Recommended TV: The Mire '87 and The Mire '97
Recommended TV. Polski Noir. Crime Fiction. Jan Holoubek. Dawid Ogrodnik. Andrzej Seweryn. Magdalena Rózczka. Magdalena Rózczka. Kasper Bajon. Netflix.pl. Bartlomiej Kaczmarek. Jan Komar
Whilst many Polish crime dramas are of a very high standard indeed, with The Mire, showrunner. director and writer Jan Holoubek has produced something special.
In The Mire ‘87 (2018), a pair of small-town journalists investigate the connection between the deaths of a politician and a prostitute. In The Mire ‘97 (2021) a suspicious flood in the same town drags up dark secrets from World War 2.
Both series are gripping crime dramas in themselves but the intersection of the sets of events that are separated by 10 years is particularly masterful. An added texture is also given as The Mire smartly shows the changes in Polish society and lifestyles that took place over those 10 years. Power, corruption and lies are, of course, always lurking in the shadows.
The direction, cinematography, score, and writing are all first rate, and the acting is particularly top notch. Dawid Ogrodnik is splendid in both series, as is the ever-brilliant Andrzej Seweryn. Series one looks at its events through the …
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