User reviews

The analogy to our world from the fictional universe of China Mieville's 'The City and the City' is both obviousand exquisite: two cities, one gleaming and prosperous, the other more resembling Geroge Orwell's 1984, occupy the same place; the people survive by of the act of will of seeing only one world. Perhaps disappointingly (and especially given Mieville's own Marxist politics), the political dimension is rather under-developed in this BBC adaptation; and David Morrissey's mumbling monontone hero is a hard character to like. As in the best science fiction, there are many interesting ideas here (especially around the concept of "breaching" the two worlds), but they feel somewhat underdeveloped, and too much of the story comes in flashback form. It made me want to read the book to see if the original made more of its foundation.

The confusing opening episode: the weird geography was bound to be disorientating, but the initial flashbacks of the detective's wife appeared, confusingly, to be contemporary.

The interesting journey of the middle two episodes: the teasing possibility of the existence of something mythical.

The disappointing resolution of the fourth and final episode: so this adaptation (if not the source novel itself) is really just a police procedural with a murder investigation that spans a border that's difficult to cross?

Superbly atmospheric rendition, beautifully photographed and with strong characters. The first episode would surely be confusing for those not familiar with the book, but even then, the air of mystery and menace is so compelling that they must also be drawn in. Techniques that seem crude on the surface - blurring of part of an image to indicate that it's not culturally possible to perceive it, umlauts and other diacritics on signs in English - work surprisingly well. David Morrissey's gestures are sometimes a little irritating, especially his over-frequent technique of grimacing while he places one hand over his eyes to indicate that he's seeing something he shouldn't be seeing. Mandeep Dhillon great. Dominik Scherrer's soundtrack disappointing. An indication of how a two state solution could turn out? Loved it, but consider reading the novel first.

While reading The City and the City I remember thinking how it would make an exquisite blockbuster. The CGI was needed not to hide the lack of story, which seems to be the standard for contemporary mainstream, but to enhance it.

Yet we got a TV show. At first I dismissed it, but didn't resist the urge to watch. Eventually I think this is a pretty good TV show.

Obviously, this production can't surpass a blockbuster, but the cohabitation of Beszel and Ul Coma was done in a best possible way with the budget given. As if Eastern Europe of the Cold War with its police state met with the contemporary business districts in the Middle East, tightly controlled by law enforcement and secret service. Sarcastically speaking, the only difference between the two was the appearance.

And what made this TV show even better than the literally template was the ending. In the book it slid towards not particularly convincing fantasy. Here it was done in the only possible way for the given setting, as an anticlimax.

Dark - as in literally dark, with the majority of the scenes dimly lit (partly for effect, partly, I suspect, to obscure familiar filming locations) - and intriguing police fantasy fiction. Not a total success by any means, the plot is complicated and unclearly communicated and more effort seems to have gone into atmosphere than coherence. The acting wobbles a bit, mostly likely due to the direction than anything else, but concepts of perception, identity and belief are explored in thoughtful ways. It's perhaps overlong for what turns out to be a fairly predictable outcome, but there are plenty of effective scenes rich with real suspense. Requires patience and may reward repeated viewing more than a single go round, but it's an involving and worthwhile drama.

After having read the complex and interesting Hugo award winning novel, I had high hopes for the 4 part miniseries. Alas, the screen adaptation needlessly departs from the tight, well thought out plotting of the novel to introduce a distracting and implausible Hollywood romance element, confusing flashbacks while garbling the plot.

The book requires acceptance of only a single premise: that two cities exist side by side with strict prohibitions on interactions between the two.

Do yourself a favor and skip the miniseries and read the book.

The City and the City is an interesting, intriguing, thought provoking fantasy/sci-fi detective thriller. It is shot in a grimy way with a budget that is not quite large enough to reach its ambitions but almost gets there by will power. If you look hard enough you can see some parts of Liverpool.

I did find the series rather confusing but during its transmission I visited Berlin and this gave me another dimension to understand the series.

David Morrissey plays a hard boiled detective Tyador Borlú , an Inspector in the Beszel Extreme Crime Squad. Beszel is a dinghy city with battered tower blocks, poor, with immigrants and a government that wants to drive the foreigners out. It is a Dystopian society not too far from East Germany.

Borlú is investigating the death of a an American female found dead in Beszel. However she was studying in Ul Qoma so it was a case of what was she doing here? Ul Qoma is a little bit upmarket, with glass towers, affluence and a little bit of style and intellectual sophistication. Yet it is also anti immigrant and deep down it is also a Dystopian society, maybe West Berlin of the 1970s.

Both cities exist in the same space, residents from both cities ignore each other and have been trained to unsee and ignore the other city. If you cross the cities illegally it is a breach and punishable unless you go through the official crossing points. A bit like Checkpoint Charlie.

As we follow Borlú's investigation with his new potty mouthed partner, we see flashbacks of his wife who disappeared some years earlier. Did she go to Ul Qoma and not return? Borlú crosses over to Ul Qoma and investigates some radicals who believe that there is a mythical third city called Orciny.

Morrissey is wonderful, he makes the series come alive. The City and the City is one of the best dramas of 2018.

This four-part miniseries is set in the twin cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma; to an outsider they might appear to be one city but residents have trained themselves to completely ignore the other; to notice something in the other city is a crime even if it is right next to you. It is possible to legally pass from one city to the other but once across you must ignore where you came from. Those who cross illegally come to the attention of Breach; the shadowy organisation that polices the boundaries.

Tyador Borlú is an Inspector in the Beszel Extreme Crime Squad and his latest case involves an American student found dead in the city; she shoudn't have been there though as she was studying in Ul Qoma. His investigation will lead him to Ul Qoma, to radicals who believe there is actually a third hidden city called Orciny and ultimately to Breach; only then will he discover what happened to the girl and why... also how it was linked to the disappearance of his wife some years before.

I haven't read the book and when I saw the trailers for this series I thought it might be a bit too weird; but as I like science fiction and mysteries I thought I'd give it a go. I'm glad I did as I was quickly hooked; to the extent that I watched it in one day. The setting is intriguing and the makers did a fine job of depicting the cities; the 'other' city slightly out of focus often to one side of the screen. Usually in such a story one might expect one city to be dystopian and the other utopian but here both are fairly dystopian, even if Ul Qoma appears to be more advanced. The mystery is solid and the details of the girl's death should keep one guessing till the end. We also get political machinations and a high level of threat much of the time. David Morrissey does a really good job as Borlú and he is ably supported by Mandeep Dhillon, as his new partner Constable Corwi and Maria Schrader, as Ul Qoma's Senior Detective Dhatt, amongst others. Over all I'd say this won't be for everybody but it you want something rather different I'd certainly recommend giving this a go.

This miniseries tricks you into thinking there will be an astonishing reveal that is worthy of the painful slog of an effort it is to watch.

After watching episode one I felt perhaps I had accidentaly skipped a few episodes, as just 5 minutes in I had no idea what was going on. Aware that this was based on a novel I powered through in the hope that all would be made clear in the forthcoming episodes.

How I was sadly wrrong.

The premise of 2 cities overlapping, but being worlds apart and disconnected was intriguing. However there is no real explanantion as to why and how this happened. We're never really told if this is a futuristic yet backward era or a facsimilie of a divided Germany. (the scenery, uniforms and costume certainly allude to this)

The cockney foulmouthed sidekick pours fuel on the fire of annoyane. This leads to apathy and makes you wonder if you really care about the dead girl.

I'll stop now for the fear of dropping spoilers, but it shouldn't really matter as I would highly recommend swerving this programme.

Had no idea what to except, never heard of the author or the book this is based on but once I watched the first episode I got it, was hooked and wanted to keep watching, this series is unbelievably good, nothing you will see elsewhere and a great science fiction treat! The visual/special effects /cinematography was flawless that I thought it must have been made somewhere in Germany, but no, here in the UK. I watched it through 3 times over, I loved it that much! Watch/enjoy/discover something different.

Incoherent, inept sci fi - excrutiating and tedious. David Morrissey is actually the best thing in it, but he is up against an overly verbose script, and an amateurish production. It's as if he is leading a troupe of drama students on an improvised exercise. All his dialogue has the strange effect of being exposition that only adds to the confusion, like some character from Alice In Wonderland. The production has the air of a precocious youngster convinced of it's own genius and the startling originality of it's own ideas - anyone failing to penetrate the incomprehensible plot must be of a lower order of evolution. I gather from other reviews here that there is some kind of Marxist allegory at work - if this is the device of two cities occupying the same space - one plush, one rancid - I don't find it overly original, and the point escapes me. I don't think polemics make for especially good drama, and does not make China Mievelle's work seem very appealing. Overall, the production reminded me of painful misfired attempts at adult science fiction from the 1980s, like the awful Plays For Tomorrow, and especially the badly flawed but more interesting Artemis 81, which at least has some flair by comparison,.

Highly stimulating, engaging and thought provoking - actually had to concentrate to understand what is going on. Definitely not a veg out - have to turn off the computer and watch. Reminded me very much of East Berlin in the 80s. Must read the book.

I think the writer and producer and director are largely at fault here. Script development and appreciation of source material is so poor and shows that it takes great skill to convert a novel to the screen. Too many assumptions are made, that the viewer will know the world into which we descend. Far too much inappropriate swearing by actors who look lost and vague, with those who are chain smoking clearly I'll at ease with the poisonous habit and as such fail to convince us that they are real smokers so it creates scenes that look incongruous nay ridiculous. The plotting is clumsy and laborious. The photography/ lighting is reasonably well done, but spoiled by the rest of the ingredients. It doesn't look like much money was spent on the production, which is probably a blessing for the tax payers, but really the whole thing shouldn't have been given the go ahead.

Two worlds who choose to ignore and avoid the other but are physically next door to each other as part of a greater metropolis city. Just to make things even more interesting, is there a third ancient city no one wants to admit exists?

City and the City is an odd blend. There's a little hybridised "checkpoint Charlie" style thing on offer here. A juncture between cities that have a East Germany meets West Germany vibe. This is married up to a gritty police procedural drama that, in turn, has a sci fi physics/metaphysics make over.

Whats really weird is this weirdness works well. This tale is just familiar enough to offer up something convincing and grounded your rational sane side can hold onto but also irrationally, insanely different enough to upturn long held conventions.

It does this quirky series no harm either to have decent refreshingly intelligent narrative and characterisations, backed by a quality cast. A cast that includes David Morrissey, in the lead role, who I fondly remember from The Walking Dead.

9/10 from me.

Unnecessary & excessive obtuse dialogue in an attempt to be cutely mysterious. Poor & excessive use of flashbacks. Drama is mostly talking heads. The divided city where you're not suppose to see the other half even if they're next to you is suppose to be a metaphor for how religion, class, status & wealth divides peoples. But, factually the privileged in most current societies do interact w/their working or less than working peoples encouraging numerous interchanges such as housing, food, assistance programs, prestigious higher ed scholarships, creating pathways for h.s. dropouts to become billionaires. Even the Palestinians work in Israel; Hindi Indians in S. Arabia. Another plot point is the mysterious third city Orciny which has archeological artifacts yet does not occupy any space, time, language; has no past or present and sees/knows everything forever, all of which makes no sense. Summary: Had potential, but not well thought out.

Wow, a brilliant thought provoking series that I am going to watch again.

A real change from the usual US cliched formulaic dross.

Long live independent TV.

Why do they "choose to ignore the other side"?!

In "Counterpart" series (8.2 at IMDb, 9 by me) they resent the other side because of a virus, but what did I miss for City/City?!

Regardless, I've only watched one episode and it's definitely a keeper. Good sci fi.

Actors, characters, filming, directing, are superb, and I always enjoy watching The Governor! lol

The story itself is somewhat interesting, but its hard to "suspend disbelief" when the implication is that the people in these cities are idiots. In the real world if there were what seems to look like 1 city to the outside, split into 2 cities in separate countries that share a border and don't wish open immigration, it would be be far cheaper and more convenient for citizens to build a wall. Its doubtful there is any credible scenario that could explain how the claimed situation evolved in the first place if you assume these are humans rather than aliens who don't share the same human nature we do. I watched this to see if some interesting twist would make their approach more credible, but it never arose.

btw, this comment doesn't indicate anything about politics in the real world. I favor as much open immigration as possible, and a wall dividing a dense city is vastly different than an extremely long one along a sparsely populated border between countries.

Watched all four episodes in one sitting. After the strangeness of the twin cities concept goes away it was entertaining, a little slow but that makes a change from all the wham bam tripe that gets forced upon us as trendy. I swear as much as the next non pc person but for some reason writers today feel they have to someone f'ing and blinding as part of every sentence in every show; having women do it seems to be even more enticing for them. Don't agree but whatever. I started to think cities thing may be a take on Palestine and Israel, ancient & modern, without the intercity conflict but maybe just writers original creativity I think it is a worthwhile watch. Enjoy

Slow , dull and confusing. But apart from that I loved it.