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.
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.
**A great idea buried under bad writing and tired TV tropes**
I started watching this because, despite hating the book, the core concept is brilliant. Two cities occupying the same physical space, separated not by walls but by perception, social conditioning, and the act of “unseeing” is a fantastic idea. It is rich with possibilities.
Sadly, the book squandered that idea, and somehow the TV show manages to squander it even harder.
The thing that annoyed me most about the book was that Miéville came up with a great concept, then did not seem to bother thinking through the implications of it. The show falls into the exact same trap, but then adds a load of generic TV nonsense on top.
Characters constantly say things for the benefit of the viewer that make little or no sense in-world. I know what the dialogue is doing. The point is that it is doing it badly. People who grew up in these cities should not need basic things explained to them as if they are tourists. The show does this again and again, and it gets more annoying every time.
The Orciny dialogue is a good example. Characters keep asking whether Borlú has heard of Orciny, but if Orciny is meant to be a familiar local myth, that is like asking somebody from Britain if they have ever heard of King Arthur. Of course they have. The question should not be whether he has heard of it, but whether he believes in it. It does not matter how desperate the script is to info-dump to the viewers; if it happens in-world, it still has to fit the world.
Breach is also a mess. The interesting version of Breach is panopticon-like. It is not what they actually can see or do that matters; it is people not knowing and thinking “what if?” that gives them power. The show keeps damaging that idea. Sometimes Breach are treated as almost preternatural, sometimes they are just another bureaucracy, and by the end any mystery or dread around them has been badly weakened.
The show also adds stuff that seems to be there because it is expected of a TV show rather than because it adds anything. Haunted detective material, personal trauma, clumsy emotional signposting, physical jeopardy, blurry portentous scenes, and other worn-out tropes. The premise already had plenty to work with. It did not need all this slop generic TV nonsense.
The most annoying part is that there are brief moments where the show almost gets it. There is a small early moment involving a child’s toy from the other city. It is easily the smartest thing in the whole show. It quietly shows how the two-city idea can work physically and behaviourally, without anybody stopping to explain it. A tiny nudge could move something from one practical reality into another. That is exactly the sort of thing this premise should be doing.
At the time, I thought it was obvious foreshadowing. It felt like the show understood how to use the physical overlap of the cities in a simple, clean, clever way. Then it just goes nowhere. That one small moment points towards a much better version of the story than the one we actually get.
The murder case itself does not really work either. It is not functioning as a proper detective engine. It is functioning as an ignition key: the thing that starts the story because the story needs starting. Too much of the plot is just “and then... and then... and then...” rather than anything feeling properly earned or inevitable.
By the final episode I was bored, annoyed, and very nearly rage-quit part way through. I only finished it so I could say I had seen the whole thing.
So much potential, totally squandered on hack writing and worn-out crappy tropes. The book wasted a brilliant idea, but the show somehow managed to make me dislike the story even more.
