If I have to describe The Serpent in one sentence, it would be – a mess of casting and accents:
- The casting - Charles Sobhraj is Frenchman of Indian and Vietnamese parentage but Tahar Rahim is a French actor of Algerian descent. Close enough for BBC, I guess. :laughing: Several times in the series Sobhraj refer to himself as an ‘Asian’ and I was like, where is this ‘Asian’ he was talking about?!
- The accents – At first, I was very confused why all these British diplomats are concerned about two Dutch backpackers. Colonizers support colonizers? :thinking: Turns out they are supposed to be Dutch, German, Belgian. Oh! :open_mouth: Their terrible accents come and go, so you can easily tell they are all English actors. I hate when USA/UK make movies set in foreign countries but everyone conveniently speaks English instead of their native languages. :rolling_eyes:
Other problems I have with this show:
This series did not portray Charles Sobhraj accurately. In real life he was a mystique and captivating, but this is lacking in Rahim's portrayal. He plays Sobhraj in a very flat and dull manner. The constant blank stare into the distance wasn't enough to convince me he had any charisma.
The constant jumping back and forth in time isn’t executed smoothly. I'm sure BBC thought this was a clever device to create excitement/dynamism, but in fact it’s simply lazy and cheap way of story telling. A sloppy way of creating the drama to avoid having to tell the story well in a single timeline.
The lack of dramatic tension. Only in episode 3 did I get excited about what might happen. The most moving scene of the series is Dominique getting home. No time was taken for the viewer to have any empathy with any of the characters/victims.
All the “Mary Sue/Marty Stu” characterization - from Knippenberg to Siemons, there are too many lazily written cartoon characters. Their sudden and unexpected outbursts of anger seemed way over the top. Next you have Nadine – too many scenes where she decided to scarify herself to help the investigation. It seemed way too exaggerated. Actually, the show focuses more on these characters instead of Charles Sobhraj, it should have been called, “The people who hunt the Serpent down”.
That leads to my next problem with the show. Since most of the show is for the “good” Westerners, there is no mention of all Westerners helping Sobhraj in his crimes. The French businessman named Jean Dhuisme was left out. Barbara Smith (Canadian), Mary Ellen Eather (Australian), Hugey Courage (Belgian) were shown in the last episode but for a very brief moment, and no mention how Sobhraj recruited them. For some reason BBC didn’t want to focus on them, probably not to show colonizers in bad light. Westerns that aren’t rich enough to be rich in their ‘first world countries’ love to move to poor countries to live out their millionaire fantasies. No mention of another Western criminal - Jacqueline Kuster (German), she met Charles while they were both in prison, she was 34, while he was 51 years old. They wanted to get married. Speaking of which, why was Nihita Biswas left out as well? It would have been interesting to see more about Sobhraj‘s life after he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The show is just facts of what Charles did only from the Wikipedia article about him, one would expect the writers to do more research.
One last thing - I do realize that people in the 70s smoked more, but still it is repellent to watch every character smoking heavily in almost every scene.
A fascinating story told extremely poorly. The writing, direction and most of all editing is of such a low quality here and makes the show much more difficult to watch than it should be. None of the dialogue is natural and I was eventually screaming in anger at the screen whenever there was a time jump (which is every 10 minutes or so).
I'm wondering if there was some kind of rule that every scene needed to include a superfluous shot of a character lighting a cigarette or smoking one, especially while staring wistfully. Yeah we get it, people smoked in the 1970s. Apparently everyone.
The actors are a mixed bag too, with some doing well with the material they were given while others just aren't able to handle it. In particular, the lead role of Charles was miscast. Tahar Rahim projects none of the charisma we are supposed to understand the real man had, and is incredibly blank and flat throughout. Knippenberg is a problematic portrayal too, seemingly someone who will just have an angry, shouty outburst at the the tiniest provocation. How did this man become a diplomat if he's that on edge?
But there are good points. Jenna Coleman shows the most range and inhabits her role quite well (apart from the scenes where she seems to mimic Charles/Alain and just stares blankly at him while he speaks). I love the various accents and I think the cast did well there, with a wonderful use of different languages. The series makes good use of its locations and you can almost feel the heat. And on top of it all, the story itself is an intriguing one and easy to just let yourself get lost in. The show managed to create tension well where it was needed.
Less episodes would probably have benefited things, along with a much better method of telling the story.
The Serpent is as much a tale of a failed Miniseries as it is of a serial killer. The show is an unfinished product. This is in part because the story itself is so spread out and outlandish that any attempt to do it justice would be difficult. That being said, there are multiple directorial/writing choices that didn't work. For one thing, the constant flashbacks without a clear point of return (i.e. three months prior --> present) make the show difficult to follow. In particular, the flashbacks in the last couple of episodes makes you wonder why they didn't give you that information earlier. In addition, the actors just aren't believable--the Knippenberg's are far too goody-too shoes, Sobhraj's victims are portrayed as totally dumb and Sobhraj himself is a bit stilted. I generally really like Tahar Rahim's work, but this show simply doesn't cut it.
All characters treated very superficially for such a long series.
Gemma Coleman's awful French accent was really grinding by the end of it.
Could've been better.
What, they couldn't find an actual Asian to play the role? As if the messy accents weren't enough...
This is an excellent and chilling series about a psychopath based on real events. I am, however, amazed that the lead is basically doing yellow face in this day and age...
Great show. Well worth a watch. Do note the time jumps & editing is is really annoying. But beyond that this is a crazy story. Binge worthy.
Considering the wealth of French Canadian actresses who would've fit into the role of Marie, with the same remarks for every other character's profile and background, that was the biggest disappointment of the show. However, the plot is good, but a bit erratic and jumps through the timeline are hard to follow, especially since Charles' appearance barely changes, whether it's his aging or dressing for the time.
Based on a true story, the show's premise instantly piqued my interest. The fact that the events portrayed actually took place adds an extra layer of fascination and intrigue. The performances were convincing, bringing the characters to life and making their struggles and emotions feel genuine. Despite these positives, there was one aspect that I felt could have been improved upon: the non-linear narrative. While the storytelling technique aimed to create suspense and mystery, it occasionally led to confusion. The constant shifts in time made it difficult to keep track of the events and the character development. Overall, The Serpent is a good series, however, a smoother chronological progression could have made it even better. Nonetheless, I would still recommend this show to anyone who enjoys a thrilling crime drama based on real events.
somewhat hard to follow since there is a lot of time skipping forward and back, also six different languages are spoken throughout.
Inspired by real events, this is a terrifying tale of a charismatic psychopath and the people who fell under his spell and the minor Dutch diplomat who spent his career trying to bring him to justice. Well written and chillingly portrayed by Tahar Rahim. It was Jenna Coleman that attracted me to this work and she brilliantly captured the complexity, fear and delusion of the young French Canadian who was the accessory to the crimes. This girl has range. I give this series a 7 (captivating) out of 10. [Crime Drama]
Great show but 1 star rating for the amount of smoking in it.
Although this might look like a cookie-cutter “true crime” show in many respects (and has been received as such by many), The Serpent shines because it puts its stellar cast and excellent production quality not in the service of the frisson of getting close to a serial murderer, but into exploring what makes the difference between shades of obsession and the what human relationships around them.
overall great show, gritty and enchanting, time jumps were Abit jarring but overall good
This just wasn't as good as I expected it to be unfortunately. Was originally rooting for this one as I like miniseries but the incessant, jolting timejumps (which weren't always needed) and the not that great dialogue made this a bit hellish. There were some good moments but I never felt like I wanted to move to the next episode. Anyway actors were ok and costumes and set design were nice.
This BBC production is totally worth watching. Top notch cast and production.
This BBC production is totally worth watching!
[Netflix] The series manages to go beyond a simple story of a swindler murderer to show the portrait of an era. After the end of the Vietnam War, a search for freedom and a sense of community arises in those hippie travelers who are the victims of Charles Sobhraj. It is a portrait of the vulnerability of the human being through a thriller built in the form of a puzzle that manages to fit the pieces properly.
Were hippies really this stupid?
First episode is slow but hang in there... it gets a whole load better. Yes it does chop and change timeframe which is a little annoying but overall... I love the time period, it's f'ing alarming this is based on a real story (even if loosely in terms of dialogue etc), I love bangkok setting and the whole hippie trail aspect.... It is imperfect but oh so bingeworthy. Got to give it a firm 8. Good on you BBC. This is really good popcorn watching. With one sick guy at the centre of it all. I think this is worth checking out for sure.
Competent portrait of a monster, not bad, but the constant time jumps in the story make you disconnect easily and lose impact and consistency.
Easy binge if you like crime drama.
Shout by MikeBlockedParent2021-02-10T09:37:41Z
Very good crime drama with nice Asia setting!