Terrible accents/below average story - Zen (2011) Discussion

[–] fred-889 13 years ago

One out of ten is a bit cruel for the accents. Would you rather them all try mock Italian 'Latin-lover' accents? I thought the script was fun and well acted; the plots may not have been fantastic - I preferred the first episode's - but the cast worked well together, and it acted as fun, escapist, Sunday night telly. It had a refreshing lack of pretence, it set out to be fun, and I found it so.

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[–] badblokebob 13 years ago

I thought the plots were above average for a crime drama; certainly a refreshing change from the usual formulaic stuff we're presented with in a dozen other cop shows.

I also thought letting the cast just use their own accents was more sensible than having them all do pretend Italian ones -- this isn't Allo Allo, after all.

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[–] Gary-161 13 years ago

It reminded me of one of those ancient ITC continental dramas with Roger Moore and the like. Only with real locations instead of cheapo sets at Shepperton with "Airport" slapped on the wall with immaculate cleanliness.

I switched on the final episode just to get my fix of Zen crossing the street in his suit. He looks sharp. As soon as anyone starts to actually speak it's time to switch over. A moment of Zen then.

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[–] greenegg 13 years ago

Great analogy! Zen certainly conjured memories of The Persuaders, various versions of the Saint, etc., as well as of venerable American fare such as I Spy, with a touch of the Sandbaggers thrown in. I fell asleep part way through, so I need to go back and watch the first episode on the DVR. Dearly as I love Rufus Sewell, Zen wasn't up to the usual Mystery fare.

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!

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[–] optionalhero 13 years ago

terrible accents I agree. But I am really curious about your average story criteria. This is only a TV show you cant expect it to be L.A confidential or Seven kind of murder mystery.

watch everything you like, dont like everything you watch.

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[–] GaelicLass 13 years ago

I agree, but previous BBC productions have been as good if not better in many cased as theatrical productions. I do not like the mix of accents; make them all BRritish or all Italian, otherwise it is too confusing.

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[–] Bellatrice 13 years ago

I respectfully disagree that TV MUST be an inferior medium to film.

There is something known as "intelligent TV." It often presents the full-length original of a work that was subsequently truncated in order to be shown in the movie theatre$. For example Ingmar Bergman's "Fannie and Alexander" was released as a six-hour tv series but has also been pared down to what is euphemistically known as the "theatrical version." I think the same thing applies to Stieg Larsson's "Millenium" trilogy. Here in the US we've had "Mad Men, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Dexter" and more. There is tons of crap on the tube but that's why the remote control "skip" button was created!

If you want to see a realistic cop drama with an all-too-human protagonist and a gritty, complex story, I suggest "In Nome del Popolo Italiano" (In the Name of the Italian People) with Vittorio Gassman. Came out in 1971.

Sorry for the rant! I tend to be somewhat soapboxy about this stuff:)

--------------------

I love you too but I'm going to mace you in the face!

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[–] Gideon_again 13 years ago

former cruiseship entertainer becomes phenomenally successful businessman, acquiring support from sinister Masonic Lodge implicated in various murders and dodgy dealings, plus from Mafia. Achieves remarkable success in real estate, creates enormous media empire which includes newspapers, magazines, publishing house, tv and radio stations, film production company, more. When dodgy dealings are exposed, is elected to parliament and becomes Prime Minister. Creates laws which exonerate himself from prosecution. Ensures harshest critics in the media are sacked or marginalised. Engages in hedonistic lifestyle, holds orgies at his private residence, where politicians, media moguls, tv showgirls and underage prostitutes are all present. Never resigns, and enjoys support of an alarming number of ordinary voters. Too ridiculous for fiction?

Don't be silly, that's all far too ludicrous to be believable!

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[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

'Don't be silly, that's all far too ludicrous to be believable!'

Poor chap, he has obviously been reading too much bad fiction!

Its that man again!!

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[–] DMead57 13 years ago

I just saw the first episode in its first run on U.S. public television.
My wife and I vacationed in Italy five years ago. The overall look convinces me, but there's not ONE WORD of Italian. Not even "Buon giorno" or "Che c'è?" Only Caterina Morino as Tania Moretti at least pronounces names in Italian. Rufus Sewell looks great, probably too good to be truly credible as an Italian detective. I've been trying to find some sort of source reference to see if there was a previous series of books that got the Italian stuff a bit better.
Fairly entertining, certainly not great.

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] tehck 13 years ago

I also just watched the first episode on American TV, and although I enjoyed it overall I have to say that I found the accents somewhat distracting. I'm sure that if they had all had American accents (which to me would be no accents at all) I would probably have found that much less jarring. But as it was they had the wrong "foreign" accents, which made it difficult to maintain the proper sense of place. Now, if this had been set in ancient Rome, that would be different because we all know that Julius Caesar, et al, spoke the Queen's English.

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[–] rogerscorpion 11 years ago

Well, Caterina Murino has good reason to pronounce them properly. She's the only Italian in the main cast. If she played Carrie Bradshaw, on Sex in the City, I imagine she'd have an Italian accent.

I also find a mishmash of accents to be distracting. If an Italian woman is speaking English (with an Italian accent), when she should be speaking Italian, I'd prefer to hear the Brits @ least attempting an Italian accent.

Hugh Laurie doesn't play Dr House, with a Brit accent. Damian Lewis doesn't play Brody, on 'Homeland', with a Brit accent. Anthony LaPaglia didn't play Jack Malone, on 'Without a Trace', w/an Aussie accent. They all did Yank accents. Had they used their own accents, it would've sounded incongruous.

Same here.

Love Rufus Sewell. He could be Italian.

Why does Sewell look too good to be an Italian detective? Are you casting aspursions on Italian men? LOL.

Caterina Murino speaks to me---w/out saying a word. I loved her, in 'Casino Royale'. I was highly unthrilled, when she was murdered.

Carpe Noctem!

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[–] carolmr527 13 years ago

I really enjoyed these episodes. Sorry to hear the series has been cancelled. It was great to see a mystery series set in lovely Italy.

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] aureliaw 13 years ago

I'll take Zen over Poirot or Miss Marple any day. The series Wallander did the same thing last year.... They were supposed to be Swedish and every single person in the cast had an English accent! If it's a British production, they have every right to use British actors and British accents.

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[–] inframan 13 years ago

I agree. At least if they all had exactly the same wrong accent it wouldn't be so noticeable. Rufus Sewell is too good for this, hope he gets something better.

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] WeatherViolet 13 years ago

Yes, that is exactly right.
First impression: what beautiful landscapes.
Second impression: story way below average, accents un-Italian-like, and horrible writing.
Third impression: direction cliche, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out after the terrible disappoinment of this monsterous failure.

"What we are is God's gift to us; what we become is our gift to God" -- Eleanor Powell

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[–] TheAdlerian 13 years ago

Op, I salute you because I was going to make this thread!

I've been around Italian people my whole life and they have a certain way of acting that's different from other ethnicities. The same goes for other types of people and that's what makes things interesting.

I am okay with what I call "magical translations" where rich Italians would speak with posh English accents and other with say cockney, but you have to have the style of talking be Italian. This show had the "Italian" characters acting in a reserved manner with mumbling like English people. So, it was as if English cops were somehow on a mission in Italy, and it took me a minute in the first episode to figure out they were supposed to be Italian. That's pathetic.

It was even more bizarre when the Italian girl love interest shows up and speaks with an Italian accent! I was like, wut?

After I thought about the show I figured the English filmmakers were being ultra PC, but accidentally prejudiced. The idea may have been that you can't "act Italian" because that would be "wrong" but then they created a kind of prejudice by stripping away the Italian character and making everyone act English. So, all normal people act English, not Italian because that would be silly.

Whatever the case, the result was without color and missed an opportunity.

On a side note, I feel sorry for Rufus because he always plays crazy people or jerks and this was a normal lead role.

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