jeremy3 Reviews

Freaky Friday (1976)

Last days of an innocent childhood

[7/10 · 28 December 2023]

I saw this movie as a kid and forgot about until the remake came out. I never saw the remake, but then wanted to see the original. It immediately reminded me of being a kid, the same gadgets in my household. There were some slightly adult situations, but for the most part kept things innocent. It reminds me of the days when a kid could still be a kid. The humor was corny, but it was funny in the way movies of those times were. I found myself laughing. Not a great movie, but reminds me of when movies were true entertainment. Everyone had a funny part to the movie. John Astin played the dad, but not as outlandish as on The Addams Family and Night Court. I remember Barbara Harris being pretty well known in the 70s and 80s. And Dick Van Patten as a boss. Reminds me of the days when there was so much pressure to conform and not make a fool of yourself in the neighborhood.

Agatha (1979)

Two Twenties and 78

[9/10 · 23 December 2023]

Released in 1978, set in 1925, and it is now the 2020s. With all the changes it almost seems like the 1970s movies was closer to the 1920s in time then from the 1970a to now. Wow. Things have really changed in the last few decades! This 1978 movie seems to be made at an opportune time to examine the last Century. Hoffman was not his often over the top characters we see in later films. His role as an American, impervious journalist trying to snoop out what was going wrong with Agatha Christie's life was surprisingly earthy and mundane. She was an ordinary English woman, extremely shy, sheltered, and private. Hoffman's journalist was typical Hoffman bravado, but this time his character was rather sensitive and could be hurt. Agatha's husband (Timothy Dalton) was having an affair, an sounded like the overconfident war hero, but there was a brilliance sense at all times that it was the 1920s, and the cocky military officer was himself confused about what role the husband should play in the 1920s. I felt that Dalton almost thought he had to be like Clark Gable, but he knew he was not a good nor strong man. That was a very well done undertone of the whole movie - the 1920s were different. So, the 1920s was the original 1960s, the gateway to explaining today. Everything was changing. Brash, overbearing, garrish class, flappers, the Charleston, jazz music, health spa treatments, and Mary Pickford. The movie brilliantly displays how in every way Hollywood movies was changing everyone and everything. The working class detective who is now sarcastically minding his Ps and Qs with the reporters. The American journalist who is treated with chateau brilliand because Big Money backs him, and the minor English reporter who has to beg his way to Christie's book signing. And women spending all their time at spas to be like Mary Pickford. All that and more was there, which is what great films are made of. The competition of the characters played by Redgrave, Dalton, and Hoffman where everyone wanted the happy Agatha, but no one knew who that was and how to reach her. Dalton, the husband who bores of the rather dull and repressive real Agatha, Hoffman, the journalist who seeks the ideal Agatha but finds there is too much there for he to handle and figure out and to be there for, and Redgrave who seems to find herself out of this prison she has built around herself.

White Water Summer (1987)

Very Good movie about being self-reliant

[8/10 · 12 October 2023]

Kevin Bacon plays the adult leader of a survivalist camp for some young teenagers. His character is complex with some mystery to it. While he is a being a mean, tough leader to teach the youths to be tough survivors, he goes too far and alienates them. He displays that then that he is a lonely person who craves being admired, and maybe is not so self-reliant as he pretends to be. That is real to life, as humans are all flawed. Sean Astin plays a neurotic boy, but one who also has a lot of inner toughness and maturity for his age. Another good point was that the youths were all sent off to this survivalist camp by their parents. It was very realistic that they would bicker with one another, cry, and finally cone together as a team. When they finally abandon their leader, their leadet falls off a ledge and is injured when he fights with them end. The adult leader finally finds out what it is to be helpless, and they all are good friends in the end.

The Way Way Back (2013)

Pretty good story about a youth entering the teen years

[7/10 · 4 August 2023]

I did not like this as much as Little Miss Sunshine. The movie is not so much a comedy, as about real life. The boy with his single Mom ends up staying for the summer in The Hamptons with a new boyfriend (played by Steve Carrell). Carrell is far from the perfect potential step father. He is selfish, strict, and not good at handling people. Marches in place of him is an owner of an amusement park played by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell's character is memorable. He seems immature, an adult still acting like a teenager. Yet, there is a lot more depth to his character. He befriends the boy and becomes an excellent mentor to him - helping him navigate the turbulence of the transition from childhood to adolescence. Steve Carell plays an unlikeable character, but at least at the end his character seems to have learned that he has learned that he has limits and has to try to be a better person. All in all, a pretty good film.

All These Sleepless Nights (2016)

A disappointing Hollywood type movie

[4/10 · 4 August 2023]

This movie had its moments, but was too unrealistic. Firstly, if the two main characters just graduated from college why were they not working? No answers. I have never been to Poland, but it is hard to believe that with no job and no career plans that a young man could live in a posh apartment in the heart of downtown. Were his parents incredibly wealthy? Only hint was when he trespassed on a property that belonged to his parents. If they were both college graduates why were they acting lower class? And how did they get into all the hip parties? How did they meet this beautiful young woman who seemed educated and ambitious, despite her pretense of being a flaky, druggie. All these and more questions were not answered, which made the good points to the movie less remarkable. For example, it was good to show that as a young man he was carefree, got into a relationship, ruined a relationship, became roommates with his best friend, decided to become a loner, and then discovered that he was someone who lived in fear and lack of empathy for others. Sometimes, the dialogue was very enlightening. Other times, the two friends sound like Beavis and Butthead, only not as funny. Maybe this theme is new in European cinema. In the US, these stories have become absolute overdone - the kids who party too much and have to learn to grow up or ruin themselves. But most of us, even ones who came from wealthier families, had gotten jobs. I have never been to Poland. I don't imagine many young people can float around forever without getting a job there.

No Small Affair (1984)

Not bad for a fantasy movie

[7/10 · 30 July 2023]

Of course, the whole plot is unrealistic where a nerd meets the most beautiful girl. It also was a comedy with honesty about how a lot of how we males felt during the 1980s. There was enormous pressure from movies, music, and just the world around us to grow up and succeed. Jon Cryer is a very good actor, and he shows a character who is raised by a single mom and just wants to be a successful photographer. Along the way, he meets a singer (Moore) who is his dream girl. There is the usual cliche of an 80s movies plot, but ending really sold the film to me. He did not exactly run away with the girl and live happily ever after. She had her own life to live and goals. However, I think the ending reallly nailed down how we males of the 80s generation did not have the machoism anymore, yet we were expected to be so much to become an adult. If an unrealistic fantasy, still it really showed the reality of societal expectations during the 1980s.

Tempest (1982)

Criminally Underrated

[9/10 · 6 July 2023]

I was old enough to remember 1982, and I don't know why it got such low reviews. The movie was exactly what life was like in the early 1980s. The old New York was disappearing, as an aging man discovers through his friends, such as a comedian who is still telling the same old ethnic jokes. John Cassavetes' acting is often overshadowed by his fame as a director. It was actually a surprise to find out that this was a Masurksky film, because it was right down Cassavetes' alley. Cassavetes is perfect as this career driven man. Don't people remember what their dads were like. Cassavetes was someone who was struggling with being the old fashioned male in a World that made him irrelevant. This was about the upper class, entertainment class of NYC at the time. Things were changing fast, and everyone was exhausting themselves by the pressures of keeping relevant. Molly Ringwald had one of her best roles, and it was one of her first ones. She is an innocent teenage girl dealing with parents whose marriage is falling apart, and her only consulation is watching Johnny Carson. Then, the family flees to Greece. They ended up on an island whose only permanent resident is this odd, hermit played by Raul Julia. Julia was great. Love the scene where he does the dance with the goats. I think the critics completely missed the point of the movie. All the acting was great. It was about burnt out people who had nothing left to offer anymore. It mirrored what was happening in the early 80s. I would say that the plot was not all over the place, like the critics claimed back then. It had a definite point of view, and it was a strong one.

Sami Blood (2016)

Went so far that became in itself "racially biased"

[5/10 · 3 June 2023]

Why? The movie did a great job portraying the discrimination that Lapp or Sami people faced in 1930s Sweden, but the ethnic/racial component went too far. Swedes are Germanic peoples. So, in attempting to dramatize the discrimination the suggestion was that Lapp people were darker complexioned and the majority of other Swedes were blond and blue eyed. Absolute nonsense. The Germanic peoples were one tribe of people who came into Europe from Asia during the early Christian Era. Also, at roughly the same time from potentially the same areas of Asia came Slavic and Finno-Ugric peoples. The Finns, Latvians, Estonians, and Hungarians are Finno-Ugric. The Celtic peoples came into Europe about a thousand years earlier, probably from roughly the same areas as the latter migrants. Lithuanians, Albanians, and the Basque are perhaps the only peoples in Europe that descend from the original peoples - Stone and Metal Age peoples, such as the makers of Stonehenge were. And Europeans are from a series of migrations. One can find fairer people in southern Europe and darker complexioned people in northern Europe. But one thing is fairly clear, the Mongols came less than a thousand years ago through central Europe. They probably did not extend very far north or very far south. So, the whole idea that Lapp people are somehow darker complexioned than other Swedes is laughable. That aside, what really was at the basis of this movie, and should have been made clear was that the Lapp were, and maybe still are, a marginalized group. Comparable peoples in the United States would be mountain and hill peoples, the Cajuns, French Canadians, and various traditional religious groups. The most famous example of nonracial prejudice in the US was highlighted in the movie and film The Grapes of Wrath - where Oklahomans were discriminated against solely for coming to California in the expectations of work. That would be enough of a story regarding the Lapp's relations with the mainstream Swedes of the 1930s. The kookiness of so called "national socialism" - where because Lapps were traditional peoples who lives isolated and herded reindeer was made very clear. There was nothing wrong with the movie itself. It did an excellent job portraying the plights of the Sami woman and her people. But sadly, her boyfriend is portrayed as blond. All but one Lapp school girl were non blond. The girls at the elite academy she got into were all blond and she was not. That seemed pretty ridiculous.

The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Donald Sutherland's Best Role

[9/10 · 11 April 2023]

What a great role for Sutherland, who is actually from a powerful Scottish Canadian family - probably the exact opposite of IRA. And Sutherland also later played another evil character in The Eye Of The Needle. In MASH Sutherland plays a nice guy who cannot help undermining authority (whereas in the novel Hawkeye is basically just a nice guy cutting corners to help out patients, like in the later MASH episodes Alda character). In The Eagle Has Landed Sutherland plays a charming, fun loving Irishman who uses it hide behind his rage that has joined with the Nazis to commit evil. One of the most interesting and charismatic bad guys ever on film. Seeing Caine and Duvall going outside their normal roles ones to be working for the Third Reich. These are the roles I love and many actors who have felt their roles have been too nice cherish the opportunity to be bad guys for once.

The Ipcress File (1965)

Very Realistic Spy Novel/Movie

[9/10 · 10 March 2023]

This film was set in London, not in some exotic location. This was the theme of the film. Harry Palmer (Caine) is a former prisoner recruited (the film suggests he was forced into doing spying for England). The film truly shows how dangerous it is to be a spy. Palmer can trust no one, even his bosses. He is trying to lead a decent life and loves gourmet cooking. However, right away he gets involved in a situation involving some company working with someone to develop subtle forms of torture via hypnosis. He thinks he is in Albania, but when he escapes the torture he discovers that he really is still in London. Then, he has to decide which of his superiors has betrayed him. His partner is bumped off at the beginning. He is tailed by an American spy, and accidentally shots him when he is caught in the middle of a hostage trade. I think that this is different than James Bond movies in that there is nothing romantic about the film. Palmer is a prisoner forced to spy for his country. He is treated with no respect by the British Secret Service. He is in constant fear of his life and can trust no one. The movie does an excellent job of showing that maybe spying is not really what it is cracked up to be.

The Lost City (2005)

Excellent Film

[10/10 · 19 January 2023]

Everything was there. A professor's family struggles with the realities of Cuba in 1959. The brutality and humanity was fully displayed. Andy Garcia plays the eldest son trying to run a nightclub, but having to deal within his own family the realities of torn allegiances. Although the movie had the typical Hollywood romanitization and stylilization with the bucolic scenery and love interest, it is easy to miss the real tension between the family members. The youngest son is the naive, idealistic, and rebellious "revolutionary" who believes that ending the reign of Battista will solve all Cuba's ills. His cousin discovers that he has paid too high a price when he has to liquidate the property of his own father. The widow of his brother who he is persuaded by his family to woo ends up being charmed into becoming part of Castro's regime. Bill Murray plays an American comedian with a sharp mind and cynicism about all that is happening. In the end, the hero ends up in New York City working as a dishwasher, but happy to feel more freedom. The woman he tries to woo visits him as representative of the Castro regime, but cannot convince him to return to Cuba to be with her. This movie had everything. Most importantly, it had a humanity to understand that families were torn and there were no easy answers.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Some interesting points

[6/10 · 2 November 2022]

This was a bleak and surreal time in history when tens of millions of innocent people lost their lives. This makes turning it into a comedy difficult. However, comedies should not be taken too literally. Comedies are lampoons of human nature. Obviously, most of the actors were Brits and Americans. Some things they got right is showing the mood of the people who were stuck in a society that had completely turned against the people. One senses how horrible it was to fear every word and every action one makes. That is how it was. It was terrible. The leaders were politicians. They were always manuevering and scheming against one another. They were brilliant in their terribleness. Although, I don't know how well the politicians knew American celebrities, I see it very possibly that they did. The elites were well aware of what was going on outside of the USSR. They were trapped by the own insanity that they created. Krushchev was not portrayed as a great liberator, either. He was just calmer, more rational, and more shrewd. One thing not correct. Stalin's son was killed within hours of Stalin's death by soldiers. He was an alcoholic and had a lot innocent soldiers sent to camps. The film showed the clear tension between the soldiers and the middle class, educated leaders. It was a relationship of fear, but also one where soldiers and ordinary people knew that their leaders were elite. Kruschev was the first leader who came from peasant background.

The Rockford Files: Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You (1977) Season 3, Episode 13

Decent Rockford Episode

[8/10 · 25 October 2022]

Cleavon Little did not seem to have many lines. However, Simon Oakland was given a bigger role, and was very believable as a hard luck former PI. The main thing that interested me was the Brian Libby character named MacCreery. He looked stunningly like Adam Baldwin from My Bodyguard and Ordinary People. Although these movies were made just three years later, Adam Baldwin was born in 1962 and would have been just 14 at time. Creary went on to play in such films as The Shawshank Redemption. I love the Rockford Files. This would be considered an average episode in the middle part of the series. This episode wasless glamorous and showed the more dull day to day life of a PI.

Red Lights (2012)

Not a bad movie, but predictable

[5/10 · 16 September 2022]

Very few films want to risk a plot that is unexpected, because they fear it will not sell. Such is the case here. The pychic played by DeNiro was so over the top. The ending was a typical ending where the young man played by Cillian Murphy turns out to be a real psychic. The movie would have been so much better if it just revealed them all as illusionists, but very believable illusionists. I liked the acting, and it was an entertaining movie. It is still not clear what happened with Sigourney Weaver's character. How was her character destroyed? There did not seem to be a clear answer to this. So, this movie is entertaining, but does not really make a brave statement that people want to believe in psychics, but it is clever illusions. Maybe show that the faith within it sometimes does result in miracles.

In Like Flynn (2018)

Skip the first hour

[3/10 · 15 September 2022]

It is hard to tell whether there was any truth to this, or just the boastings of an egomaniac. Someone he escapes an Indonesian tribe at the beginning. Nearly everyone else is killed, including a native. Then he gets in a fight with a man clearly way out of his league and somehow wins. In addition, he later gets in a fight with someone who nearly kills him, but somehow he gets up and wins. No permanent scars or damage, eh? Finally, the movie settles down when Erroll Flynn and three other men sail on a sloop to find gold in New Guinea. In the end, we find a little bit more finally about who these four men are, and their stories and personalities. Even then there was a ridiculous seen where one of them men gets stuck on a sail in the ocean. He is wearing shoes. From personal experience, don't try swimming with shoes on. These are supposed to be hardy men, but this man does not just take off his shoes and probably disentangles himself from the sail just by doing so. Seems hard to believe that a very good swimmer would drown this way. The scenery was great, and I believe this was the rough and hardy Australia and New Guinea of the 1920s. But then again, hard to believe four men could escape two dozen police officers.

His Girl Friday (1940)

Better than Network

[9/10 · 15 September 2022]

This movie was an excellent indictment of The Media, and scary. It is apparent that already eighty years ago things were getting bad. Information brokerage is the key, a frightening way that newspaper tidbits can change reality at the drop of a hat. The love triangle between Grant, Russell, and Bellamy was brilliantly played. Grant plays a ruthless reporter who will do anything to report the news. Although this was way before the advent of the Internet and cell phones, there were phones all over the reporters' office. It was almost like a horror film - Don't answer the phone. It can change your life. Russell plays another ruthless reporter who decides that maybe she needs to quit and settle down with her new fiance, Bellamy (Trading Places). Bellamy's character is critical. He is the nice, stable guy who is not a reporter. Grant's character was once married to her, and it is his object to win her back by appealing to her addiction to reporting. Outside the reporter's office is a hangman's noose for someone accused of killing a police officer. The suspects guilt or innocence is irrelevant in the "info wars" of the Media. The cowardly mayor (Gene Lockhart - father of June) wants to execute him until the phone rings. It is hard to keep pace with the screwball comic pace, but it was not just another comedy. It was about how new information to reporters is everything. The Mayor repretends to be this conservative, proud, and moral man, but he is up for re-election. With every new phone call to the reporters a new twist in the story about the police officer who was shot. One moment the mayor is supremely confident of re-election, the phone rings, and all of a sudden he is backing off and changes his story to save himself from losing the election, or even prosecution. This movie was a great satire about the Media, and it is even more scary than comic.

The Party (1968)

I Love This Movie

[10/10 · 5 September 2022]

It was even better than the Pink Panther movies. Although some people think a white man portraying an Indian is racist, it is Peter Sellers! Sellers was believable as an Indian, and the movie was a comedy - so filled with stereotypes. Actually, though, Sellers' Indian is the least comical and most human character. He played an Indian Clouseau, but his clumsiness was a complete satire of 60s Hollywood. The usual stuffy, humorless studio bosses thinking of only dollars and cents, and an Indian actor ruins their film but is accidentally invited to their party of snobs. He is clumsy, but were they really the cause of their own demise? The bored waiter who gets drunk. Sellers' character does not drink. He is life in this dull party. The old studio boss scowls and complains about his crazy wife who is obviously bored to tears with suburban housewife life. Gavin MacLeod's character practically rapes a woman. And along come the bored children of the stuffy suburbanites to polish off the stuffy party. This movie really captures the spirit of Hollywood in the 1960s, and is funny and heartwarming at the same time. "Birdie Num, Num" was classic. Most of the actors were relative unknowns as well. This made one of the coolest and most fun movies I have ever watched.

Meet Joe Black (1998)

Ready for your close up, Mr Pitt?

[5/10 · 5 September 2022]

It seemed like there was a deeper meaning trying to be sent, but the movie became just another wishy-washy cliche. It was about an aging man (Hopkins) who discovers that money and power does not make the most meaningful existence. At times, I could see how it was trying to show people to enjoy every blessing one has while it lasts - fully. The Pitt character was problematic. It seemed like three hours was spent trying to show off his cute hair do. At times, he seemed in characters, at other times just unbelievable. What was the whole thing about peanut butter all about anyway? At the end it had became a bit like the Oscars. And "Here is Sir Anthony Hopkins collecting another Oscar". And "Brad Pitt gets another award for saying not much and looking cute". We were waiting for the movie to finally end, and hoping that it would at least not be the same old cliche ending in every other movie for the last hundred years. But, it was entertaining at times, and sometimes had a point. It is far better than the nonsense Pitt has been in lately.

Downton Abbey (2010–2015)

Preferred Gosford Park

[5/10 · 4 September 2022]

Gosford Park seemed more real. The American film stars were mingling with the 20s upper class Brits. The differences between the servants and their employers was stark. Downton Abbey started out fairly good. I especially liked the episode where one of the daughters is snubbed by the fiance's wealthy Jewish family. It showed that minority groups in England were also conscious of their own identities and social statuses. But, then the show started to throw in all the more modern social issues and it started to become less real. Now, there is this new movie about the family in later decades. I used to joke about a movie called Rocky - the Old Man. It came true. It was called Rocky Balboa. My joke is that there will soon be a movie called Downton Abbey - The Hippy Commune. Now, this seems like a real possibility.

International Falls (2019)

Waste of time

[1/10 · 28 August 2022]

This movie was horrible. I was surprised that it was allowed to be filmed in International Falls. The movie makes fun of the people living there, and not in a funny way. I do not think the makers of this film knew anything about International Falls. The main character was pretty nasty, openly swearing and insulting. The woman in the story had a husband who was nice, but he had been unfaithful. She acted like a spoiled child about it. It must have not been the extramarital affair that was the real message of the film. I don't know people's personal lives, and I do not want to. It is more complex than that. I think the real message was that the husband was a "square". I cannot find an redeeming qualities in this film.

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

A tale of two parts

[6/10 · 7 August 2022]

I did not see the Five-Hour Version, which may well explain my disappointment in the last part of the movie. The first half of the movie was very good, in that it seemed historically accurate about life in 1907 Uppsala. Fanny and Alexander were the children of an upper class father. It is so refreshing to see movies from the best, because nowadays filmmakers jazz movies up so much that in the end the movie is ahistorical .

My biggest disappointment was after the father, a successful actor, passed away. This is claimed to be Bergman's most autobiographical film. If so, he comes off as a self indulgent whiner. The movie turned into a Swedish version of Jane Eyre. I liked Bronte's book, but I thought she went overboard in caricturizing the male priest who ran the school Jane Eyre went to. In the zeal to indict all religion and all authority in the 19th and early 20th Century, authors often went too far.

This was the problem with the bishop that the mother married right after her husband passed away. She remarried literally days after his passing, and then claimed that she was ready for a committed relationship. The bishop was portrayed as a psychopath for merely wanting to remove stuffed toys from eight or nine year old kids, Fanny and Alexander. Then, Bergman engages in surrealistic fantasy. It would have been okay if that was what the movie was presented as from the beginning. It got very confusing towards the end, and I think that a better endung would have been not so dramatic as that the bishop dies under intricate circumstances. Show the boy at Age 30 still torn and confused about what to feel about his step father. Was his step father too strict, because he was teaching his step children how to survive as adults, or was he just a self centered sadist. That would have made this an outstanding movie.

Grand Prix (1966)

A Masterpiece

[10/10 · 30 July 2022]

The best car racing movie ever. It has everything. The camera work is amazing. All the colors and imagery to perfection. The acting was great, too. The characters and their lives were realistic and complex. The drivers loved racing, but they had their doubts. It was a strain on marriages, and quite dangerous. There is a great scene where the drivers are on a very wet track. It really brings the thrills and dangers of racing into focus. The scenery was very beautiful along all the race tracks. I do not know much about the Grand Prix, but it is a series of races in, not just the participating countries of Europe, but also in places like Mexico. This is a great film, through and through.

East of Eden (1955)

One of the few movies I prefer to the novel

[9/10 · 12 June 2022]

I was not a fan of the long novel by John Steinbeck. I like his other works, such as Of Mice And Men, Travels With Charley, and The Grapes Of Wrath. I thought that Steinbeck in this novel was trying to compete with Hemingway too much to show what a He-Man he was. The course, vulgar language in the novel was annoying, and the novel way too long. However, when it comes to the movie it was nearly perfect. Of course, all three of Dean's major films were wonderful. His complex relations with his brother and father with a mysterious mother who disappeared. It was a much more fun movie than the book was.

Chain Lightning (1950)

Quite an unusual role for Bogart

[7/10 · 12 June 2022]

Bogart's typical role was as a villain or a detective. This was quite a different and surprise role for Bogart that truly required his best acting skills. The movie had the typical cheesy love story of the time. However, the rest of the movie was quite authentic. Bogart plays a former WWII ace. One gets a real sense of what it was like to fly those planes and jets. In fact, although I have never flown a jet, I found that it was quite realistic. After the war, Bogart cannot make a living so he works for an aviation pioneer flying the latest jets. It was truly amazing how fast the planes/jets got within just a few years after WWII. Going from maybe 400 mph to 1400 mph. One really got the impression that it was a rat race at that time to develop any plane that could break a new record. I was really impressed by this movie, because it is one of the least known and more atypical Bogart roles.

Imma Tataranni sostituto procuratore (2019– )

Promising, but too filled with drama and cliches

[5/10 · 2 June 2022]

The main actress is very entertaining and dynamic. The relationship with her husband and daughter is well developed. I watched the first five episodes. The problem is that by the fifth episode, it was making the same mistake of so many failed detective shows - trying hard to stir up drama to the point that it loses its identity. For example, the young newly appointed Marshall, Cagliaro, remind me of a male version of Brunetti's secretary. He was very sensitive and attentive to other's needs. But then they had to throw in things that did not make him seem nice, and his bosses perceived love affair with him. There were clear attempts to model the show from Don Matteo (the sentimentality, and the music seemed very similar to that of Don Matteo), and she seemed like a female version of Montalbano. In Young Montalbano there is the earthiness and edge. In Montalbano, the glamorousness. In almost all the episodes, the actor who played Mimi on Montalbano appeared. I was confused. Was he the same character, or was he a different character on each episode he appeared on? That was the problem I had with the series. I admit to not watching the last ten minutes of Episode 5, because it was trying to hard to stir up drama to the point of ridiculousness. I did like the main character, but there does not seem to be a clear direction. There is no Catarella, like on Montalbano, to provide comic relief. There is similarly no Marshall, like on Don Matteo, who is so ridiculously funny.