chicago85

I didn't know what to expect. I am not a fan of reality shows. They had three young American women come to Paris and spend ten days in a nice hotel. They giggled like high school girls and were hopefully to find romance. It turns out they were given a script each day to follow. From the start they met three men who were apparently pre-selected for "meet cute" situations. None of the men were listed by name in the credits.

Nothing happens much except for a few kisses, dancing and meals. I don't see any of these pairings turning into a serious relationship. There were a few conversations between the couples on what they wanted. One woman was 4 months out from a thirteen-year relationship and wanted another long-term commitment,

Abot the best that can be said is that the six people had a nice expense paid time. The budget was listed as an estimated $100,000 which is really barebones,

In the past year I have seen several dramas where scenes are almost pitch black. Even when I turn up the monitor as high as it will go. Then I read a lot of people also noticed this trend.

They said one director decided it was more dramatic to make scenes dark to cast a somber mood, well, monkey, monkey do.

Episode three is almost pitch black. I realize all they had in that period was gaslights and candles. But this is ridiculous.

The acting is excellent and the scripts true to the period as well as I can tell. They haven't tried to prettify life nor make it politically correct or woke. This getting to be a real problem.

This series is available on You Tube. However, it is posted in two parts running over three hours each and called Conclusion. It was created by a company called Epic Media which has other high-quality movies and is in Russian with English subtitles. I noticed they have made some shows available in other language subtitles as well.

The plot concerns a married woman surgeon who writes prescriptions for a few patients who are both poor and in great pain. One of them becomes homeless and is a murder victim. This leads to her being arrested and convicted of violating drug laws although she did not profit from her actions.

This leads to her daughter and husband leaving her. She then accepts a deal from the police to work as a coroner in a work release program while wearing an ankle monitor. She takes part in several suspicious death cases while being overseen by a homicide detective. Things do not go well between them and there is no romance.

This show has almost no ratings. Most rated it as a 7 but 4 people gave it a one dragging it down. Perhaps they did not like some aspects as to how Russian life is portrayed. It is shot in real locations and not a studio. There are scenes of how badly foreign immigrants have to live in slums and exploited, political corruption, blocks of vandalized and empty buildings as well as expensive homes and cars of the elites.

Another series on You Tube is called Professor and set in turn of the century Russia and called Professor. It has decent plots and what are lavish costumes and settings. It is based on a sort of Sherlock Holmes amateur detective. It is obvious a great deal of money was spent on it.