but it's not like Midsomer for instance.

    It’s nothing more than a vicarious televisual package holiday for sun/sex/food/starved Brits. I notice that your defence of the show missed out that pillock in Baldo’s police-station, the piss-poor comic relief circa 1975.
    david1955 wrote: »
    And Monty and the rest of them manage to have a shower and a change of clothes each day unlike in Spiral, and it is filmed in sun light .:D

    Thankyou. You just proved my point! :D

    It’s depressing that Mentalbaldo gets 1m+ whilst quality like Spiral is struggling.
  • FranglaisFranglais Posts: 3,312
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    Just wondering whatever happened (a couple of episodes ago) to that bloke who was in the same cell with the other chap who burnt himself to death? Before that chap died he told him where some stash was hidden on a building site. After he was released he went there and collected it then, after a struggle, fled right under the eyes of the flics.
  • the_lostprophetthe_lostprophet Posts: 4,172
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    Oh my God those eps were awesome - series 4 has really got into its stride now! Grinned like a loon when I saw that Samy had returned! :D Now Laure will have to choose between two chaud men - a hard life eh?

    Had to chuckle at Roban's line about "looking for a slap". Was that translated properly? Sounds so out of character for him. Also laughed at la redhead slapping drippy Sophie around the chops - she seemed to do it to try to calm her down but it didn't. :D:p

    Oh and...Samy's back! ;)
  • the_lostprophetthe_lostprophet Posts: 4,172
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    Elanor wrote: »
    I don't know him at all, but I never saw series 1 or 2. I'm assuming he's one of Laure's exes. I'm not googling though, in case I get spoilers.

    He was an undercover cop that worked with le blunder squad in (I think) series 2 and yes Laure and him had a fling.

    By the way here's the Guardian episode blog for this week:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/mar/02/spiral-state-of-terror-series-four
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 9,517
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    Straker wrote: »
    It’s nothing more than a vicarious televisual package holiday for sun/sex/food/starved Brits. I notice that your defence of the show missed out that pillock in Baldo’s police-station, the piss-poor comic relief circa 1975.



    Thankyou. You just proved my point! :D

    It’s depressing that Mentalbaldo gets 1m+ whilst quality like Spiral is struggling.

    I thought it best not to mention him. There are only so many times (once) you can laugh at a bloke falling through a door. Anyway , now for Spiral, I just hope I can follow it a bit better than last week ,
  • Vexille1Vexille1 Posts: 985
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    I noticed that (once anyway) - it even said left on the subtitles so I knew it wasn't my hazy GCSE French! I wondered if they turned left then right straight away but the camera moving between the two cars made it difficult to tell?
    The subs were correct. You're confusing the direction with the fact the special branch team was using the term 'gauche' to mean 'leftists'.
  • the_lostprophetthe_lostprophet Posts: 4,172
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    david1955 wrote: »
    Inspector Monty is nothing like as soft as you suggest. Just like the other Euro dramas virtually every episode is about drugs and illegal immigrants. Each episode does , I admit , contain shots of attractive girls on mopeds, and very elderly men living in shacks, but it's not like Midsomer for instance.

    And Monty and the rest of them manage to have a shower and a change of clothes each day unlike in Spiral, and it is filmed in sun light .:D
    Straker wrote: »
    It’s nothing more than a vicarious televisual package holiday for sun/sex/food/starved Brits. I notice that your defence of the show missed out that pillock in Baldo’s police-station, the piss-poor comic relief circa 1975.

    Thankyou. You just proved my point! :D

    It’s depressing that Mentalbaldo gets 1m+ whilst quality like Spiral is struggling.

    It is annoying that Spiral isn't doing so well as Montalbano even though I enjoy both. But have you watched enough of this series to have an informed opinion? I also disliked it after the first episode because it was so different to the other subbed dramas I'd watched but it and the characters grew on me after a while.

    The fact it's filmed in sunlight doesn't prove the point that it's some kind of televisual wish-fulfilment for sun-starved Brits because a) the series is popular in Italy and elsewhere too and b) it can hardly help the fact it's set in sunny Sicily in the original books! In your protestations about this series it seems to me that you ignore the fact that it's a quite faithful adaptation from the books by Andrea Camilleri. To be so reductive as to say the series (and by extension the books) is 'nothing more' than a 'televisual package holiday' is absurd; the books and their analysis of the Italian justice system, politics and society are taken seriously enough to have been included in Mark Lawson's quite earnest 'Foreign Bodies' series on Radio 4. Montalbano himself was named after the Spanish writer, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán:
    The surrealist influenced novels of Montalban and his Barcelona gourmet PI Pepe Carvalho are discussed by Antonio Hill and Jason Webster. They explore the impact of setting novels in the Catholic country of Spain where post Franco, the transition to democracy and the role of the monarchy provide a rich contemporary history.

    In Italy an engagement with modern politics involves grappling with the influence of the Mafia - a plotline which you find in the novels of both Andrea Camilleri and his predecessor Leonardo Sciascia. Mark Lawson travels to Rome to meet the creator of the Sicilian Inspector Montalbano.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nlby3

    Re. Catarella: there's apparently an Italian name for his kind of bumbling police officer who is in his position due to who he knows rather than his own talent. So rather than it just being a stupid attempt at comic relief, presumably Camilleri, in the books, is employing this idea; thus adding to the realism of the depiction of the Italian police (or perhaps how they were in the recent past - unsure as to whether these 'recommendations' still happen).

    In your focus on the presentation of the show plus Catarella, you haven't even said what you dislike about Montalbano himself, if anything! In short, simply to criticise the 'look' of the series and its characters as if it's just a series and not a decent adaptation of the books that Camilleri has written over many years leads to a narrow discussion of the issue.



    By the way it's unusual for barnsleykeith to not be contributing to a thread on subbed drama - hope he's okay!
  • deptfordbakerdeptfordbaker Posts: 22,368
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    These last two episodes are a bit too series 2 for my liking. Sami's back, gangster brothers, gangsters meeting in remote locations for deals. Maybe the writers really enjoyed writing season 2, but it was the one I liked the least. I don't like going over old ground with plots, hopefully it will move back to the immigration terrorists, which made it so exiting in the first half of the series. Judge Roban is still good though.
  • KennyTKennyT Posts: 20,699
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    overnights:
    ep 7 430k
    ep 8 357k

    K
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 82
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    Oh my God those eps were awesome - series 4 has really got into its stride now! Grinned like a loon when I saw that Samy had returned! :D Now Laure will have to choose between two chaud men - a hard life eh?

    Had to chuckle at Roban's line about "looking for a slap". Was that translated properly? Sounds so out of character for him. Also laughed at la redhead slapping drippy Sophie around the chops - she seemed to do it to try to calm her down but it didn't. :D:p

    Oh and...Samy's back! ;)

    Roban is brilliant- did wonder about the translation! Good to see Samy back too. I'm not sure whether to feel sorry for Sophie or just want to slap her the way Josephine did - she's so pathetic the way she so desperately wants to be in with the group and just whines to Thomas. I did think they were risking it by not keeping her on side though, she could (if she manned up and stopped mooning after that idiot) go and provide a lot of information to the cops. Why did PIerre think what she said to Josephine was true though, and why didn't Josephine defend herself? :confused:
    Vexille1 wrote: »
    The subs were correct. You're confusing the direction with the fact the special branch team was using the term 'gauche' to mean 'leftists'.

    No I'm not- I agreed with the subtitles, it was the actual direction of the car that disagreed with us both. in any case Laure et al were following Cetin, it wasn't Special Branch and the leftists, so they weren't referring to them. By the look of it it's just the timing and camera angles - Serge says they are turning left, then in the next shot they have the left indicator going but appear to go straight on, then turn right.

    Re. Catarella: there's apparently an Italian name for his kind of bumbling police officer who is in his position due to who he knows rather than his own talent. So rather than it just being a stupid attempt at comic relief, presumably Camilleri, in the books, is employing this idea; thus adding to the realism of the depiction of the Italian police (or perhaps how they were in the recent past - unsure as to whether these 'recommendations' still happen).

    In your focus on the presentation of the show plus Catarella, you haven't even said what you dislike about Montalbano himself, if anything! In short, simply to criticise the 'look' of the series and its characters as if it's just a series and not a decent adaptation of the books that Camilleri has written over many years leads to a narrow discussion of the issue.

    I agree, on first watch the setting and comic moments make Montalbano looks like a fluffy, Midsomer-style of show but there is certainly enough grit in it when you get into it, especially with the Mafia storylines. Re, Catarella - I haven't read the books (yet- I intend to) so don't know how he is portrayed there but how he is on screen seems to be pretty believable, i.e. someone harmless and loyal who has been in the same job their whole life and has their place and does it well but isn't trusted to do anything too important - aside from the odd time in which the whole team goes on a job (and he has an odd moment of glory, like shooting someone who was aiming at his boss) he is basically a receptionist, which seems to suit him fine.
  • doom&gloomdoom&gloom Posts: 9,051
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    Didn't know that Gregory Fitoussi was in Mr Selfridge.

    Roban really need to get a new haircut, he looks like an old woman.
  • the_lostprophetthe_lostprophet Posts: 4,172
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    Why did PIerre think what she said to Josephine was true though, and why didn't Josephine defend herself? :confused:

    I thought that was odd too but I guess it shows that Pierre fundamentally doesn't trust Josephine for a serious relationship, whatever he claims. You'd expect her to say that she didn't sleep with Thomas but maybe due to her self-esteem issues she sort of expects Pierre to have a low opinion of her and can't really argue with it. Either that or maybe she was momentarily stunned by what Pierre had said and couldn't react - as someone in the Guardian comments said.
  • babspankybabspanky Posts: 783
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    These last two episodes are a bit too series 2 for my liking. Sami's back, gangster brothers, gangsters meeting in remote locations for deals. Maybe the writers really enjoyed writing season 2, but it was the one I liked the least. I don't like going over old ground with plots, hopefully it will move back to the immigration terrorists, which made it so exiting in the first half of the series. Judge Roban is still good though.

    Oui! Je'taime Monsieur le Judge!

    At first I thought he was a strange fellow, but I really like him now. Plenty of character. I like Laure too and the dynamics in her team.

    I hope there will be another Spiral!
  • the_lostprophetthe_lostprophet Posts: 4,172
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    babspanky wrote: »
    I hope there will be another Spiral!

    Apparently series 5 and 6 have been commissioned.
  • babspankybabspanky Posts: 783
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    Apparently series 5 and 6 have been commissioned.

    Oh fantastic! Thanks for that!:D
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