Falcón

I watched two episodes from Netflix. It was a painful, character-building challenge to sit through them:

* The storyline is confusing, murky, and meandering with flash-backs, flash-forwards and flash to I don't know where.

* The acting is weak ranging from A to B, and limited to long stare reaction shots.

* The dialog is clichéd and predictable.

* The blood and gore is gratuitous. It only exists to inject some excitement into the dreariness.

* The British accents are jarring when Spanish is expected.

* The lead detective is unprofessional and incompetent. He demonstrates terrible judgment and a complete lack of common sense.

* The sex is predictable and irrelevant.

Falcon is a waste of bits.

I agree with previous reviewers. Why set a series in Spain where no one speaks with a Spanish accent and the actors look as if they've been roped in from south of the Thames? Unsurprisingly, they all have English provincial accents, which would need subtitles to be understood, especially in America. This killed it for me. Also, Falcon, the so-called "brilliant detective", as he is billed in the promo, looks totally out of it most of the time, and bumbles from scene to scene, swilling some sort of suspicious liquid from a bottle. He has no street-smart skills, as one would expect from a seasoned detective, and gets clobbered by the "baddie" when he should have been paying attention. Basically he is an innocent at large. The first episode left the viewer hanging. The second, is little better. Some reviewers say each episode is 90 minutes, while the version I saw each was less than an hour. In an effort to be generous I ask the question: did a lot of it end up on the cutting room floor? In summary, the plot is convoluted and obscure, and frankly boring. Give it a miss.

While many reviewers are disappointed that the accents are English, I for one am thankful. Nothing is more distracting than having to read subtitles while watching a film which usually means I'll have to watch it three times. And I'm especially grateful that it's not dubbed in English because that's even worse than having to read subtitles. I enjoyed the production, the actors and the storylines. And I especially loved seeing "Agent Carter "in her role as the not so grieving widow. My only complaint is that both storylines were too short. I think they could've expounded on each storyline to at least four episodes apiece. Jmho.

There was a lot to like about this series, but it had issues, too. I agree with the other reviewer who complained about the English accents. This is par for British TV series set in foreign locales. They seem to think that their audiences won't like it if it's too "foreign", so they make little effort to make the characters look like the locals or even give them an accent. This is odd, because so many British actors are great in roles with foreign accents.

The other issue I had with the series is that I found it very hard to follow. Those who are intimately familiar with the novels probably knew what was going on, but I found myself at sea much of the time.

Otherwise, the photography and the locale were perfect. I doubt that there will be another season for this series, but if there is, I hope they provide a little more exposition to make it easier to follow.

With all the UK actors currently in USA playing American characters, Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Awake, House, Homeland to name but a few, why was this series filmed with very English accents, even the Spanish waiters. Documents were in Spanish but all accents could have been an episode from a UK crime drama, beautiful scenery but totally spoilt for us. Beautifully acted but no attempt to make it authentic despite being made for Spanish TV too, no doubt dubbed. Jason Isaacs, Damien Lewis, etc. I've read all 4 books but very disappointed. Unsure about Javier's drug taking, and why so British female characters too. Surely there are Spanish actresses available. Having watched 2 series of Romanzo Criminale in Italian with subtitles and being transfixed by the acting, something similar should have been done here.