MovieChat Forums > The Romeo Section (2015) Discussion > Good concept but bad implementation. Se...

Good concept but bad implementation. Sell it to a US network.


Follows spymaster Professor Wolfgang McGee, an academic who secretly manages a roster of espionage assets. These assets, referred to as Romeo or Juliet spies, are informants engaged in intimate long or short term relations with state intelligence targets.

US-style remake of this series would emphasize college "assets" infiltrating high-level crime gangs and spy groups. Grease monkey hanging with wanna-be-but-never-will-be drug dealer and his ditz doesn't pique audience interest sufficiently.

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True. They did bring in the Asian drug cartel, but it's cliched. I find the writing uninspired, and same goes for the lackluster directing. Little sense of showmanship. There's no shortage of better-written options to choose from.

No surprise the story isn't a sizeable draw. Its first 2 eps were 333K viewers (total, 2+).


"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson

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I don't see much TV Canadian drama if any, so I don't think this needs a US-style approach. I would admit that I can't really believe the way the prof works as believable but the rest of the characters are great and I think the whole thing with the Chinese spying subplot really has tons of potential. It's not slick but that's in its favour. So tired of the typical 100-miles-a minute glut of information you get in your average US thriller that you can't possibly process and have to keep rewinding to know what's going on.


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'Life is in colour but black and white is
more realistic.'

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I don't see the value in framing a response to the show as a binary of either an "average US thriller" or the show as-is. If one finds the show flawed it doesn't mean the only alternative must be an average US thriller. It seems to me the fitting comparison would be a top rank slow-burn character thriller in the John LeCarre mode, from say the UK or the Scandinavian countries, since that is what this show (and its creator) obviously aspires to be.


"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson

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