Versailles and Crown
 

Anyone else watching or has seen this series? My wife and I got into it via Netflix several episodes back. Gripping stuff and an interesting interpretation of what the atmosphere of French court life might have been like in the reign of Louis XIV.

It's on our list, but haven't started it yet. We just finished "Medici" which we enjoyed.

We quite liked 'Medici,' but we thought the acting was a bit lackluster. As a result, we found it more difficult to get involved with the fortunes of any of the characters.

We said the exact same thing, but still got captured. Seemed like a lower budget affair that threw Dustin Hoffman out there as bait. We'll probably will start Versailles tonight.

I hope you enjoy it - I'm sure you will if you like this sort of stuff, as we do. It's very well done.

My wife and I recently started "Medici." We will have to put "Versailles" on our list.

- Glenn

I enjoyed it.
I also happened to live in France in the late 60's-early 70's.
In fact, when I arrived in Paris there were still cobblestones missing from the recent student riots.
I lived outside Paris in a small town called Vaucresson, only a couple of train stops before Versailles.
Stayed several times with a fellow Australian school friend who lived in Versailles.
Walked those incredible gardens many times.

Sounds like a great experience! Also a good time to have been there - I imagine the country was less 'globalized' than it might be now. I've been to France a few times, but only for short visits. I went to Versailles on a school trip in 1977 and with my brother around 1983.

Funny true story.
I now live in a small coastal town half way between Melbourne and Sydney.
We don't even have traffic lights.
I was working in the tiny music store a few years back and a young family came in speaking French.
I told them I used to live in France.
'Where in France?"
Small town 'Vaucresson'.
The young Dad was absolutely gobsmacked.
He grew up in Vaucresson.
I drew a crude map of the town with the location of the train station, market square, cinema and .... dry cleaners!
He was in total shock, I could see his head spinning.
How could a guy in a shop in a tiny town in Australia know where the dry-cleaners was in the town he grew up in in France?
His wife thought it was hilarious.

Amazing - the kind of impossible coincidence that cannot happen in stories, only real life!

Oh no! The first season on Netflix has just ended for us at a crucial moment, and we'll have to wait before the next arrives.

Life can indeed be cruel! :(

We've had a chance to watch the first 2 episodes and like it. A bit slow at times perhaps, but the hook was set and we will certainly keep watching. I think it will be more interesting as we get invested in the characters. One of the things I like about this genre, when they are done well, is that it makes me think about those periods in history. On a bit of a side track we started to watch the 4 part Netflix series Four Seasons in Havana. It is in the subtitled police procedural genre and has a different perspective that I find pretty interesting.

I take it that's set in modern times, right? Are there any other series that you'd recommend?

Yes, modern times. Recommending books and movies is tricky because what one person might love another person hates. In general I like crime type series. Some other Netflix offerings I liked included "River" which I thought was outstanding. Marseille, Broadchurch and Doc Martin (comedy) were also enjoyable. We just started watching Nobel, which might make the cut too. We watched The Crown -- I liked it, but not as much as my wife did.

I thought "The Crown" was excellent and very well done. We tried to watch "Versailles", lasted about 20 minutes and stopped it. Not for us.

We've gotten through a couple of episodes of "Medici" but for us, it's just not very compelling. But we may go back to it if we got bored with the other offerings between Netflix and Amazon.

We are watching "John Adams" right now, an HBO series. It's on Amazon, but I got tired of the overloaded connections and problems with Amazon.com so I went up to my studio and got the DVD set. To me, "John Adams" is a really high quality series with outstanding acting, background music, and dialogue. We have watched the series before, but it's been a while and it's so good... Especially the first two episodes are really powerful for me.

- Glenn