This BBC drama is a difficult one in some respects - because it is so damned good.
I'm four episodes in (two per day for the last two days, and could easily have gone on for a third) and am hooked. Served in a hopping series of flashbacks, mixing past and present in a way that is gripping but never confusing, it tells the story of murder and chicanery on the hippie trail to the East in the 1970's.
Herman Knippenburg, a minor functionary in the Dutch embassy in Thailand, becomes involved (initially against his will) in the search for two missing travellers and in short order finds himself unweaving a web of duplicity and murder, stretching into serial killer territory and beyond, chilling enough to make your blood run cold. Against structural indifference and state disinterest (these are only hippies after all) the situation gets darker and darker and always sitting in the middle of it all, are the activities and movements of the hypnotically seductive, but elusive character Charles Sobhraj.
Set in the beautiful locations of the actual hippie routes (Bangkok, Katmandu, Kashmir etc) the story flips you about, forward then backwards in time, and all the time the tension is maintained as one wonders what the chilling figure at the center of this tragic tale will do next. Bad at the start, he simply seems to get worse and worse. The lead role of the series is taken by Tahar Rahim, ably supported by Jenna Coleman as a young lady who falls under his spell, and who out of a mixture of fear and love becomes entwined in his schemes. The role of the twitchy Knippenburg is taken by Billy Howle and Tim McInnerny is also in there as a Belgian diplomat who gives his louche aid.
All in all this is one of the most gripping TV series I have seen in many a month, and damn I wish they were all this good. But the horrid thing, the fly in the ointment of your enjoyment, the thing that you wish wasn't so - is that it's all true.
The Serpent
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peter
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The Serpent
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard
