#TAGS:
secrets of life
thought provoking thinking
empathy and sympathy

acceptable suspense (developments predicted minutes before)
exceptional suspense (developments not predicted)

intense action
realistic effects

untraceable (natural) acting
dramatic acting

overdone sexiness

#COMMENTS:

oooooh boy my first rant on a short miniseries! close enough to a film.

so with the Russian version (apparently still most faithful to the original book) fresh in mind, here are my complaints:

1st is of course the PC BS. 1st I feel that the point is to degrade the upper class (+2 servant of upper class) to the derogatory “uncultured” natives. changing it to soldier lose that symbolism hard. and have vera slapping the doctor huh?

lack of emphasis that a woman can perform all those earlier murders really kinda kept the females out of suspicion. Don’t know if it’s removed due to PC as well.

too much bad sex scene (vera and former lover and the killer). we get it. no need to taunt my johnny

speaking of which, no rape type encounter really works against the flow of the story. see in a stressful scenario as presented on the island, I can totally believe humans act irrationally and have fear etc. overpower calm thinking (not including the judge here ofc). However, without even a trigger (in fact it seems vera had been attracted to lombard for a while now), it’s hard to believe that she would go ahead and murder him because it is completely illogical to think he is the killer! He could’ve kill her whenever he wanted after obtaining the gun. Moreover, in this version, the fact that vera proposed to the judge to survive together means that she is content with living with a killer that does not want to kill her. And lombard even tried softer tone without the gun!

judge’s behavior is less dominant throughout, so it seems unlikely that he did not gather lots of suspicion given that he sits quietly while still giving away strong ideas and opinions.

Next, it should be noted that the general didn’t shoot his wife’s lover! that would not be that hard to tell in a war. It’s quite important that all the crimes were indirect and hard to prove in court, hence the judge’s vigilante behavior (I mean otherwise he could just charge them and do it the safe way).

It was kinda weird when vera just tried to swim and judge stopped her as well.

And also the “in a group or alone” crap. WAT? It makes no sense. If the killer if away then he could do whatever he wants! if someone innocent is away he could be killed! This is especially horrific when vera try to do the same after judge is off. hello?! you have 2 people not with the rest now! The separation by stairs is not that big! And why then would you all go separate to own rooms? In the russian version, the doctor is with the judge, which made a lot more sense.

what’s the motivation for the copper to stay behind again? just some noise because he’s high?

now towards the end. sure the revolvers do not automatically discharge bullets, but would the judge really want to play russian roulette? (unless it’s super obvious if one handles a gun frequently enough?)

Not to mention that under the jaw shot is clearly not plausible when the shooter is at the other end of the table. Apparently the book was a lot more elaborate (russian version also suffice. I mean what does it matter that it looks like he killed himself? maybe just an old men got scared. easy enough to leave a fake note.)

also the figures at the end… why in hell did he want to restore it to 6 standing??? satan or a goof?

speaking of details, someone else in IMDb forum also mentions that the kind of prison hanging device is all bullocks. that sucks but luckily for the producers I didn’t know much about that.

overall the show does feel like it’s dragging on a bit long. A lot of first two episodes are kinda uninteresting. And the island has too big of a plain really. Sometimes the cinematography feels a bit melodramatic as well.

(there were a few overused (as in from other pop culture references) phrases here and there. throw me off my immersion. but I could not remember exactly what it was now.)

and as far as casting goes, vera’s lover lombard looks too young and yummy. not spent enough given his background.

FINALLY here’s what’s good about it: the conversation between judge and vera! It was a pleasant surprice that trumps the soliloquies or the novel’s text in a floating bottle methink.

It was a nice touch to see the hook early on. as suspense for newcomers and sinisterness for us who is already spoiled.

Also the detective’s homoerotic tendencies, per some other IMDb guy’s observation, is an interesting touch. (provides weird motives for dominance over young boys, for example)

The judge and vera were acted out pretty great. I enjoyed the floating on the sea casually in full make up flashback. it sends the chill right up your spine. would’ve been even more perfect if we could here the boy’s scream at the same time. yaaaks.

#TAG SCORE: 16