Comrade Detective

2017
7.2| 0h30m| TV-MA| en| More Info
Released: 04 August 2017 Ended
Producted By: Amazon Studios
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073X9R3TQ
Synopsis

In the 1980s, millions of Romanians tuned in to Comrade Detective, a gritty, sexy, communist buddy cop show that has now been digitally remastered and dubbed into English for the first time.

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Reviews

Mikeelliott58 This is genius! Well acted , technically perfect and funny .You could almost believe it was done as propaganda.Season 2? I want to see it but I am prepared to be a little disappointed because you can't polish perfection
angryalien Except for the cars and and some clothing and locations everything looks the same as was back in the 80's in Romania, unfortunately. The reality was way more awful, gray and for sure not so cool as it is pictured in this hipster production...
neutrino-51524 Fun to watch, thanks to the outrageous characterizations of the people and life in here, hyperbolically addressing the oddities of the communist system. It delivers a biting satire on the role of the players of the Eastern Block society - the servile state police, the black market as a door to the inaccessible world of the West, the total social and moral corruption of a nation numbed by the vicissitudes of the history. Corneliu Ulic, Florin Piersic JR, Olivia Nita, and their US dubbing counterparts, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, Jenny Slate as well as a plethora of other Romanian and US actors are getting the viewer into binge mood for the series. The dubbing idea is interesting, gives a special flavor of the concept, but you must adjust and go past the first episode. The US crew did a great job, making the film very unique! An original Romanian track with subtitles would be interesting to watch as well, but might lose some of the charm.
daniele-iannarelli An interesting (as a very anti-American / anti-Western/Capitalism) curio. Ruined by dubbing and consolidated with (let's be generous and say ) 'less-tham-good' acting and corny dialogue it's, in fact, strangely worth watching.Frankly, I'm not quite sure how to describe "Comrade Detective". If it's intended as a satirical spoof it's quite good. If it's serious it's bad, with multiple contradictions and faults. If it's intended as a comedy it's not bad.A line of dialogue in the first episode goes: "There was a time when I'd line up everyone here against the wall and shoot 'em... just on the off-chance they were the killer. Awwwh... the whole world is going to s--t, Gregor".Now, if that piece of dialogue was intended as comedy or a spoof/satire *against* Communism it's quite funny. If it was intended seriously it's a pretty bad self- assassination on behalf of the Romanian production.Contradictions include the initial tussles between the new partner (a Borat lookalike) and the protagonist (a clichéd reference to a Film Noir hard-boiled, - lifelong-loser - detective. The Borat lookalike is apparently a wrestling champion, and yet he's constantly gotten the better of by the protagonist. Strange.Also, it's mentioned that "we're not used to crime in Romania. It's not part of our national character, and so we find ourselves completely overwhelmed". Then a new addition to the department is introduced as a "secret police officer sent from the 9th division". If they're not used to crime, how come they have a 'secret police section' let alone a police force at all...???However, whatever it purports to be, it's certainly Cold-War propaganda whether tongue-in-cheek or not.Although I grew to like it more and more as the series went on, I just couldn't shake off the dubbing aspect. Dubbing just doesn't sit right with me... especially when it's of an American accent while obviously set - in this case - in an Eastern bloc country and during, at the time, the Cold War. You have American accents pursuing an anti- American/Capitalism agenda. Perhaps a better choice (for contrast's sake) would have been the use of a British accent... if dubbing was indeed deemed an absolute necessity, that is.Before episode 5, they absolved themselves of the crime of dubbing by saying that "no-one reads anymore". Well, what a load of tripe. OK, yes, some people (and I have a few friends that way) don't like subtitles and avoid watching subtitled foreign language films. However, many of us purists (and there are a lot of us), including myself, prefer the original language. As mentioned before, the essence of the actor is his voice. This is even better, of course, combined with body movement and facial expression. When you have another actor superimposing any part of this holism, you get a jilted unbelievable mismatch. It's not as bad as others I've seen but it's a good deal less effective than the best of ineffective dubbing such as in the Italian film industry. Fact of the matter is, in my opinion, that it was an ego thing... they simply wanted 'to be part of' this 'cult' series. So, they've let their egos supersede originality. They obviously felt guilty otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need to excuse themselves.I did like the series overall. However, it loses considerably with the removal of the original actors' voices... after all, as I've said before, the essence of an actor is his voice. I would love to see the original (not dubbed) production, with English subtitles.As it stands, I give it a 5/10 rating because of it being dubbed. Had it been kept as original, but with subtitles, I'd have awarded a 7/10. Overall though, worth watching for curio's sake.