THE TEAM – pan-european disaster

I wanted to love THE TEAM – I loved BRON and I’m all for new TV formats. But this would-be copy of THE BRIDGE just wastefully uses great names like Lars Mikkelsen for characters I don’t care one iota about, putting them in the most beautiful settings just to have them talk. And phone. And talk some more. Mind you, the characters DO actually tend to talk about the story we’re supposed to learn (about three or four murders – who cares, really). But they’re doing their endless talking surrounded by visuals which 1. do not add to the story told; 2. distract from what is talked about; 3. sometimes make no sense at all and certainly do nothing to advance the story. No, brilliant, brilliant Lars Mikkelsen (even in the nude) cannot save this relentless amassing of small, stupid errors – whether it’s the script, the editing or the directing who messed up I can’t tell. However, even the “making off” is flawed, so I do strongly suspect it was a team effort (oh, the pun!). If the first episode (airing tonight on Swiss TV SRF and on March 8 on ZDF) would have been a pitch to the likes of HBO they’d have rejected it. Alas for a European project which starts off with so many great ideas* – I wish the filmmakers had read Truffaut about Hitchcock.

* to even make a series with a story spanning 8 episodes; to put it online first (thumbs up!); to film all across Europe (hopefully not only for the money to be had from the EU media project); to add to the endless ideas of putting kitchen appliances to a creative use (episode 2)

As suspenseful international crime series go – better buy THE BRIDGE [aartikel]B0079770Y6:left[/aartikel]