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Little Drummer Girl; AMC television series. A mixed bag for sure.

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Posted on November 25, 2018 at 19:41:49
free.ranger
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Bill H and Roadie commented below, but I thought I should throw another nickel in the pot.

This is more LeCarre psycho madness that defies figuring on only one pass. The series is in 3 episodes, shown 2 at a time on Comcast playback. Fewer commercials that way. It has an odd collection of actors posing as Israelis trying to crack open a nested Palestinian terror network that has been plaguing them for years. To do this they recruit a mole, an outsider existential British actress, who can't seem to walk away from dangerous liaisons. They train her to get accepted into the terror fold by getting key terrorist dudes to want badly to get into her skivvies.

Hey, it worked.

The odd duck collection of actors, including Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgard, are criticized for fake Israeli accents and looks, but Israelis are a collection of such people, so this is justified IMO. Florence Pugh is the mole actress, Charlie. There are no standards for a role like this, so she works out as well as anyone. Decent acting IMO.

After the first 2 episodes I wrote it off as too convoluted and nutbaggish ( I just made that up). But of course, this being LeCarre, the hook was set, so I watched the other 4 installments, and glad I did. It slowly pulls together such that what you just saw won't fit until further down the road. Viewers are in a perpetual state of WTF ...?

It ends well as far as the mission went, but there are casualties and tragedies on both sides all over the floor by the ending. You will probably empathize a little with the bad guys, and be a little less enthusiastic for the good guys; all comingling into the cesspool of human pathos. LeCarre.

You will come away with understanding about half of the detailing (on first sitting), but will get the drift and full impact of the endeavor.

The upshot is that this is about human relationships; not terrorism, good guys, or bad guys.
Well worth your time. Highly recommended.

 

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RE: Little Drummer Girl; AMC television series. A mixed bag for sure., posted on December 2, 2018 at 15:06:47
BillH
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Posts: 3913
Location: Baton Rouge
Joined: December 23, 1999
Glad you liked it. I thought it was a slog, and the only memorable line was the one delivered by Charles Dance to the effect that [Arthur] Balfour had promised Israel to both the Zionists and the Palestinians.

With a magnificent story like "The Honorable Schoolboy" still left to be made into a film, I don't know why they picked this one.

 

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