The City and the City

Name: The City and the City
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Crime
Released: 2018-04-06T00:00:00.000Z
Duration: 59 min
Rating: 5.9
Cast: Danny Webb, Lara Pulver, Mandeep Dhillon, David Morrissey, Ron Cook

When the body of a foreign student is discovered in the streets of the down-at-heel city of Besźel, it’s just another day’s work for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But he uncovers evidence that the murdered girl came from Ul Qoma, a city that shares a dangerous and volatile relationship with Besźel, and this case will challenge everything Borlú holds dear.

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Peter McGinn@narrator56

August 29, 2020

I had thought about reading the novel before watching this series, but I did a quick inventory of how many books I have lined up to read and decided to go ahead and watch it. Overall I found this futuristic film to be entertaining. It follows a detective trying to solve a mystery in what is truly a unique setting for a mystery, in a city that shares part of its space with a sister city, almost like in a parallel universe. And there are rumors and traces of a further utopian place accessed in this shared city-space. Yes, it is strange stuff, intriguing, but at times unsatisfying.

A few of the characters were two-dimensional or without much depth to them and elements of the plot brought Orwell's "1984" to mind, but considering the complexity of the story, I thought they did a credible job presenting it so I could follow it.

I won't give away any of the plot points here, and that restricts my description, but I will say that there was a moment near the end where I thought they were going with an ending that would not have felt real or satisfying. But they veered slightly away from it and I felt better about it. Not one of my favorites, but such an innovative plot that I am glad Imtook the time to watch it.

Peter McGinn@narrator56

August 29, 2020