The Serpent on BBC

MayoForSam

Anyone else watching The Serpent on BBC? All episodes are available on the iPlayer.

Decent story about a creepy serial killer of hippy tourists in SE Asia during the mid 1970's, based on true events. It's well made, great soundtrack and very atmospheric. The main character is a bit of a cartoon villain, played by the actor from A Prophet a few years ago. Not sure where Jemma Coleman (ex Emmerdale) got the French accent (some of the dialogue is multi-lingual, quiet fitting for the period in question). The time jumps are rather off-putting but you get used to them.

Lord Percy (Tim McInerney) puts in a half decent performance as a Belgian hard man diplomat.

Hodors Appletart

We've watched 2 eps so far and it's good, it looks very nice.

The_Dave

I'm enjoying it, but some issues I have are

why do the captives keep taking the 'medicine' have they no common sense and the constant leaping between times confuses me somewhat

. I find it a bit slow-paced, could definitely have cut the 3 episodes I've seen so far into at least half that

Harry Palmr

It does have longuers but the story is a good one, you could easily imagine it could still happen bar the issue of much faster communication. I suspect that many who do the modern hippy trail are pretty naive and careless.

johnire

I thought it was absolutely fantastic. The attention to detail to recreate the 70s look was so impressive

Harry Palmr

It does but they are in Thailand and we don't really know what the differences between now and then are in that part of the world. A bit of set dressing, some old cars and clothes can go a long way. Plus the careful use of old footage which is blended in with the new stuff to help create the 70s vibe.

fryup

i heard someone raving about this on the radio, is it really that good?

johnire

Yes! It was absolutely fascinating.

fryup wrote: »

i heard someone raving about this on the radio, is it really that good?

CoBo55

Its very good a bit drawn out at times but overall I'm enjoying it.

fryup

is it repeated during the week by any chance??

johnire

No unfortunately it’s not.

fryup wrote: »

is it repeated during the week by any chance??

I thought this was brilliant. I was going to give up after about 2 episodes, thought it was a bit slow. But so glad I stuck with it. Watched the whole lot on BBC iplayer over the weekend. Acting is great, especially Jenna Coleman, clothes are great, story is great. True story too which makes it even better.

Larsso30

Thought this was excellent

The crazy thing is that it's pretty much all true.

They only changed minor details for the story flow.

There is a 45 minute piece" serial killer Charles Sobraj documentary" on YouTube. Worth a watch after you've watched this to the end.

You can see where the tv show recreated directly some shots.

As an aside I've never seen so many cigarettes smoked during one tv show!

Interesting way of dealing with smoking whilst certainly not glamorising it.

CoBo55

glasso wrote: »

The crazy thing is that it's pretty much all true.

They only changed minor details for the story flow.

There is a 45 minute piece" serial killer Charles Sobraj documentary" on YouTube. Worth a watch after you've watched this to the end.

You can see where the tv show recreated directly some shots.

As an aside I've never seen so many cigarettes smoked during one tv show!

Interesting way of dealing with smoking whilst certainly not glamorising it.

The Dutch man smoking was certainly true, I've never met people like the Dutch to smoke, usually roll ups morning noon and night. I'm resisting the temptation to jump ahead and watch it on the iPlayer. Last two episodes of spiral on Saturday night too...

CoBo55

CoBo55 wrote: »

The Dutch man smoking was certainly true, I've never met people like the Dutch to smoke, usually roll ups morning noon and night. I'm resisting the temptation to jump ahead and watch it on the iPlayer. Last two episodes of spiral on Saturday night too...

Yer wan "monique" was always sucking on a fag too in most scenes.

CoBo55

glasso wrote: »

Yer wan "monique" was always sucking on a fag too in most scenes.

You can include the French in my statement too!!

CoBo55

CoBo55 wrote: »

You can include the French in my statement too!!

People smoke a lot less in most nationalities these days tbh

70's was pretty much peak smoking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Os7OrPZSo

CoBo55

CoBo55 wrote: »

You can include the French in my statement too!!

She was Canadian tho.

Hangdogroad

glasso wrote: »

She was Canadian tho.

Think he means the blond one who was photographing their apartment.

CoBo55

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Think he means the blond one who was photographing their apartment.

Don't bother he'll have the last word no matter what...

Hangdogroad

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Think he means the blond one who was photographing their apartment.

Ah come on now, Nadine is a brunette!

She is French yes.

Knippenberg's wife/ ex-wife is the blonde....

ThunbergsAreGo

Best thing I have watched in a while

Larsso30

absolutely loved this, at points i couldnt believe it was so true , he was just repeating same and same again and getting away with it.

Would love to know what happened with Ajay.

Why he went back to nepal, beggars belief.

had a degree of sympathy for monique until the two tourists in Nepal. she knew well what she had signed their death warrant

fryup

i missed the first 4 episodes of this,

can someone give me a quick synopsis, what's his purpose for killing these people jealousy spite or just for money?

ednwireland

fryup wrote: »

i missed the first 4 episodes of this,

can someone give me a quick synopsis, what's his purpose for killing these people jealousy spite or just for money?

just for money as far as i can tell but he seems to enjoy it as well, although they havent gone into his motivations much apart from the fact he thinks they are rich spoilt white kids !

although its dog slow for the first 4 episodes its probably 2 episodes too long

if the OH wasnt watching it i would have given up by now

CoBo55

ednwireland wrote: »

just for money as far as i can tell but he seems to enjoy it as well, although they havent gone into his motivations much apart from the fact he thinks they are rich spoilt white kids !

although its dog slow for the first 4 episodes its probably 2 episodes too long

if the OH wasnt watching it i would have given up by now

He was using their identities to move from country to country to transport gems which was far more lucrative than what he robbed from his victims.

fryup

well what did you think of the ending???

quare fish wasn't he, wonder why he returned to nepal? for the attention?? to goad
the authorities??

rubberdungeon

I really liked it, watched it weekly rather than watching it in a couple of sitting via the player.

I thought it was slow to begin with and found some parts hard to follow but now I’ve watched it all, I really enjoyed it.

That said, when I watched it all, I Googled him to get more details to fill in some of the gaps for myself

CoBo55

fryup wrote: »

well what did you think of the ending???

quare fish wasn't he, wonder why he returned to nepal? for the attention?? to goad
the authorities??

Brilliant, he was a complete loop the loop, reminds me of a Garry Larson cartoon, patient lying on the shrinks couch, looking over the shoulder of the shrink he has written on his notepad "Just plain nuts!!"

is_that_so

Finding this a real slog and convinced 4 episodes would have been enough. So many unnecessary nondescript tangents in it. Main actors good, there are some good moments and it nails the 70s look very well but it all seems to suffer from that loose "based on" caveat, which can often signify not enough editing. I see most reviews gave it 3/5, that's probably about right.

fryup

yes i agree 4 episodes would have been fine,

i mean it wasn't like there was going to be a big twist at the end, it was telling the narrative of a true story and those who were familiar with the whole affair knew how it was going to end

Fann Linn

Just finished it last night. Thought it was excellent and the lead actor was just menacing. Really enjoyed it.

fryup

fryup wrote: »

yes i agree 4 episodes would have been fine,

i mean it wasn't like there was going to be a big twist at the end, it was telling the narrative of a true story and those who were familiar with the whole affair knew how it was going to end

except there was quite the twist at the end if you didn't know all the details of the story!

I thought that the music and the dreamy hazy 70's style of the piece carried it through the 8 episodes.

fryup

Fann Linn wrote: »

Just finished it last night. Thought it was excellent and the lead actor was just menacing. Really enjoyed it.

he was in the looming towers a few years back

TomTomTim

fryup wrote: »

he was in the looming towers a few years back

Most lovers of cinema would of seen him play the lead in the great French movie A Prophet. I was genuinely shocked when I found out it was the same person.

I just finished this last night, I thought it was great, some of the BBC's best work. I really don't get the complaints about it being slow, I found it to be the opposite. The episodes in the middle were amazingly high octane and intense

JP Liz V1

Starting Wednesday on VM3

JP Liz V1

It is on VM3 on Wednesday