Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

Mc Mafia?

488 replies

Clawdy · 01/01/2018 22:18

Anyone watched it? Well acted and gripping, James Norton good as usual. Also nice change to see so many new faces. But I'm not sure about watching seven more episodes........

OP posts:
EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard · 16/01/2018 12:07

Not to mention the full plan and loading information on all the vessels in port Grin

Check your internet security settings folks Grin Seriously when Jammy the UK IT guy Alex had fired, was talking about the recreational hacking of nanny cams and that kind of thing, it gave me chills too, let alone massive security leaks for business and governments.

EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard · 16/01/2018 12:43

Brainfreeze Moment Not Jammy, what was the name of the UK guy who'd been fired and reenlisted on the side?

MsHarry · 16/01/2018 13:08

as talking about the recreational hacking of nanny cams and that kind of thing,

Me too. I've taped up the webcam again. DH said I was mad before but apparently Mark Zuckerberg has his taped over too!!!

ImListening · 16/01/2018 13:41

It’s definitely getting to big brother territory!

Oblomov18 · 16/01/2018 14:17

I was reading a thread the other day, one poster saying thing popping up on her .... say FB feed, that she hasn't written, not typed, as in researched, but only verbally said to her sister. As a one off.

Others says they had the same.......

Roussette · 16/01/2018 15:26

That's why I don't want Alexa! Why would you have something in your house that is constantly monitoring your every word?!

sixteenapples · 16/01/2018 19:34

Love this and have just watched four episodes in one go! Love JN - don't think he is wooden - just that type of quiet, clever, cards close to his chest type.

Have found the location shots very good indeed.

Pagwatch · 16/01/2018 19:47

I don't have a problem with the plot or the production values, but if someone could tell me which of the characters is three dimensional that would be great.
I've watched in hope waiting for some character development, to start feeling some empathy for or interest in literally any of the characters but no.
Watching a bunch of well dressed, monotone, cliches move around exotic locations and then occasionally kill someone is not a drama.

They could save the series if they had them all get on the same plane and crash it. I wouldn't be sad about a single character.
I can't love a series unless I get some emotional involvement but they are universally grim

Pagwatch · 16/01/2018 19:50

James Norton is awful in this. Which is a terrible waste.
Why do he and his girlfriend mutter meaninglessly at each other and then talk about their deep love. They have zero chemistry. They treat each other like they recently met at a corporate event.
And why does no one in his office talk to each other? What's that all about?

sixteenapples · 16/01/2018 22:10

It is true the characters are one-dimensional but the story is plot-driven. The characters themselves are not important, what is interesting is how it is all connected and how the "little men", (most of us), have no idea when we buy a coffee or get on a plane or pick up a "Fake" as a souvenir of the networks and violence that lies behind it. From Mumbai to Prague, from Dubai to London. Dirty money, rich people, poor people, desperate people with no choices.

Some of the bankers in the smart restaurant where you went for your birthday are handling money that came from where? Via who? The smart houses in Knightsbridge and Kensington, the nice face of all this - cannot exist without the underbelly - and that is not nice at all.

That is what is gripping about it. Love it!

Pagwatch · 16/01/2018 22:18

Ah, I can't get wildly excited if I don't give a shit about any of the characters because they aren't people.

The plot is intricate and well laid out but do people really not know that the guys selling crap souvenirs recalso selling drugs that are trafficked by guys who work for ganglords whose money is laundered etc etc.

It's an entirely known story so I need the humans in it to make it interesting - but I do accept that's probably just me.

ReelingLush18 · 17/01/2018 08:34

It's an entirely known story but is it? Pretty sure that many people buying pirate DVDs, fake stuff on holiday don't realise that they are supporting such dastardly criminal activity. Or they choose not to think about where the money goes/goods come from.

We will never do 'fake/pirate' anything but I'm amazed at how many people do, even people who definitely should know better.

ReelingLush18 · 17/01/2018 08:37

Maybe the characters' being one-dimensional is purposeful because they are putting on a 'face' and are not at all what they appear to be...Maybe such criminals are really like that? Compartmentalising their personal and professional lives could make them seem like that?

Pagwatch · 17/01/2018 12:55

"even people who definitely should know better."

I don't know any adults who don't know this. I just think people don't care -' it's cheap, what difference does buying this one thing really make'.
People know stuff being sold out of the back of a van is nicked but they still buy it.

I guess it could be a stunning character device so that you think that people within every stage of the legitimising of the criminal underworld are purposefully dull, two dimensional, entirely predictable and unlikeable but if the result is that two characters fall from buildings and no one really gives a shit if they die, it makes it all dreary.

Again, I get that this might just be me and I understand people feel differently. I'm just so disappointed that they have so much of this right and it's so good to look at but it is totally uninvolving. I was really looking forward to it.

whoputthecatout · 18/01/2018 11:30

Of all the silly things that is putting me off it is the ridiculous way they showed the teccy guy typing.

His fingers were permanently on the middle row of keys without moving to the top or bottom row. No one can type that fast without making a mistake (see how quickly he filled in the form to get the driver into the dockyard).

I am a touch typist (learned on an old fashioned typewriter with blanked out keys) and am lightning fast on a computer keyboard. What he did was impossible.

You would think that with all they spent on locations and authentic stuff they could make something like this look authentic.

thenightsky · 18/01/2018 12:23

whoputthecatout That annoyed me as well. I said to DH... 'yeah right, he's typed that fast without a single typo'.

(Old fashioned touch-typist of speed here too).

ArtfulPuss · 18/01/2018 22:57

I was thinking about this earlier, and there's definitely got to be more to come - soon, I suspect - from Lyudmila (the trafficked Russian girl who's been forced to work for Kleiman). I reckon she will prove to be a crucial link, but I can't begin to work out how! She's supposed to be listening out for information... will she pass it to the wrong person? Will she prove to be Alex's undoing, or will she help to save him? She and driver guy made a connection last time... will that be explored at all?

ReelingLush18 · 19/01/2018 12:00

There's a different 'criminal activity' focus to every week though, so it may just be that Lyudmila represented the trafficking aspect (and the connection with the driver guy was the 'human' side of the story in much the same way as the computer hacker in India meeting up with his family at the railway station with the cricket bat)?

I suspect it may be kept open-ended for another series possibly?

Although it's only a matter of time (the upcoming episode?) before Vadim discovers the true identity of the 'assistant' who accompanied Kleiman to the Czech Republic...

PaddingtonBearHardStare · 20/01/2018 22:38

Well the shot of JN's bare arse may have saved this for me!!

Someone at work has a sticker over her iPad camera that slides dependent on whether or not she needs the camera!!

eloisesparkle · 21/01/2018 09:09

Clawdy
I recorded the series and just watched episode 3 which you said was violent.
That was an understatement !
I hate the awfulness, the criminality, the violence of the series, the inhumanity of the gangsters to others, all for greed , for money, portrayed in the series.
And yet I shall continue to watch it to see what happens in the end.

EggbertNobacon · 21/01/2018 09:15

Are people sticking with it? I kinda feel I have to watch tonight as I've invested 4 hours of my life so far, but it really isn't doing it for me. There's not a single character in it that I give a shit about! And no chemistry between any of them. The mum and dad's relationship is so passionless, you can't imagine them having been through several decades on the run together.

ReelingLush18 · 21/01/2018 11:32

I will watch it to the end as I'm curious to see how it pans out - hadn't realised we were only half way through the series - makes more sense in terms of plot/character development to come.

Agree about the inhumanity of the gangsters, although Kleiman did present a more 'gentle' side when reassuring the trafficked Russian girl, didn't he? Although we know it's all a pretence (which in some ways makes it worse).

DorynownotFloundering · 21/01/2018 21:29

So Kleiman is gay....& been stitched up by his young boyfriend (planted by Vadim?)
Rebecca is arranging assignations with Mexican Mafia guy.
The plot thickens.

EllaHen · 21/01/2018 22:11

Oh, Vadim is great at the old friendly sinister, isn't he?

Is it wrong to fancy Antonio a bit? And Kleiman's driver?

Swipe left for the next trending thread