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The City & the City
If you somehow missed it (which would not be surprising, given the lack of fanfare that it seems to be generated), The City & the City is out and I watched the whole thing. Perfectly legally, of course.
The trailer doesn't do it justice; it is much less a thriller/mystery (even if you didn't read the book, it's obvious whodunnit) and more of a haunting, surrealistic meditation on the absurdity of borders. It's the first of China Miéville's novels to be adapted, and not the one I'd consider the most obvious choice, but they pulled it off far better than I'd expect.
The story goes something like this: Two cities, the dilapidated, vaguely Eastern European Besźel, and the modern, vaguely Middle Eastern Ul Qoma, occupy the same geographic space but exist in different countries For Reasons. Citizens cannot freely travel between one, even though neighbourhoods and streets can exist simultaneously in both cities; there's a complicated set of rules and passports, enforced by propaganda, clothing, posture, colour-coding, and the mysterious all-seeing Breach, who are swift to disappear any violators. Walking film noir archetype Inspector Borlú stumbles upon the murder of an American exchange student studying in Ul Qoma but found dead in Besźel, a crime which may be linked to the disappearance of his wife and the existence of a rumoured third city, Orciny.
Almost everything about the adaptation is flawless. The casting is perfect, the division of the cities, shown largely through colour grading and shallow depth of field, is depicted in such a skillful way that the complex worldbuilding can be intuitively grasped. I was left gasping at the visuals, and had to force myself to not binge-watch all four hours in a single night.
It's a far more faithful adaptation than I expected was even possible. Some of the politics are simplified (which I agree with; Miéville's Byzantine political machinations just wouldn't translate well to four hours of TV), and the ending is a fraction more upbeat than the novel's because some of the characters are combined. Constable Dhatt is genderswapped and therefore queer (and also less overtly corrupt than her book counterpart), which has zero bearing on the plot but is a nice bit of diversity, and ends up making her more likeable, so why not? The supernatural aspects of Breach are also played down, which makes the reveal in the last episode less of a surprise, but shocking revelations aren't really the point. The show instead revels in the rituals and absurdities of the cities, the frustrating bureaucracy, the intersection of tradition with neoliberal capitalism, and the pride and shame that form national identities.
I have but two criticisms, believe it or not, and they're both very minor. They went overboard with the special effects in two scenes. And I didn't love that the Besźel characters had British accents while the Ul Qoma characters had made-up but vaguely Arabic-sounding accents; the former should have sounded more Slavic. But the casting was so good that I suspect one or more of them couldn't pull off a made-up accent and so they just went with British. Anyway I really want you all to watch it so that we can discuss it in detail. I was genuinely sad when it ended—not because it is a particularly sad story within the genre—but because the story is a complete story in the way that, say, the Bas-Lag novels aren't, which means that four hours is all I will ever get of this.
The trailer doesn't do it justice; it is much less a thriller/mystery (even if you didn't read the book, it's obvious whodunnit) and more of a haunting, surrealistic meditation on the absurdity of borders. It's the first of China Miéville's novels to be adapted, and not the one I'd consider the most obvious choice, but they pulled it off far better than I'd expect.
The story goes something like this: Two cities, the dilapidated, vaguely Eastern European Besźel, and the modern, vaguely Middle Eastern Ul Qoma, occupy the same geographic space but exist in different countries For Reasons. Citizens cannot freely travel between one, even though neighbourhoods and streets can exist simultaneously in both cities; there's a complicated set of rules and passports, enforced by propaganda, clothing, posture, colour-coding, and the mysterious all-seeing Breach, who are swift to disappear any violators. Walking film noir archetype Inspector Borlú stumbles upon the murder of an American exchange student studying in Ul Qoma but found dead in Besźel, a crime which may be linked to the disappearance of his wife and the existence of a rumoured third city, Orciny.
Almost everything about the adaptation is flawless. The casting is perfect, the division of the cities, shown largely through colour grading and shallow depth of field, is depicted in such a skillful way that the complex worldbuilding can be intuitively grasped. I was left gasping at the visuals, and had to force myself to not binge-watch all four hours in a single night.
It's a far more faithful adaptation than I expected was even possible. Some of the politics are simplified (which I agree with; Miéville's Byzantine political machinations just wouldn't translate well to four hours of TV), and the ending is a fraction more upbeat than the novel's because some of the characters are combined. Constable Dhatt is genderswapped and therefore queer (and also less overtly corrupt than her book counterpart), which has zero bearing on the plot but is a nice bit of diversity, and ends up making her more likeable, so why not? The supernatural aspects of Breach are also played down, which makes the reveal in the last episode less of a surprise, but shocking revelations aren't really the point. The show instead revels in the rituals and absurdities of the cities, the frustrating bureaucracy, the intersection of tradition with neoliberal capitalism, and the pride and shame that form national identities.
I have but two criticisms, believe it or not, and they're both very minor. They went overboard with the special effects in two scenes. And I didn't love that the Besźel characters had British accents while the Ul Qoma characters had made-up but vaguely Arabic-sounding accents; the former should have sounded more Slavic. But the casting was so good that I suspect one or more of them couldn't pull off a made-up accent and so they just went with British. Anyway I really want you all to watch it so that we can discuss it in detail. I was genuinely sad when it ended—not because it is a particularly sad story within the genre—but because the story is a complete story in the way that, say, the Bas-Lag novels aren't, which means that four hours is all I will ever get of this.
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But my top three are The City & the City, The Last Days of New Paris, and Iron Council (but you kinda have to read Perdido and The Scar for that one to make sense), in no particular order. Well, and October, but that is in a category of its own.
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Queering Dhatt was a nice touch, though, and I wonder if that’s supposed to be another subtle indicator of differences between the two cities. I liked the reveal about Corwi as well - it made sense, and avoided introducing new characters towards then end of the run.
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