Re: Spiral ( season 7)
Originally Posted by
John
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I've watched Spiral from the beginning. What I like about the actors is, they've all got lived in faces, especially Roban, so you can believe in the story as it unfolds. Certainly beats some of the dross, that some of our homegrown series throws up!
The lack of new programming on TV and the paucity of genuinely "original" material on streaming services * has encouraged me to delve back into the "drama" archives of BBC and "Spiral" is one of the series that I have begun watching.
I would guess that I never watched it in 2006 because I had better things to do than watch a "Hill Street Blues" French rip-off with the lead roles apparently reversed.
Not so nowadays .....
The French, as we know, do almost everything "their" way and "Spiral" is no exception" - it may well be a "Hill Street Blues" French rip-off but its' very idiosyncracy makes it interesting.
I watched the first series (8 episodes) over 3 days because viewing continuity is required to make sense of the plots and sub-plots but was left dissatisfied with all the loose ends left at the end .....
I started the second series hoping to see the resolutions from the first series but was disappointed - nevertheless, the high production values (and low moral standards) have proved compelling .....
* Are streaming algorithms really damaging film?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56085924
Video streaming services have boomed during lockdown. Film director Martin Scorsese, in an essay for Harper's magazine, has warned that cinema is being "devalued... demeaned and reduced" by being thrown under the umbrella term "content".
He specifically criticised a lack of curation on streaming platforms, saying algorithms, which provide recommendations based on individual or collective viewing habits, are damaging the art form and "treat the viewer as a consumer and nothing else".
But just how do these algorithms work and are they really as culturally damaging as Scorsese suggests?
Algorithms work out what you're interested in and then give you more of it - using as many data points as they can get their hands on.
The entertainment industry increasingly relies on this concept to keep audiences watching.
Indeed ..... most "content" is just "more of the same" .....
..... but that's whole new can of worms .....