The spies in Berlin show
Nov. 3rd, 2018 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessBerlin Station 1.2
I am increasingly impressed with the location scout for this show. The recurrence of Danny’s favourite bit of graffiti – a pair of watching eyes, for one thing, but that cliché of the city being another character is warranted here. Generally, there was less of Danny wandering around Berlin, as the other officers at Berlin Station got more of our attention. But he took home Claudia’s cat, which shows a sentimental streak; we learned more about his dead mother and family; and he was quick enough to pick up on his tail, meeting a German lady spy counterpart, who could be following Hans’s orders, or not. I expect that she probably is doing this by the books because of the two companions.
Meanwhile the station was trying to make up for Thomas Shaw outing its German spy agent, having to send his handler home and straining relationships with the Germans. Cue intraoffice politics and flapping, er, positioning over how to handle the latest terrorist threat. The positioning particularly from Valerie – I don’t know if I entirely agreed with the station chief’s wife’s analysis about what she was up to, but it it helped patch up their marriage a little…
After being revealed to be the real Thomas Shaw in the last episode, Hector’s motivations became a little clearer, as Faisal’s perilous positon became even clearer. Hector felt some responsibility, because he knew his agent was going to die, his boss was, predictably, heartless. Rhys Ifans is still too soft-spoken, to the point where I was changing the volume for his scenes, and in an angry scene, I could hear the Welsh accent – I don’t think Armitage’s accent is entirely sound either. But the final scene between both their characters was multilayered and great.
I also liked the angry encounter between Danny and the journalist, where both of them pointed out the other’s complicities and the failings of their organistations/jobs, with Claudia’s death hanging over them, underlying the necessity for subterfuge.
It continues to be involving!
I am increasingly impressed with the location scout for this show. The recurrence of Danny’s favourite bit of graffiti – a pair of watching eyes, for one thing, but that cliché of the city being another character is warranted here. Generally, there was less of Danny wandering around Berlin, as the other officers at Berlin Station got more of our attention. But he took home Claudia’s cat, which shows a sentimental streak; we learned more about his dead mother and family; and he was quick enough to pick up on his tail, meeting a German lady spy counterpart, who could be following Hans’s orders, or not. I expect that she probably is doing this by the books because of the two companions.
Meanwhile the station was trying to make up for Thomas Shaw outing its German spy agent, having to send his handler home and straining relationships with the Germans. Cue intraoffice politics and flapping, er, positioning over how to handle the latest terrorist threat. The positioning particularly from Valerie – I don’t know if I entirely agreed with the station chief’s wife’s analysis about what she was up to, but it it helped patch up their marriage a little…
After being revealed to be the real Thomas Shaw in the last episode, Hector’s motivations became a little clearer, as Faisal’s perilous positon became even clearer. Hector felt some responsibility, because he knew his agent was going to die, his boss was, predictably, heartless. Rhys Ifans is still too soft-spoken, to the point where I was changing the volume for his scenes, and in an angry scene, I could hear the Welsh accent – I don’t think Armitage’s accent is entirely sound either. But the final scene between both their characters was multilayered and great.
I also liked the angry encounter between Danny and the journalist, where both of them pointed out the other’s complicities and the failings of their organistations/jobs, with Claudia’s death hanging over them, underlying the necessity for subterfuge.
It continues to be involving!
