mccgsm

At first we thought that we'd found our second Endeavour; a thoughtfully-written narrative of the collision and coalescing of two very different men, separated by age and faith yet united in a love of justice and the thrill of the chase. Early on, the interplay of secular and sacred values was fascinating as the characters discovered common ground while bumping into rifts between their values. And there are overarching cultural themes, as 1950s mores that seem rather strange (if not shocking) to contemporary culture. But rather than let that time period speak for itself, the series fell into a common trap for historical drama by insinuating contemporary moral values into the story lines, which runs the risk of the characters becoming rather improbable personas for the time period. By the end of the third season, that became so dominant and distracting that we lost interest and stopped watching the series.

As a "docu-allegory," this is a solid 7; the historicity is woven in pretty well, and the fictionalized account of his death deeply Christian and compelling. But as a biography, basic mistakes (referring to the Eastern Front years before Barbarossa) and moving the ultimate scene of his death from Flossenburg with his co-conspirators to an anonymous isolated farmhouse with a random group of strangers are a bridge too far. Perhaps Germany restricts such things, but to me it was a missed opportunity to not use Flossenburg for those critical scenes, much as Sophie Scholl--the Last Days used the actual guillotine that killed Scholl in the movie. At times, Bonhoeffer simply does not come through as the erudite theologian that he was, but more as a proof-texting Protestant. That said, this is a "must see" if you're willing to accept broad deviations from history, and not anticipate a deep theological journey. Lingering to watch the cavalcade of quotes at the end is more than worth the time. Bonhoeffer reminds us that every generation faces its evil; that every individual must either act, or let evil have its way; and that Christ is the One to guide that choice. And that is truly a timeless message.

How you can take the same cast and storyline and squeeze life and believability out of it, I don't know. You can find more believable Russian bad guys at Comic-Con. Honey is simply lame; I'm afraid she will fall asleep delivering her lines. Bosch struggles to be Bosch; cock his head and half-close his eyes. You get the feeling he's a B-list actor reading stage directions without ever seeing the original. Maddie seems to have come from some other universe-weak, and incredibly ignorant of what's a cop's world is like despite being a police survivor and rather of an LAPD detective, not to mention living through a major shootout. The action scenes have all the drama of an airport rental car center. They can't even get the radio chatter close to reality. Utter disappointment.