I have finally got to watch this after finishing the first three books. I had enjoyed the books at first but lost that as they went along. The first thing I was wondering was how Rufus Sewell was going to fit as Zen. To put it bluntly he's too much of a looker to play the man in the books.
As soon as I started to watch the first episode the opening credits grabbed me. They're just wonderful. See for yourself
They had altered the timeline of the books so I knew things weren't going to stick entirely in concrete. I'm glad they gave each episode 90 minutes. Any more condensing of the stories would not have worked. I really enjoyed the first two episodes but found the third to be weaker. It stretched the characters into nudging panto territory. Strange, as this was my favourite of the books. I'd say the books had been condensed, certain characters given more to do and some less. But all in a way as to make the stories fit into their 90 minutes. Pretty well adapted if you ask me.
The strangest part of watching was the accents. Nearly all British and from all over Britain. It just didn't seem to fit somehow. I didn't desire them all to be speaking in cod Italian accents but this was weird.
The cast did a great job, especially Sewell. He gave his character a lightness that made him fun to watch. No brooding, alcoholic, miserable detective here. He may be too good looking to be the Zen of the books but he made Zen on screen his own.
I sincerely hope another company does pick up the rights. As the BBC can't seem to gain the viewers needed to shoot on location, in HD, across Rome :-(
4 out of 5 pawprints
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1 comments:
Interesting comments! I really enjoyed the series but I haven't read the books, so was blissfully unaware of any inconsistencies until you mentioned them! :)
As for the BBC not being able to afford it - well, they managed to find the money for the shamefully poor Outcasts. now that they've axed that maybe they could fund a new series of Zen?
Let's be honest though, Zen's axing had little to do with ratings and more to do with Danny 'New Broom' Cohen breezing in and sweeping out his predecessors commissions. Standard BBC practice through the decades...
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