1899

A slow boat to nowhere, that's the kindest thing I can think of to say about 1899. A mystery thriller minus the thrills, that's becalmed from the get go and doesn't improve over the poorly navigated, first two episodes. Its a shame too, as a ton of Euro's were spent on this production. Its therefore unsurprising, that in terms of settings, costumes and atmosphere, this show is spectacular. Unfortunately, its an exquisite banquette setting, where little to nothing is served to the hungry viewer. Instead, what you are offered, is supposedly meaningful silences, at times clever but disjointed narrative and yet again, regrettably, more woke revisionism. In summary, well acted, beautifully presented but in terms of storytelling, as deep, dark and desolate, as an ocean trench.

Pointless It's supposed to be a slow-burn, atmospheric mystery thriller. It is slow, alright; and there is some mystery, albeit not intriguing. Set design, camera, lighting, and fx get the atmospheric bit done; sound and music are well selected, too. Costume is OK, acting good. We're on water, and the (alchemist) earth symbol is everywhere. Well, that's a mystery indeed. Where it starts to go wrong is the artificial slowness; characters which against all likelihood do not state at least the obvious, do not talk to each other where it would make sense. So we miss out on character drawing, character development, and sanity amidst the fog. For fog abounds here, metaphorically and visually. But that does not help the story. Characters are outside the usual roster, but they are neither well written nor developing. Some complain about "woke propaganda"; well, there is some preachy elements and annoying bits, but not as bad as in certain other "originals". The multi-language thing however works very well, from my point of view. The core issue is and remains the script: this is badly written. The direction stretches the little content it finds over way too many hours. And all the mysteries turn out to be... bollocks. Distractions. The 4/10 I give to acknowledge production crew and actors; other than that, it would be an 2/10. Don't waste your time on this, like I did. Edit, PS: I checked and the core plot indeed matches a 1973 Doctor Who episode ("Carnival of Monsters"), but is stretched over eight episodes.