recent viewing

streaming platforms like netflix are ripe with movies & tv shows from other countries esp. netflix a platform where anna & i have made all kinds of discoveries of productions from, for example, india, finland & cuba

& we have been on a mysteries & cop shows kick

this week anna & i have binged bordertown [2016-] a cop show set in a small town in finland that borders russia with lots of trade culture & crime between st petersburg, russia & lappeenranta, finland the characters are beautifully realized & the actors are not the pretty people that populate u.s. & british productions tho yes the actors are attractive but the characters they portray are gritty with faces & bodies to match this series is addicting & while the plots can wear a bit thin the characters direction photography score & editing more than make up for the occasional shallow writing

& i've discovered & watched last night the first episode of four seasons in havana [2016-] set in beautiful decaying havana, cuba we find a detective mario conde who smokes & drinks too much writes novels & falls in love too easily conde is a romantic who looks & acts as rumpled as his demeanor permits but it is the stunningly beautiful havana that complements the action holy shit is cuba gorgeous & as for conde's character i dig him i just wished that instead of novels [that he writes then destroys the manuscripts] the producers of the series made him a poet not because i belong to the poets' guild but because i think poetry matches the moods of the character i mean the dude lives & works in havana how could he not want to write poems