Occupied on Netflix and Trump

Just finished streaming Occupied on Netflix.  It was not only good, often riveting, in its own right, but offered a disturbing projection of the world if Donald Trump were somehow elected President of the United States.

Occupied takes place in Norway, slightly in the future.  The country has decided to go all-green, give up fossil fuel completely, in the wake of a terrible environment crisis.  Its neighbors the European Union and Russia don't like this.  Russia decides to do something about it.  They come into Norway, over the objections of its weak government, and keep the fossil fuel plants humming.  The EU does nothing about this.

And what about the United States, long an alley of Norway and no friend of Russia?  In this near-future scenario, the U.S. has pulled out of NATO, and has an isolationist stance, similar to what some Americans wanted at various times in the 20th century.

In our reality, Trump wants to pull out of NATO now (though he's also said, at times, that he doesn't, typical of his often incoherent campaign).  But a United States unwilling to stand up for Norway, especially to Russia, is completely consistent with the footsies Trump has been playing with Putin, and his often otherwise isolationist rants.

The U.S. is frequently depicted poorly in European drama, something which I'm not particular pleased about but which I've become used to.   But in Occupied, given what we're now seeing with the likes of Trump, this depiction is not unjustified.

The story itself is excellent and suspenseful, with all kinds of unexpected twists and turns, especially at the end.   It's reminiscent of Borgen - the Danish political drama - with a little Homeland thrown in. Highly recommended summer viewing - especially this summer, when an isolationist United States is not that far from fiction.

Based on an idea by Jo Nesbø, directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, who says a second season is in the works.

In the meantime,  here's the Dylanesque "Black and Gold" from the opening credits.  By Sivert Høyem - also a little reminiscent of Gordon Lightfoot.

Marseille on Netflix: Enjoyable and Relevant

I just finished binge-watching Marseille, all eight episodes released this month in this made-for-Netflix French TV series with English subtitles, and I liked it a lot.  I mean, it's a little over the top with key points in the plot hinging of suddenly revealed family relationships, but the grit and dialogue and relevance to politics today, and probably yesterday as well, more than compensate.

The series was savaged by French critics, at least according to Wikipedia, check it out if you're interested, but c'est dommage,  I couldn't care less what French critics or for that matter critics of any nationality think about a television series or a movie.  Ok, I do think André Bazin's Qu'est-ce que le cinéma is a masterpiece, and I often quote it, but he wrote that a long time ago, and though he was a film critic, the book presents a theory of how film works, what it does and is, and is not a critique of any particular movie.  Regarding those, I find they more often then not miss the mark.

But back to Marseille, it doesn't, and in fact presents what I suspect is a pretty accurate portrayal of the democratic process at work in any city in today's free world, that is, the part of the world that is free, in other words, in which elections count.   But those elections are so subject to such noxious manipulation and deceit on all levels that you can see why Churchill quoted some unknown source to the effect that "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others," and the venerable Socrates hated it outright.   Well, Marseille does a riveting, colorful job of exposing just why that is so.

Now, I'm about to start pointing out the special relevance of Marseille to what's going on in the United States today, and I know what you're thinking, and you would be right: Donald Trump represents the worst of the democratic process writ large.   E. M. Forster, another critic of democracy who thought there was no form of government that was better, expressed his views in Two Cheers for Democracy (published in 1951 but composed of material written earlier) - and had he known of Trump, he likely would have entitled his book One Cheer.

Fortunately, Trump has not yet won, and doesn't even formally have the nomination, so Marseille can be appreciated at least at this point as fiction with no quite analog in the real world, joining Boss, Borgen, and of course House of Cards as searing political drama, with lots of sex, crime, local flavor, and good acting - especially by Gérard Depardieu as the Mayor, Benoît Magimel as his deputy, and Stéphane Caillard as his daughter - as well as edge-of-your-seat vote counting.  So, see it and enjoy.

And if you're interested in the connection of Socrates to Trump, check out this little essay, Socrates, Time Travel, and Donald Trump, published just a few days ago.

 

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