The City and the City

Superbly atmospheric rendition, beautifully photographed and with strong characters. The first episode would surely be confusing for those not familiar with the book, but even then, the air of mystery and menace is so compelling that they must also be drawn in. Techniques that seem crude on the surface - blurring of part of an image to indicate that it's not culturally possible to perceive it, umlauts and other diacritics on signs in English - work surprisingly well. David Morrissey's gestures are sometimes a little irritating, especially his over-frequent technique of grimacing while he places one hand over his eyes to indicate that he's seeing something he shouldn't be seeing. Mandeep Dhillon great. Dominik Scherrer's soundtrack disappointing. An indication of how a two state solution could turn out? Loved it, but consider reading the novel first.