The City and the City

Overview:

When the body of a foreign student is discovered in the streets of the down-at-heel city of Besźel, it’s just another day’s work for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But he uncovers evidence that the murdered girl came from Ul Qoma, a city that shares a dangerous and volatile relationship with Besźel, and this case will challenge everything Borlú holds dear.

Created by:

Status:

Ended

Language:

English

First air date:

4/6/2018

Last air date:

4/27/2018

Key words:

detective
neo-noir
new weird

Seasons

Season 1

4 Episodes

Cast

Danny Webb

~ as ~

Major Syedr

Lara Pulver

~ as ~

Katrynia Borlú

Mandeep Dhillon

~ as ~

Constable Corwi

David Morrissey

~ as ~

Tyador Borlú

Ron Cook

~ as ~

Commissar Gadlem

Maria Schrader

~ as ~

Senior Detective Dhatt

Christian Camargo

~ as ~

Doctor Bowden

Paprika Steen

~ as ~

Professor Mona Ul-Nadi

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

Peter McGinn
Written 5 year(s) ago
7
I had thought about reading the novel before watching this series, but I did a quick inventory of how many books I have lined up to read and decided to go ahead and watch it. Overall I found this futuristic film to be entertaining. It follows a detective trying to solve a mystery in what is truly a unique setting for a mystery, in a city that shares part of its space with a sister city, almost like in a parallel universe. And there are rumors and traces of a further utopian place accessed in this shared city-space. Yes, it is strange stuff, intriguing, but at times unsatisfying.

A few of the characters were two-dimensional or without much depth to them and elements of the plot brought Orwell's "1984" to mind, but considering the complexity of the story, I thought they did a credible job presenting it so I could follow it.

I won't give away any of the plot points here, and that restricts my description, but I will say that there was a moment near the end where I thought they were going with an ending that would not have felt real or satisfying. But they veered slightly away from it and I felt better about it. Not one of my favorites, but such an innovative plot that I am glad Imtook the time to watch it.