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FeeCJ's Replies


Agree completely. Hatufim is like watching a fly on the wall documentary, it's so real and cinema verite. The human stories are the entire centerpiece, as they wind their way through all the betrayals of both family and country. So unlike Homeland, which is full of its own importance. Homeland, another over produced, over written, over acted bloated Hollywood copy. It was fine enough to watch and I did out of curiosity at first, but I'd seen Hatufim before it and never took it seriously, as a result. I seriously doubt Raff had much to do with it....they bought his product and gave him a producer title. Homeland is pure Hollywood confection, and that's not what Raff had been doing before going to LA on this project to say the least. Just a guess. Totally agree! The brilliant people who wrote this could have likely written their way around the finality of Will's situation. But we'll never know. I did enjoy Badge Dale as Leckie in The Pacific later, so all was not lost, ha. What an actor. From Rubicon, then to Leckie in The Pacific. The latter so harrowing, it stuck with me and gave me additional respect for him as an actor. He was brilliant. Yes, like the <spoiler> ending when they pretty much recreated the scene between Higgins and Joe Turner when Spangler tells Will the same hard truths. </spoiler> Yes, DaveBowman. Likely, closer to the truth than we'd think! Cut a little too close to the bone for some folks in 2010. I just watched it again after it finally appeared through Amazon online. It also was such a smart show, old spy tv show and film references in the script were wonderful, and slow, methodical and beautifully acted scenes. Way too smart to last. Nothing against most viewers, but it was a kind of show for detail oriented viewers who like high concept stuff. Especially the Hitchcockian homage melded with intel deep state etc. Yes one of the best ever. Its parallels to real life were eerie. And you just know when the lead character shows up at work off the subway carrying a book he's been reading on String Theory...it's gonna be good! The casting and acting also was superb in all ways. All down, as well, to what had to be excellent directing. As some people here are aware, it is not accurate to say there were no transgender people in the '50s. I was around then, and Christine Jorgensen was the first person internationally known to have had transgender surgery. And she began in the early '50s to transition surgically. She was VERY famous. I think I even remember her on magazines like "Time" etc. She was big news and a very nice person in interviews. Enjoy! Was thinking of this show just the other day, and thinking how amazing the first episode was because it hit us between the eyes with its wonderful portrayal of Jane in the unwelcoming male squad room. But if I had only time to watch one episode, it would be the one with Peter Capaldi in a break-out performance in his heartbreaking portrayal of "Vera" as he's working in a drag club to raise money for his transition surgery. This was long before transgender was a political movement. It was just one man's story as he/she got wrapped up and damaged in a terrible crime involving the death of a young, beautiful rent boy that Jane is investigating. I still almost cry when I think of that episode......so much tragedy. And way close to the bone at the time with the goings on that had been rumored for years in the Dolphin House set. Hard to imagine Lynda LaPlante was not referencing that.... Yes, St. Pancras for sure. Iconic building. And as the poster said here, it was configured where before its rehab, a car could drive onto the platform---that gave us that amazing stunt! Last time I was there though,at just about the location inside where the racing car makes a guy jump aside to get away....i was sitting in a very nice chair at a table enjoying a martini in the posh bar that is there now..............:-)))) SPOILERS!!! I agree, we saw Caine's character had good reason to keep his mouth shut about the conspiracy that had taken place, especially as he just said in a disgusting way as he left that this was just all a game to them, so have at it. He was washing his hands to the reality of it. BUT.....did he really think being the only person in the UK who caught these two red-handed (no pun intended) enjoying their little victory.....that these two would NOT take retribution against Preston for KNOWING? We saw during the entire movie that every person who was taken into the plot and "in the know" was killed soon after they had served their purpose in a process of brilliant elimination by the next one in the line of the attack. Up to and including top man Brosnan's character himself, after he had killed Cassidy's character on orders from above---and SHE in turn had set the bomb to zero in order that is should go off immediately instead of 2 hours hence! Without knowing they had been ordered into mutual destruction. Every single person had been systematically murdered at every step of the way as soon as they had served their purpose. The plotters had eliminated every witness............then there is Preston seeing them together.....and....he's now the last witness. I would not have been placing a bet on Preston's longevity. He was the only loose end, and only by accident when he found the two plotters together. A False Flag operation is when two opposing sides, like the Soviets versus the British (and Americans), create and perpetrate some kind of major incident themselves, that can be crafted to look as though the other side did it. As in the case of this film, it was a classic false flag. The Soviets were planting a bomb to go off at a US base on British soil, knowing the bomb would be attributed to having been an accident that happened on the American base and would be seen as done by the Americans. The purpose was to damage the NATO alliance so badly after this "American" bomb went off, that it would break down the NATO agreement, because its largest member, the U.S., would be seen as persona non grata in Europe. Good bye NATO, the Soviet's most hated group then. Yes, John was great. Fierce, but at times he relented, <spoiler>like the unexpected jettisoning of Beamish because he attacked his nephew, which he found unacceptable. With a business to run, it came as a surprise that the driven businessman would so quickly make the choice to destroy the draw that Beamish was for his audiences. He scuppered one of his most popular acts! When, quite honestly, he could have said "I told you so" to his nephew and considered it a good life lesson. But guess in the end, he realized that Beamish really was a psycho, so maybe even though he was putting bums in seats at the theatre, it was best he be stopped. I have to say, Otterton's "revenge" against Beamish was so fantastic!!! Absolutely epic. What scenes did they eliminate? The version I've been watching seems to be taped from a live Australian airing at the time of its release. So I am suspecting ABC Australia back then got the original version from the UK since ABC's shows run an hour without adverts, too. The version on YouTube has the suffragrette and her husband approaching Ollanton to help their speaker, who is wanted by police, to "disappear" after her surprise visit to a hall to make a speech to a room filled with suffragettes and their supporters. Then it also included the "disappearing" act. So I'm suspecting this version has it all? <spoiler>So in the end they did seem to lean toward a rational explanation didn't they? But I enjoyed how they still left it a bit open to other local native mysticism. </spoiler> It was a very nice conclusion and seemed to balance the "unknowns" well. Yes yes yes. more Katy and Oleg. The interaction between them, especially their professional problem solving, leaves open all kinds of crime solving opportunities for them if the producers wish to do a follow up series about another "crime." They were both very intriguing characters....especially Oleg. It does seem so far anyway to be taking a measured approach to what happened to the young people. Oleg mostly is doing a kind of CSI approach. But there are slight hints that other ideas may come to the fore. But we are not far enough in yet to see where they are really going. The spiritual ideas were introduced when the students ran into the native people. But not much has been made of it yet. So far, Oleg the KGB investigator from Moscow, seems to have both feet on the ground, ha. Though, there is an interlude at the beginning in a flash back when Oleg was a soldier in the war and he and his squad ran in to some strange German castle that had odd associations and things going on that did not seem quite "of this world." Not sure what they will do with THAT experience of Oleg's, either, at this point. I cannot yet tell if Oleg is open to truly cosmic explanations, haha. The good news if believable is that EPIX that has picked up the show and already shown Series 1, has Series 2 slated for November '21 for 10 eppies concluding sometime in December '21. Yay!