In the world of series, which is today’s (and by my reckoning in tomorrow’s) the space is made up of drawers. The big ones (drawers) are the stories of police officers, thieves and murderers (with their own channel), doctors and nurses and finally, firefighters. If anyone is out there, sleeping poorly, without ideas for another series, remember that teachers can also be a very selectable professional class, with their recovery of service time and a permanent war with bureaucracy (although, in this particular case, many teachers play the role of the enemy), classrooms that are a pandemonium and the particular disregard for culture. To put them on the scene, there would be the eternal personal conflicts of those who live in the same spaces, in practically the only profession in the world in which experience is seen as anathema. If you want more topics, look in the stars, or under a red stone with red stripes. Within the police section (non-North American) I have seen everything: Nordics are almost always politically correct, but not excessively because the screenwriters are not stupid and know that we have already achieved this task. These are series filmed with a lot of snow, generally solid, good to watch between the 30th of November and the 28th of February, with a blanket over your legs. Generally speaking, the detail that makes the difference is perhaps the language, always so hermetic that it makes it seem like we are on another planet. Still in Europe, Italians and French follow; The Italians have everything, but nothing that comes close to Rocco Schiavone, as I already mentioned in one of my last texts. The French, with an appreciable installed industrial capacity, are not particularly distinguished by their subtlety: one of their series, “Murder in …”, made in different places with great tourist potential despite the views, abuses the use of local legends, usually linked to people who in the Middle Ages stewed opponents over low heat and served them on a tray, with vegetables on the side. Here too, perhaps due to the lack of inventiveness, we see more use of the soap opera strategy: the lovers are after all brothers and the crime is committed by a grandfather who everyone thought was making bricks. Other flaws are related to major issues; scenes that don’t stick, lack of care for people who walk in the mud and don’t have dirty shoe soles, cars that crash and appear without scratches: it seems that the Portuguese have already taught them something. And then we have the English series, almost all of which are good and recommendable, like Vera (Shetland and Endeavour, just to give you two excellent examples). Vera is an ITV (Star Crime) production and results (like the others I mentioned) in a kind of faithful depository of all the qualities of good British series: landscapes (not essential but important), complex and credible arguments; good actors and good actor direction; great humor and care with the details of the scene, which surpass the best North American series.
Vera Stanhope, played by Brenda Blethin, is a Chief Inspector (who likes to be called when she shows her gallons), simultaneously caustic and extremely human, qualities that are not easy to put on stage. The remaining characters all have their own quirks, which makes Vera great fun.
Tags: history contemplating today
