The best is yet to come! I don't know where you are at - so I can't comment on events that will most certainly spoil it for you. I am annoyed at Igor - he can't seem to make up his mind from one minute to the next and his lack of fighting skills is seriously bad. Even Zheka is beginning to look more masculine than he is - if it wasn't for that ridiculous hat - please - just chop the bobble off, that would be something. A contract will appear later on and the terms of it are too silly for words - I think it is meant to be another "amusing episode". Russians seem to have a very childish sense of humour. I am wondering who the Lieutenant Colonel keeps reporting to regarding Igor - because I don't get the impression that he is a bad guy. I have yet to see Vika smile - she is really getting on my nerves now.

The first few minutes of episode 7 has a bombshell. You remember when Igor arranged to meet Katia? It wasn't real obvious, but after he 'rescued' her from the two guys hitting on her and she left. something happened that made me think it was a set up. He introduced himself by becoming her knight in shining armor. In ep. 7 you find out why he wanted to meet and date her. I can't believe that he didn't know ahead of time who she is. I hope I am not giving it away.

Well, I just read your latest and it sounds like you're ahead of me again. I just watched some idiot run into an art gallery smearing red paint on the collection being shown. Of course nobody laid a hand on him or tried to stop him. Only after he was running free and clear toward the door did a couple of men start to give chase. In real life someone would have kicked the back of his knee to put him on the floor while he was in the act of defacing the paintings. But this is TV.

Maybe once he gets around to retirement age they will send Igor for firearms and hand to hand training. For now it seems he is the brains of the outfit, but not much more.

So you know who Katya is then? Has Igor been invited to dinner with them yet? He has some scheme going that I can't figure out - apparently he wants his shares to be diluted for some reason. I only mention this because it happened to me and I don't know how it is legal - it is certainly not moral. After the financial crash in 2008? I had 400 bank shares - they informed me that they were replacing those 400 shares with forty shares of the same value -sounds fair doesn't it - unless the shares go up and now you only have 40 instead of 400. Banks have always been robber barons - nothing has changed. There is another bombshell coming - get your tin hat out! Danilo is heading for real trouble - his jealousy will get him killed. It is beginning to annoy me how Igor seems to be the only one with the great idea to solve things - he does it with the artist woman - he makes the rest of them look like morons - though to be fair they pretty much are.

His scheme, according to his conversation with his inner group, is supposed to destroy Arkady's company and put him on top, though I didn't catch how it was supposed to work. I am not well versed in that stuff anyway, though I don't think they spelled it out. Zhenya is still trying to read that inch and a half thick book of a prenuptial he has to sign if he wants to marry rich girl. It looks like he isn't sure if he wants to do that now. He likes her, but when that ex oligarch told him he would rather go fishing than struggle to make money, Zhenya was considering his words thoughtfully. Your experience reminds me of something a filmmaker experienced. He was told by the IRS that some gold transactions he made a couple of years earlier had been made retroactively illegal. How the hell can they do that? That violates existing law. But when the government tells you they are robbing you like that, who can you turn to for relief? The guy made another film called America, from Freedom to Fascism. It got some attention and the deep state guys figured he was too influential to piss off. Nick Rockefeller contacted him and invited him to join their group. He was promised that stuff would never happen to him again. But this guy Aaron Russo, he was a man of the people. He exposed the things he was told. He died from cancer not long after that. It is an evil fucking world.

Now it seems that Igor didn't realize Katya was Arkadiy's daughter. And he suspects Stas had a hand in setting it up. Stas called him earlier and said that Katya is not their girl, as if he has some evil plan for her. I hope he doesn't kill her. She is a hottie and I like the eye candy. Her name is Lyubov Aksyonova. I looked it up. Why can't Russians get some normal sounding names? I should probably write her and make sure she knows that I am single so she doesn't get hooked up with some other guy. heh heh.

My goodness - she must have made an impression on you! I hope she can speak English because Russian seems to me to be a pretty hard language to learn. Is it the Cyrillic alphabet they use. Some of the characters look like Chinese hieroglyphics. I expect that alphabet has more characters in it than English. Look what happened in Cyprus a couple of years back - the bank simply took the money belonging to their customers and it was all perfectly legal - theft by government and nothing can be done about it it seems. They used the excuse that they were confiscating the funds of Russian Oligarchs but rumour has it that they had gotten wind of it and removed their money months previously. It is indeed an evil world. Zhenya and Igor are a right pair of prats - they dither like little old ladies. I still think that the Zhenya situation is ridiculous - it simply wouldn't happen. A pretty young woman with all the money in the world - a socialite in the high echelons of society wants to marry a middle aged homely looking cop with no cash and no social standing and who wears a silly hat. She would be ostracised from society - not least because he is a cop and her father is pretty much an Oligarch and probably has his finger in a lot of criminal pies - they wouldn't trust her. That thick book is the pre-nup contract - it is the source of a ho ho ho moment later on. Also - have you noticed that Christmas seems to last for months in Moscow.

Igor got really stupid when he walked into his apartment. Vika was clearly pointing behind him with her eyes, with that urgent Danger BEHIND you! look. And just like the idiots who can't get out of the way, he slowly moved toward her like "wha? what are you saying?" Whack! And of course, at the moment Danila comes to find her she is having a moment with Igor. That same plot line repeated over and over again. Danila will go crazy over this.

Anya is trying to take a loan on Vika's apartment at a high interest rate. She is a real piece of crap. And when Vika doesn't show up she acts concerned for her. What? If she cared about her she wouldn't be robbing her and lying to her.

In that hostage situation they would have had SWAT ready to breach at a moment's notice. And as soon as they heard a shot from inside, they would have breached with explosive charges, flashbang grenades, etc. and have taken him out before he could recover from the shock. Instead in the show they just listened to the sound of the shot and stood there in shock themselves. And then Igor finds two guys who sold fake drugs to the pharmacy and made them hostages. Right. Nobody would do that. But it does play to the common man's sense of justice.

Dania took a bullet for Vika so she feels she can't let him down now. But she doesn't really love him. They will keep playing this thing this way. I could see that early on.

Wow, I just saw the scene where Vika canceled the loan and Anya acted like she was done wrong. She stormed out in a huff. Whoops. Anya just got kidnapped by somebody. But she gets home in the morning.

In my fantasy Katya speaks English and is crazy about this old American who could be her grandfather. She doesn't care about getting married and ruining things. I have enough money to leave her comfortable when I'm gone so she doesn't have worries about that. I could leave it in a trust so she didn't have to worry. I guess I still think like I am young, although my body tells me differently. But there is no harm in having happy thoughts.

Wow, Vika got shot and she killed Vadim. Vika is entirely too forgiving of her sister.

Often a film shows you someone finally finding happiness, expressing their friendship or love in a touching moment, burying the hatchet and making peace with a family member, friend, or loved one, and shortly thereafter they are killed. They showed us that with Danila. It was maybe the first time that he wasn't angry or depressed or worried. He was actually friends with Igor, secure in his relationship with Vika, looking forward to life and his future. You almost knew it couldn't last long. Stas killed him last episode. I am starting to watch ep 12 now. The other thing about films is that once this happens, the murderer's days are numbered.

How is it that Stas, a drug addled fool, has better martial arts skills than the two men who had him bound? And how is it that he is a crack pistoal shot when falling down or shooting around a corner without looking? They are really building up the need for viewers to see him die. Bravo. I just saw the death scene. Stas is really dead this time.

OK, I finished it now. They finally explained what he was doing so far as business was concerned.

I have finished it also. Thank goodness I never have to see that grinning psychotic face again - and I STILL don't know why Stas had it in for Igor. I assume it was jealousy because Igor was always more in control of his life and better liked than Stas was. The scene in the cemetery was so stupid - all those armed policemen and he takes wild shots from all angles and hits at least two of them and then gets clean away. Mind you - I suppose that was nothing for a guy who was in handcuffs and took down two guards. And where else would he run to except his mothers? The best scene in that was when Vika and the rest of them shot him - I cheered with relief. I still don't know what Igor's feelings are towards Katya - he said he loved her but then went straight to Vika so I must assume he was lying. By the way - your Russki hottie tottie has got hairy pits !! So it was the two guys who were supposedly working for him that were actually not working for him? Was that the lieutenant colonel with them who shot Arkadiey? It was OK - but predictable and sometimes downright stupid. I wonder if the next seasons will be shown on Netflix eventually. I don't think it is a strong enough show to warrant many seasons. It makes you laugh how a billion pound business can be taken over so easily (at least on TV) In "Arrow"" all he did was sign a paper and he lost the entire business because he didn't turn up to a few meetings. Oh dear - sigh - back to the drawing board - what to view next?

I slept late today. Well, you found this one so it would be good if I can find us a good one, but so far I don't have any great ideas. I will look around and let you know what I find.

I think with Stas it goes back to something you pointed out once. Igor really flipped on his friends in a heartbeat. I think Stas felt really betrayed by that. Apparently they had frequently gotten into jams and helped each other out, covered for each other, and ultimately gotten bailed out by their fathers when it was needed. Stas expected some kind of help for old times sake, but Igor changed so suddenly when Stas was in the most trouble that I think it felt like the worst betrayal to him. Let's recall that Stas wasn't the most mature sort of person to begin with. He was prone to shifting blame to others, not taking responsibility for his actions. Igor had been much the same. Then he grew a conscience. That was the betrayal. And Stas blamed him for the drastic changes in his own circumstances. You don't understand that because you don't blame others for your own mistakes. Stas blamed others.

Yes, well we knew Vika's boss was working for somebody. At first I thought it was maybe Igor's dad he was talking to, but after Vlad died I knew it was someone else. Turns out it was the guy above Arkadiy. And you're right, he shot him with that impressive long range sniper shot. He should not have taken it though. Igor was right behind him and should have been hit by the same slug. Maybe I didn't see it right and he was off to the side. But still, at that range if your wind calculation is off a little, that bullet could drift a foot to one side and hit the wrong target. But in TV shows you're not supposed to think about such things.

Yeah they really stretched credulity with our criminal druggie Stas. None of the police could shoot straight, and Stas managed to take out two guards while handcuffed. The one guard made an awful mistake by getting nervous and spraying fire at Stas while he used the other guard as a human shield. He should have just trotted over there and placed the gun to his temple and blasted some sense into Stas' remaining brain cells. But the writers were building up to the satisfaction scene, the one where the three of them got even with him for Danila, and all the others. They did that scene very well. Stas holding his hands out, expecting the cops to remain bound by the rule of law, playing the system to his advantage. But not this time. They would write it up that Stas tried to shoot them with the hot gun they would have planted on him afterward. With someone like Stas, who murdered several police officers, nobody would question those reports. Stas had used up all his chances.

Igor is torn between the two I think. He really did love Katya. But right now Vika is in pain and in need, and she was his first real love. He only started looking around because he felt it couldn't work out with Vika, I think. I don't know how they will play this out going forward. If they give us the remaining seasons on Netflix I will watch them though.

Lyubov Aksyonova can shave those pits. Besides, that's not so bad. You hardly ever see them so I could live with that. If she had hairy legs I would puke.

I think she has had a nose job. Pretty women always want a tiny nose. One of my sisters modeled for a while. She wound up getting a nose job. I didn't think she needed it, but there are certain standards in that industry I guess. Women judge each other's looks far more than men in that way I think. We don't want to date an dog, a girl with Jimmy Durante's nose or something. But their bodies, to be blunt, their tits and asses, and what they are willing to do with them, is our big draw.

Apparently Arkadiys company had a lot of debtors, not uncommon for a company in growth. By going to the minor shareholders and getting them to threaten to switch to Igor's side, Igor got Arkady to extend himself much further into debt to buy their loyalty, or so he thought. Once he had him so far overextended that there was no way he could satisfy all the debts if they were all called in at once, that is exactly what he did. He had been given authority by the minor shareholders to act on their behalf, so he called in all their debts at once, putting Arkady's company into default. When news of that hit the market, the value of the stock plummeted. Igor then used the money he got from leveraging his own company i.e. taking big loans using his company as collateral, to buy up a majority share of Arkady's company. So he wound up owning both of them. He needed a reason to default all those loans legally though. He used the fact that Arkadiy had given his daughter $2 million without the board's approval, which is illegal and gave Igor the grounds to default all those loans. There had been another issue he could have used, but Arkadiy was smart enough to correct that issue. So it was when Katya told him about the 2 million that he found the way to do the takeover. They finally explained all that in one scene at the end.

Just browsing Netflix - came across a Spanish show called "Mar de Plastico" - have a look - see if you fancy it.

I'll check it in a little while and get back to you on it.

I've watched the first episode - it's a straightforward murder investigation complicated by race resentments. Worst part of it at the moment is the acting of a man playing an autistic adult - he is plain and simply dreadful. I will watch another episode and see if it livens up - the first is always slow - setting the plot and characters etc.

Those people are pretty dumb. If I found blood coming from the sprinkler system the first thing I would do is check the source of the water, the reservoir. It took the new chief of police to suggest that they look there. And how about that cop's mom? She tells her how she raised her the best she knew how, and then she turned out like this? What? As a policewoman? I guess to those gypsies that is just terrible. What was she saying? We raised you to be a gypsie (sorry, but they have a reputation for crime) and you became a cop? lol

Some of the acting isn't great, but it looks like it might develop into something. Let's give it a try

ok

Another stupid cop move: when that cop was looking for the black guy in the sunglasses reflection he told Pilar and those young guys why they wanted to talk to him. That cop should be demoted with a black mark on his record. You never tell people any of the details of the investigation. You tell them something like "we need to talk to him to see if he has any information for the investigation. We have to talk to anyone who might know anything" or something like that. You pretend it is some routine thing. That cop let those kids know that he was involved with the murdered girl. He is responsible for all those assaults and that black kid, Kaled, getting beat up and almost murdered. It seems that police department isn't very sharp.

Just a thought: Pilar, the cocky chick we saw in the bar in episode 1 who is constantly trying to rouse the rabble to take revenge on somebody, might be involved somehow. Sometimes when someone tries to convince others that someone is guilty they are doing that to keep anyone from thinking past that person, and questioning whether they themselves were involved. Also, by acting like they want to punish the guilty party, they think they are making themselves seem innocent since they are outraged and angry over the killing. It is way too early to say, but I wonder about that girl.

Another stupid decision. That widow, Marta, went and told the grieving mother, Carmen, that she asked her murdered daughter, Ainhoa, to help investigate some poisoned water on that rich guy's farm, Juan Rueda. Why the hell didn't she go to the police chief Hector with that information? It seems like everyone is spreading information around that only the investigators should have.

Another stupid thing. When the Chief visited the widow that night when he was keeping watch at her place, he thought he heard something and pulled his pistol and racked the slide to chamber a round. You can see that he puts his finger inside the trigger guard. He has his finger on the trigger as he goes to investigate. Nobody who knows how to handle weapons does that. It is an accident waiting to happen. You keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you have your weapon lined up on a target. It takes a small fraction of a second to put it there. I mean less than a tenth of a second, much less. You don't save time having it on the trigger, but you raise the chance of an accidental discharge greatly.

When the black girl was trapped in the truck with gas dripping on her and the motorcycle guy, Lucas, stopped to get her out she kept yelling 'no no no get out go get out'. Then he got out and ran to get a knife to cut the seatbelt straps and she started yelling 'come back, don't leave me'. Then he came back with his knife and got back in the overturned SUV and she started yelling 'no no get out go get out'. Damn. There is hysterical and then there is totally stupid hysterical. And then after he saved her from burning to death she looked at him like he was some evil person as she backed away from him. -- I guess she was just freaked out though. Later she helped him hide when those black guys were chasing him.

Was that Agneska, Juan Rueda's woman who was burning the white SUV with the bloody clothing in the back? She could have a motive, if she was jealous of the dead girl. She might have seen text messages or the phone log on her husband's phone and thought he was seeing her. But more than likely this is another red herring. Whenever they make it too easy like that, I figure they are giving us a false lead.

Early in the show I find it helps me to include characters names when I write about them. I learn them faster when I write their names as I talk about them. Also I figure it helps you know who the hell I am talking about instead of saying "that guy that looked in the truck that time".

The people in this town don't think much of law and order, or the police. Marta's kid Nacho is a little hellyun. When Hector told her what her son did she didn't care at all. She got angry at him for arresting the kid. The gypsy family disowned their daughter Lola for becoming a cop, for "joining the other side". Pilar and her gang attacked the chief of police when he showed up to stop them from burning Kaled alive. It's insane.

It looks like it might shape up to be a nice mystery. They have not telegraphed who did it yet. They have shown us some possible suspects but I figure most or all of them are red herrings. What do you think of the rapid fire stacatto sound of the excited Spanish language? TV shows almost always have hyper emotional characters. And Spanish shows are particularly bad about that. Having lived in Miami with its large Cuban population I can tell you that it is rare to hear the language spoken slowly. Rapid fire is a common rate of speech. When most of the speakers are emotionally upset it starts to wear on my nerves after a while. But I am getting into the story now, and I can always cut the sound off if it gets on my nerves too much.