The Expanse

 The more I watch it, the more I like it.

Bosch Season 6

Between 12:30 and 12:40 into Episode 10, Detective Vega walks thru the camera shot. Someone approaches from the right and says "Hey there" just before he steps into view.

Vega replies, "Hey Mike."

I'm thinkin Mike is Michael Connolly, author of the Bosch novels. Check the four-minute "Episode 0" at Amazon Prime, "Page to Screen: The Overlook". About 38 seconds in, Michael Connelly talks about S6E1. That could be him.

That's him.

//

From the transcript at tvshowtranscripts:

Hey, there.
Hey, Michael.
What up?

HBO: Chernobyl

Wow.
Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow.

Oh my, Irvin

Okay. I've been thru Bosch season five once now, and got lost on my second time thru. Amazon Prime Video should do a better job of remembering where I left off. No problem, after I watch season five another dozen times I'll have a better feel for it.

Couple links I don't want to misplace:

What To Expect From Bosch Season 6

and

Bosch Season 1 Episode 1 Review: “Pilot”

Both are good reads.

"the blocking of e-mails, forum posts or search results by a spam filter or search engine because their text contains a string of letters that are shared with another (usually obscene) word" or ...

At Wikipedia, under Scunthorpe problem:

In February 2003, Members of Parliament at the British House of Commons found that a new spam filter was blocking ... e-mails sent in Welsh because it did not recognise the language.

Maybe it's because I'm not ready to abandon the nation-state

From Demography of the United Kingdom:

Although Celtic languages are partially spoken in Scotland, Cornwall, and Northern Ireland, the predominant language overall is English. In North and West Wales, Welsh is widely spoken as a first language, but much less so in the South East of the country, where English is the predominant language.

I adore the accent: Mared Rhys's father; the proprietor of the Devil's Bridge inn calling her dog; Lloyd Ellis, in every episode. I love the Welsh accent.

I'm fascinated by the Welshness (if that's a word) of Hinterland, in particular the Devil's Bridge folk tale that Mared Rhys tells DCI Tom Mathias, and the painting with the devil's face hidden in the folds of the old woman's robe. Mathias, an Englishman, somehow knows none of this history -- and I get to learn it along with him

If I have it right, Mali Harries (DI Mared Rhys) shares her character's fascination with Welsh history and folk tales. I like that. And I'm intrigued by the fact that episodes of Hinterland are created in two languages, English and Welsh. It suggests that the show's creators and producers also share the fascination with Wales. And want to share it with the rest of us.

And when I started looking into it, I found out there is an active effort to preserve the Welsh language and expand its use. Why do I care? I dunno. But I do.

Bosch: Framing Season One

Here are my original notes on the rain that opens and closes season one of Bosch:

Season 1 Episode 1 of Bosch opens with Harry Bosch and Jerry Edgar on a stake-out. It's gonna rain, Bosch says, and the game will be rained out.

The last episode of Season 1 ends with Jerry Edgar telling Bosch that the rain will come and wash away all the crap.

The second or third time I came back to those notes I said No, there's more to it than that. I watched those episodes again and wrote down the relevant conversations.

The opening words of S1E1:

(we hear a baseball game on the radio, in the background.)
Harry: Gonna rain like a bastard tonight.
Jerry: You're crazy.
Harry: Need it. Wash all the shit away.

The closing words of S1E10:

Jerry: The rain will come along, wash all this shit away.
Harry: Right, all into the big gutter and out to sea.
Jerry: Go easy, brother.
(Harry nods.)

For the record, the "big gutter" that Harry mentions in episode 10 is introduced midway thru the season, 20 minutes into S1E4, and again about 18 minutes later.

Bosch

I know, I know: The blog is about Hinterland.

My wife watched the first two seasons of Bosch (an Amazon original) a year or so back. I only half watched it, half at my computer in the adjacent room. So when the third season of Bosch came out I had no particular interest in watching it. After some time, though, I gave it a try.

It fascinated me. There was no drifting back to the next room to play with my computer.

Couple days after I finished season three, it came into my head again. Why does everybody think he's a bad cop? I wondered. It's because he doesn't care what people think. The character caught my interest. So I sat down and watched all three seasons. Now I love the show.

I also love the way it's written, the way it's put together. Like this: Season One starts and ends with rain. I thought that was interesting. What it means, the symbolism, I don't know.

And this: Something happens late in the last episode of season one. Not Harry, but the other guy gets what he deserves. That same something comes up in the last episode of season two. And this time not the other guy, but Harry gets what he's looking for.

And this: In season one Harry's daughter visits him in L.A. He buys her a braided string bracelet like the one he wears. It never comes up again in the first three seasons, but Harry's bracelet appears many times in brief camera shots. If not for that one scene where the daughter gets her bracelet, I would have completely missed all of those camera shots. I can't guess the significance of Harry's bracelet, but maybe we find out in season four.

S1E1: The first 80 seconds

A jogger. The camera pans slowly, showing a desolate landscape. No narration. We notice the jogger is approaching a house trailer.

Now our view is from inside the trailer. Breathing hard, the jogger sits down hard on his front step. The whole trailer shakes. I still laugh at that, every time I see it.

After a moment's rest, the jogger gets himself a drink of water. The phone rings. Looking for the phone, he turns a complete 360. Not the most organized guy. I laugh, every time I see it.

He answers the phone: "Mathias". It is the only word spoken before the opening credits.

//

An introduction to the desolation of Wales, two good laughs, and the main character is identified. Not a lot of idle chatter.

Lloyd Ellis: "Nobody takes any notice of me, do they"

Just not enough attention to detail among viewers.

Hinterland is rich with detail of the interpersonal relations among Mathias, Rhys, Owens, and Ellis. But you have to watch. Put your phone down and watch. Much of the richness is non-verbal.

And (in my opinion) so very funny.

Educational TV

After watching season 2 episode 1 (mother and son burned in a house fire) half a dozen times, I noticed the word "Cwmglas" displayed like a company name. A few more times watching, and I heard DC Elis say the word. Hm.

I watched it yesterday and again today, and finally got what I think is the pronunciation of that word: "coom glas". The "w" is pronounced more or less like a double-u (surprise!) or like the double-o in "moon".

I have such trouble because the letter "w" is a vowel in Welsh (or so I read, back when I started watching Hinterland). But for me it's not a vowel. So if I can think of it as an "oo" sound, that will help.

// so "w" sounds like "oo" ...

So just now I googled hinterland blogs and down at the bottom of the list I found a link to alex harries sister and I said ooh, ooh and off I went. Ended up at Husband and wife nominated for Welsh Baftas. That's Mali Harries (DI Rhys) and Matthew Gravelle (Wyn Bratton from S1E3). And then there was a mention of the movie named Cwcw, a Welsh-language movie.

Cwcw, I said to myself... coo-coo.

Went to Google Translate:

Wow!

A glitch? or did DCI Mathias let DI Rhys drive his car

Season 2, Episode 5, starting about 1:11:20 into the episode:

Lloyd: "Sir."

Enter Mathias.

Lloyd: "We know Aaron called Ffion from the kiosk the night he was killed, here at 18:53. Ffion said she tried to call the number back a few minutes later.

Mathias: "But the number was engaged."

Lloyd: "Because Aaron made a second call at 18:56 -- to the boatyard."

Mathias and Rhys look at each other.

Next scene: Street scene. The beautiful Mathias Volvo is on the move. Mathias and Rhys are on their way to the hospital.

Next scene: Inside the car. Rhys is driving.

Three results

Best accent

From WalesOnline: The Welsh accent is officially lush (and that's according to genuine academic research).

I don't know what "lush" means in that context. But I do know that when I started watching Hinterland, the Welsh accent drew me in.

How is Hinterland different?

How is Hinterland different? What makes the show special?

Ray Donovan, now that's a good show. It is good mostly because of the particularly fascinating character after whom the show is named. He makes it a great story.

Hinterland doesn't offer that kind of story.

Or, maybe it does. But the particularly fascinating character in Hinterland is the hinterland itself, and its people. Not Mathias specifically; not Mathias and his team, though I love them all dearly. The fascinating character in Hinterland is Wales.

Time to come back. The past is the past, Tom. Two weeks. I need an answer.

Season two, episode one: The whole opening conversation is short enough to be the title of this blog post.

After the opening credits, two conversations equally sparse: with Elis, and with Rhys.

Awesome.

Words dilute meaning, but not on Hinterland.

He's inspecting. He's detecting. He's doing his job.

I thought there were four. I find only three. If there is a Number Four, when I find it I'll add a note to the end of this post.

Before I started Watching Hinterland the blog, I was watching Hinterland on Netflix. I found it intruding into my thoughts when I was writing for my Econ blog. Ended up writing three or four Hinterland-related posts. It was always my intention to round them up and make note of them here. Now, finally, I'm getting to it.

The first evidence that the show had intruded into taken over my life was The Exquisite Tragedies of Hinterland (26 March 2016):

Best part? The eyes. The eyes of DCI Mathias and the eyes of DI Mared Rhys. Mathias walks up to a crime scene, stops, and looks at everything. He's inspecting. He's detecting. He's doing his job. Then he walks into the crime scene and stops to inspect and detect some more.

Then there's a cute one on my "frivolous tales" blog: Learning Welsh (4 April 2016).

And then you can see me working Hinterland in to the econ topic of my Thank God for them billionaires, huh? (20 April 2016):

The show is set in Wales in the midst of poverty, desolation, and faces full of character... In our time, that's a model of the economy. That's one reason I like the show so much.

That same day I started this blog. Simple recognition of the fact that, inexplicably, the show had become a significant part of my life.

West Wales

Just now I stopped by an econ blog I often visit, Syll's blog. In What Brexit was all about Syll shows this map:

First on the list of poorest areas in northern Europe? West Wales.

//

Season one, episode one, Hinterland. New to the job, DCI Tom Mathias is called to investigate a murder even before meeting his team. The exchange between DCI Mathias and DC Ellis is an absolute classic. It defines the Ellis character. There are probably not a dozen brief moments in the first nine episodes that develop that character. Yet the show is worth watching, just for those moments.

To me, the murder investigation, solving the crime, if that's what you're interested in, go watch Columbo. Or Law and Order. Untangling the who-done-it in Hinterland is good, as good as any cop show, or better. But the rare, precious moments during which the personality of one of the main characters unfolds, it's moments like that that make the show irresistible.

Anyway, S1E1: Mathias meets his boss Brian Prosser, apparently for the first time. "You've met most of the team, then?" Prosser asks.

"A little sooner than expected," Mathias replies.

Concerning the murder investigation, Prosser says, "I hear you've already mobilized most of the police resources of West Wales. Do you have a body?"

"Not yet," Mathias says.

So anyway, West Wales.

The music

The West Wing, Season 6, Episode 2: Walking in the woods alone, Leo has a heart attack.

I didn't know it was on. I was in the other room and the music caught my ear. I got up to see.

Leo in the woods.

The music is sparse piano, like Hinterland. Not as sparse as Hinterland, but sparse.

Key facts are so clear to Tom Mathias

(Trying to say this without ruining the story for anyone who's not seen it already.)

Season one, episode two, near the end, the perpetrator has been identified but has escaped, and the task now is to find him.

Mathias, knowing where the perp must be, gets up and off he goes to get him. DI Rhys objects. In the brief moment it takes him to exit the scene, Mathias tells Rhys how he knows where the perp is. Rhys hesitates and Mathias is gone, just that quick. Now Rhys knows, and we know too.

Turns out Mathias was right, of course. He's the Jason Bourne of crime solving.