Berlin TV shenanigans

[lizbee]

My favourite non-Star Trek series of 2018 is Counterpart, the series starring JK Simmons as a mild mannered bureaucrat who comes face to face with his evil douchebag mirror universe parallel universe counterpart.

(I cannot recommend it highly enough -- the first episode has Not Enough Women, and I was really only continuing for Simmons, but then the second episode introduces ... her identity is a mild spoiler. Suffice to say, the lead female character, played by Olivia Williams, is one of the most complicated, ambiguous, ~~problematic female characters around. I plan to make DW icons at some point; in the meantime, I'm using The Americans' Elizabeth Jennings, who is not quite her spiritual sister, but they have a few things in common.)

Counterpart is set and partially filmed in Berlin, so it's often mentioned in the same breath as Berlin Station, a slightly older series -- three seasons so far -- set in the CIA's Berlin outpost. I watched the first episode last night. 

It's...

Okay, asking me to feel bad about CIA agents having all their dodgiest secrets leaked is a stretch. Ending the first episode with "The leaker isn't just a traitor! He's a murderer!" as the camera pans lovingly over the bloody body of a young woman is an even bigger stretch. Expecting me to put up with both those things, and the only female characters so far are strictly in supporting roles? No thank you. Apparently Ashley Judd joins in season 2, but ... ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

On the other hand, the scenery is very pretty, and Richard Armitage is adequate. His accent's not amazing, but better than, say, David Tennant's. Maybe the show will get better? 

Comments

[lettered]

I'd never heard of this show, but meeting your mirror universe counterpart is one of my very favorite tropes that I don't get enough of, and I've loved Olivia Williams for a very long time, so I'm excited to check this out!

[lizbee]

IT'S SO GOOD. I hope you like it!

[are_youready]

I just caught up on Counterpart! I absolutely adore it and am intrigued by the new direction season 2 is taking (have you started season 2 yet?) I don't wanna talk about it too much because I have no idea how far you are...

If you look at what I post about, you can see I'm the world's biggest sucker for a nice grim Cold War spy story, so Counterpart's to my taste in that way, but I was also a big fan of a show called Fringe back in the day, which Counterpart is in many ways the logical spiritual successor to.

Have you ever watched Fringe? If you like Counterpart, I'd highly recommend it; it's somewhat lighter in tone than Counterpart and the majority of it isn't a spy story, but if you're looking you can also see Counterpart's origins in it and if you like good monster of the week scifi with an air of mystery about it Fringe is wonderful.

[lizbee]

I LOVE FRINGE. In fact, I almost refused to watch Counterpart because it looked like they went, "Let's make Fringe again, but with a middle aged man instead of Olivia Dunham!" LUCKILY FOR COUNTERPART, I LOVE JK SIMMONS A LOT. And they really execute their premises very differently.

[are_youready]

GOSH Fringe was wonderful! though all these years later, I am still annoyed about the amount of what I would consider shark-jumpery that happened near the end. And yeah, Counterpart is a really different tone, but I feel like it was a tone that was sort of... hidden inside Fringe all along? That's not quite right. Perhaps I should say that Counterpart is the logical extension of certain themes and aesthetics that Fringe had. Particularly there's a certain level of Cold War nostalgia that was background noise in Fringe but forms basically the whole premise of Counterpart.

Anyway, what else have you seen JK Simmons in, that made you overcome that hurdle for him?

[theuncertainhour]

I would probably watch anything for Olivia Williams but also this show sounds genuinely good and right up my street! Not so sure about the second series you mention (not enough women plus dead women is...not a good combination) but I will definitely keep an eye out for Counterpart.