Tuesday 13 November 2012

New Dallas season 1 ends and other TV

In terms of TV productions I did watch the penultimate and final episodes Dallas against my earlier negative reaction to the new series. There was a Dallas of old great series of twists as it appeared all had become sweetness and light in the great Dallas household where they once all lived at Southfork with their mum and dad and grand parents.
The new series cantered on the decision of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) because of ill health to sell the estate and the machinations of his older brother JR (Larry Hagman) together with his sometimes estranged grown up son John Ross to gain control of the family ranch and drill for the oil beneath but where Patrick had sworn to his mummy this was something which would never be done with the land remaining for cattle.  The two JR’s had used each other and gone to a Venezuelan crime family for a loan on the promise of delivering a quantity of oil per month as soon as the ownership was achieved. Bobby’s adopted son Christopher had entered a quick marriage with a relative stranger who was to bear him twins but he was still in love with the daughter of the family cook who had grown up with him and JR brought up by Bobby more than JR. The young Mexican woman in question was also coveted by John Ross. Missing out all the toing and froing this is how the series appeared to end.
First Bobby discovers an old document which separates the mineral extraction from the land sale after JR secures Southfork and John Ross moves in reminding Bobby that that he remains there with his wife and son on a grace and favour basis.  Bobby is then struck down near to death which brings back JR from a trip where he was set on taking his old enemy Cliff Barnes in a large gambling game. JR is so affected that he gives back the ownership of the estate to Bobby although this is only the first step because of the involvement of the Venezuelan.
In order to thwart the immediate taking of oil from the ranch, Bobby’s third wife had gone to her former husband who runs a major trucking company to withdraw from the contract to transport the product and annoyed at the delay the crime boss had framed John Ross for the murder of an unstable young woman confidence trickster who he had used to front the purchase of the estate behind the back of Bobby. His mother the great Sue Ellen now running for state governor blackmails the County Pathologist to fixing the evidence so that John Ross is freed from jail where he was already beaten up by people on behalf of the crime boss. This was unnecessary because Christopher had devised a way of getting the crime boss of their backs by offering them a piece of his technical invention which will revolutionise the energy and oil business. Eventually with JR and John Ross admitting their dark dealings they are able to gain the evidence for the arrest of the crime boss for the murder of the young woman and other offences. Between them Sue Ellen and Mrs Bobby Ewing fix the machinations of the former husband and which enables Sue Ellen to continue to stand for the governorship.
John Ross offers marriage to the daughter of the Cook as they set up house together while Christopher decides to make a go of it again with his wife after getting rid of her brother who has been involved with various scams to get hold of Ewing money. He then discovers that his wife and sworn she has revealed everything about her past and his dealings, that the man is not her brother. The man who may have been a former lover continues to have a hold over her to the extent that she gets old of a weapon in defence and a struggle kills him. Christopher then realises that he still loves the daughter of the Cook and the two decided to make a new life for themselves.
Christopher and John Ross had grown up friends and then become great enemies over the way John Ross had gained control of Southfork for his father but with the near death experience of Bobby the two had come together and formed a new Ewing oil company taking up the former offices of the company when it was once a force in Texas. Now with Christopher getting back with the girl friend, John Ross is incensed and asks his father not just to teach him all about the oil business but how to fight so they can get back Southfork after all.
Cliff Barnes has appeared from time to time needling JR but now the extent of his Machiavellian dealings is revealed that Christopher’s legal wife is in fact the daughter of Cliff who flies in order to get rid of his body of the man his daughter has killed. She admits she has messed up on the great plan but will now do what is necessary to help her father get his revenge on all the Ewings thus setting the agenda for the second new season.
I must comment that Merlin appears to have reached the end of credibility with yet another situation where Arthur’s wife gets into the hands of Morgana and is only rescued at the expense of the life of her brother.  It is time that Morgana is dealt with and Merlin stops his pretence of being a simple servant. These series should be dropped unless a new story focus can be determined. I must take a proper look at the UK X Factor where a lad from  the Boro appears to making progress, I have been half watching Strictly Come Dancing and usually manage the last  ten minutes of Bargain Hunt at lunch time where this week two couples in one show made over £200 profit.
This brings met the last of the Montalbano TV productions of the year which I will leave until Wednesday together with a film about the remarkable daughter of the first President of Independent Burma called The Lady and also a mention of the historical fantasy The Immortals.






Saturday 10 November 2012

Romanzo Criminale ends

The question of the power of state and the behaviour of the powerful and the linking between the state and criminal organisations and other organisations is one aspect of the engaging 22 episode Romanzo Criminale which came to an end in a double episode this week.



The series has been shown on the Arts Channel this year and is loosely based on the actual gang of young men who came to power through the trafficking of Drugs in Rome after they had kidnapped a senior man who was killed by those paid to look after him and after the ransom had been paid and collected. The kidnap saw the coming together of the two gangs who then used the ransom money to invest in drugs which they distributed through networks on the basis of equal shares and being consulted although the effective Leader became the Libanese the previous head of one gang, with Freddo the head of the other is closest associate and Dandi the third always on his own and looking out for himself before the others.



The gang members had grown up together and in both series there are flashbacks to their past relationship. The series begins with the only surviving members of the gangs with the nickname Bufalo, now an old man being abused by the new generation of gangsters showing him no respect and the series ends with his opening fire on his abusers and the dying in a shoot out with the police.



The series is designed to show that the gang destroyed itself over time but were helped by outside criminal forces that were in league with the Italian Secret Services, politicians and even Papacy through the bank it used and the Secret Society in Italy known as P2, a Masonic type of body. Just as in World War 2 when the USA government and military had done deals with Mafia bosses for help in retaking of Italy from the Fascists, elements in the Catholic Church joined forces with all those opposed to Communism.



The first series ended with the death of Libanese shot by two individuals on a motorbike and much of the second series is concerned with who shot the leader and why, as well as the succession between Freddo, who had until that point decided to leave the gang and crime and go elsewhere with his live in girl friend of two years Roberta who had been the girl friend of his younger brother, both of whom had no idea about his criminal activities before they were disclosed. Freddo is torn with guilt that his decision was a factor leading to the assassination of il Libanese



With the death of Libanese Freddo decides not only to stay but his relationship with Roberta ends because he could only see imprisonment and or a violent fate for himself. In the first series Dandi had grown apart from the rest of the gang because of his attempted cultured lifestyle and his relationship with Patricia, a high class whore who he wants for himself and opens a brothel for her to manage so she is able to keep up the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed without needing clients.

Dandi is also approached by the Mafia who see him as a better front man than Libanese and with their aim of managing the drug trade and other organised crime in Rome at arm’s length. They are instrumental in advising on the need for legitimate businesses which individual members of the gang take up as well as in investing their surplus income through an agent. The gang operate a casino at which they squander a proportion of their huge profits. On character under pressure from his wife and father in law over stretches with the purchasing of a supermarket and other enterprises and ends up losing almost everything after a failed insurance fraud after burning down the store and having to borrow from Dandi to pay off bank loans.,



The group are supplied drugs by the Comorra, the Mafia like organisation based on Naples and the surrounding area. They also had to deal with a group, The Sardinians, led by Sardo(!) who had distributed drugs to a sector of Rome and wanted to take over the rest of Rome controlled by the gang. There was bad blood from the outset and during the first series the gang confronted Sardo, humiliated him and drove him into exile. . The group also had their own Mr Fixit lawyer and a special secure place for the their armoury of weapons which was in the basement of a government building controlled by a security guard who they paid.



Separately in relation to the Montalbano books and TV series I have attempted to understand the complex multi layered police system in Italy where one particular feature is the ability to hold people for long periods in custody without bring them to trial. Individually and collectively the gang are arrested, held in prison but then released as the authorities fail to make charges stick, or because of the corruption and high level political influences



In this series there is one Inspector of similar standing to Montalbano, Commissario Sculoja, and a faithful assistant rather like Fazio. who early on connect the new gang to the kidnapping and to the development of the distribution of drugs throughout Rome without being able to gain the evidence or when the evidence is gained able to make it stick.



The Inspector has two weaknesses in terms of carrying out his job effectively, he has a revolutionary communist inclined sister who he protects and eventually get her out of the country and new life to save her from long term imprisonment. He is therefore branded a Communist lover by his colleagues and viewed with suspicion by those prepared to do anything to prevent a communist led government in Italy.



He also becomes sexually passionate about Patrizia and she sensing his desires uses it for her protection without giving him the kind of information which would destroy Dandi and the rest of the gang.



At one point the Inspector decides to put pressure on Il Freddo by arresting his brother who has turned to hard drugs and eventually persuades the young man to wear a wire to trap his brother rather than return to jail where there has been evidence that his life is under threat. When Freddo discovers this treachery he refuses to have any further contact with his younger brother.



The secret authorities decided that it would be helpful to put the blame for the death of Libanese on two brothers (Gemito) and Freddo knifes one to death but the other initially escapes in a shoot out which also involves the police. Dandi who is responsible for the getaway car funks it and drives away on his own create a bitter enemy from one of the two others who manages to escape. Eventually he confronts Dandi after Freddo refused to intervene but Dandi gains the upper hand and the man is also captured and put on trial. One of the criminals avoided long sentences was to plead insanity which gets them to a hospital from which they are cured and released after a couple of years. Freddo buys a helpful psychiatrist for his man but he is murdered on the orders of the Mafia before he can give the necessary testimony so both members of the gang are sentenced to a score of years for the attempted murder and wounding of police officers. The surviving brother is also assassinated when the authorities do not want the truth of the killings to come to the attention of the gang.



Commissario Sculoja decides that progress can be made through a raid and the arrests of Patrizia for her brothel. The raid uncovers the secret service filming a politician for blackmail. Unfortunately the politician is able to get the girl involved to change her story and say that she arranged the film at the request of the client which meant it remains his property and cannot used in evidence. This leaves Patrizia in the frame and when the Mafia advise Dandi to drop her and get an appropriate women he does not visit her in jail.



The death of il Libanese and the decision of il Freddo to leave the gang creates a situation of uncertainty among the remaining members who begin to look to their own interests as well as others as well as provoking take over interest from others. Sardo the leader of the Sardinians returns determined to settle his score with Dandi and il Freddo and take control of the whole of Rome and not just their sector. He creates a situation where Dandi is captured and persuaded that the solution is to kill Freddo who he persuades to attend a meeting. He devises a plan with the help of the rest of the gang that results in the death of Sardo and his men and Freddo is indebted to him.



Freddo is then captured by the Comorra who supplied Sardo and the Roman group with Cocaine, doubling their take. They want to know who killed Sardo and give Dandi a timed ultimatum. He again save Il Freddo by offering instead the man who actually killed Libanese, arranged by the Mafia as part of their helping Dandi to become the King of Rome. They say they will leave to him how he deals with Freddo. Dandi does not disclose to the rest of the gang that the knows the Gemito brothers did not kill Libanese. However the information comes to the Inspector after Patrizia is incensed at being abandoned in prison by Dandi and faces charges of brothels keeping. The Inspector decides this will serves no useful purpose and frees her. She rewards him by taking him to her bed and revealing the gun store.



Unfortunately the security guard who initially identifies the gang members is leaned on and withdraws his evidence. The gang appear to escape again however one of the weapons is identified as being that used in an assassination elsewhere and in the death of Libanese, The police therefore know that the weapon could not have been put back by the brothers blamed for the death and was the responsibility of someone else with access to the store. This is the man who is sacrificed by Dandi to free Il Freddo.



Freddo then finds that his rejected brother had been sold a bad doze of drugs and is in hospital in a coma so he wants to know who is responsible and then finds out the drugs were not those sold by the gang which reveals that someone is selling additional drugs from another source. He makes the mistake of going for someone who is the weakest of a trio led by one of the Buffoni brothers who he kills which is accepted by Dandy but not by the other brother.



The man who was beaten gives up the gang to the authorities and there is a great trial with much behind the scene fixing by Dandi with his Mafia connections and buying of judges



Freddo who is defended by his former girl friend in relation to the murder of the first Gemito brother is nevertheless convicted but arranges to be given a serious illness which gets him to hospital and from which he is able to escape when he recovers and goes abroad but without the girl friend who elects to stay. He has discovered that Dandi knew that the Gemito brothers had not killed Libanese and appreciates that the man has become the new king of Rome.



Dandi also walks free via the Mafia and bribing of judges and those working within the prison. He announces he can bring one of the others out with him and leaves this for them to settle, However although one wins a lottery it is another who is found not guilty and released. Dandi also does a deal with the already convicted gang member in relation to the Gemito attempted killing and wounding of police officers and who threatened to kill him for abandoning them at the scene of the crime. Dandi fixes for this man to move to a psychiatric hospital from which he is discharged a couple of years later.



The third man of the trio double crossing the rest of the gang turns out to be their investment manager but he survives promising to make Dandi even richer and returning all the additional profit which he had obtained



Dandi was upset that Patrizia had left Rome and tracks her down via her gay friend and assistant to running a small flower shop. At first is looks as she resists a return but then decides she wants the life that he and provide and returns. They get married without inviting the gang although Dandi invites the police inspector and then presents him with a piece of their wedding cake. The Inspector is shattered by the development and attempts to kill Dandi who decides the man will live but had him beaten up to the extent that he is disabled for life. He loses his position and is moved to job in customs immigration.



There is a passage of time of at least a decade and Dandi has become a very wealthy man to an extent he is paying for the restoration of a church but when the priest refuses to allow him to build a tomb within the church he arranges for the priest to be moved to Africa as a missionary. When he married Patrizia he insisted that her gay friend gets out of her life and it is the inspector who lets her know that the man is dying in hospital, not stated but appears to be from Aids. Patrizia arrives too late to say goodbye and in retaliation she destroys Dandi’s new purchase of collection of Ming vases worth more than the cost of his large well furnished home. He hits her and then orders the maid to pack up the pieces and return them to the seller claiming they were broken in transit and demanding the money back.



The Buffoni brother is released from prison and assisted by one of him others they go for Dandi and seek revenge on Freddo by killing his young brother. They are killed in turn.



Freddo determines to return to Rome but before he does so he is visited by the Police Inspector who has been alerted and tries to strike a deal in which Freddo can return without having to serve the remainder of his sentence on the basis he gives up Dandi. He declines set on revenge on his own terms.



This is the point to introduce someone I think with the name of Donetella orso something similar although I have been unable to find a record of her as a charcater despite the fact that she appears throughout the second series. She starts as a minor drug dealer within gang but for services rendered she is rewarded and made up to controlling the district previously operated by Libanese alienating the rest of the gang, in part because she is a woman and not of part of the original group but mainly because under the original agreement they feel they should all share in from Lebanese’s former territory. The price of using the gang to take out Sardo and gain his territory is that Freddo has to drop the girl and although he offers her the management of his territory she departs in a huff



When the gun store is discovered and the gang are all arrested on the witness statement of the security guard Dandi uses Donnetella to put the frightners on him through his young son so that the man withdraws his evidence. She is now recognised by Dandi and reinstated within the gang and is given as a present to Freddo when he is rescued from the Comorra. It is Donnetella who arranges for Freddo to be given the illness which gets him into hospital and out of the country and it is the young woman who advises him of the death of his younger brother and for his return to Rome. They have had a torrid sexual relationship and there is also the possibility she had is also used by Dandi who appears to control what she does.



It is now that she and Patrizia join forces with the help of the dwindling group’s financial man. They have all their grievances against Dandi. First Dand is assassinated during a visit to antique and fine art shops in the capital. Freddo had discovered that his former girl friend is happy with a child, presumably also happily married and he does not make contact after observing her in the park with her child. He makes contact with the Inspector after dealing with the killer of his brother. However he is also assassinated before he can meet with the former Inspector. It is Donnetella and Patrizia who are part of the new order of power and with everyone else killed in one situation or another it leaves only Bufalo, and as stated he dies in a shoot out with the police.



There is one other twist. The conclusion occurs at the time of the coming down of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism in the former Iron Curtain countries in Europe. The consequence us that those in the Secret Services, the Justice system and in politics need to shift their focus. The man who thwarted the inspector at every turn now approaches him with the offer of preparing him as his successor, someone with principles and in tune with the times. At first the Inspector is horrified but with the deaths of Dandi and Freddo and the elimination of the gang with the exception at that point of Bufalo he accept the invitation. We the audience are left to speculate about the possible relationship with the widow Patrizia and what that will mean for his ethical and principled approaching to policing.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 5 November 2012

The third season of Downton Abbey came to end with pleasantries all round so I am not sure where to begin.
The former kitchen housemaid who became pregnant by a visiting officer recuperating and who walked away and who then gave up her child to the paternal grandparents after prostituting herself to survive agreed to look at the replies to the adverts placed without her knowing by the Dowager via one of her daughters who is supporting the decision for the young woman to write a regular column. The maid likes one of the replies which is too close to where the grand parents live. I forget who went to visit the grandparents but the grand mothers arrives to say she had her husband have no objection tot he move which will enable her to keep in contact with her son posing as his former nanny and where the decision to tell the truth will come later after he has settled and put her past life behind her.
His lordship is still hostile to the pace and nature of the change proposed by the official heir Matthew and the Catholic son in law now widower who has become the land steward or manager for Matthew. The man shows his basic common sense when he tells his Lordship that they need his skills and experience with the tenants and the tradition which they lack and this bring his Lordship round when the young man agrees to play in the cricket match after taking some lessons from Matthew. He also makes her ladyship happy when declaring that he would like to remain in the household so that his son can be brought up in the environment and he can participate in his growing up.
The family are asked to look after an eighteen year relative who manages to get back to London when the unmarried daughter goes to see the editor accompanied by Mathew on a visit in relation to the future of the estate. The girl is found out to be having an affair with a married man and Mathew agrees not to disclose the visit to her parents if she agrees to return quietly to the estate. She is subsequently sent off to Scotland although I anticipate we shall see more of her in a future series.
 
The would be journalist has written an article about the plight of the returning soldiers and I suspect the next series storyline will see her involved with the Suffragette movement. The editor pays compliments and asks her to dinner where fortunately she is already committed to a family meal at the London House, She arranges for a background check only to find that he is married and therefore she cannot write for him further. He explains that is wife has been committed to an asylum and according to current law he is unable to obtain a divorce which also raises possible future storyline.

Mathew and his wife are concerned about her failure to become pregnant He thinks it is him but she reveals she had has a small operation in secret which should solve the problem so all is well on that front.

The main story is however what to do about Thomas now that Bates has returned and he has been caught approaching the latest footman who unintentionally appeared encourage him to make advances. He wants to let the matter drop when Thomas is allowed to leave quietly with references but the dreadful lady’s maid to her ladyship and once in cahoots with him persuades the new man to insist that Thomas leaves without references or he will tell the police. It is Bates who persuades Thomas to reveal something on the woman which will enable him to force her to persuade the course of action to be dropped. He invites her to tea, makes the demand and whispers to her “her ladyship’s soap” something which Bates and his wife do not understand but the audience of the first series do. However when this works it is the other footman who calls in the police because it Thomas who has been dropping him in it from time to time. His Lordship has to persuade the young man to say he was mistaken when the police call at the cricket match to take Thomas off. Technically the new job places Thomas over Bates in the Understairs pecking order which Bates and his wife realises are something of a disaster and storing up trouble for the future series and also perhaps the Christmas special. What is interesting is the Housekeeper and his Lordship are sanguine about Thomas being a homosexual with his Lordship commenting about life at Eton Only the Butler is horrified by all that he is learning