China Mieville's setting is complex and intriguing. I kind of loved that there's no attempt to explain how this bizarre world - where two dystopian cities exist side-by-side, blurring at the margins but legally, culturally and psychically completely self-contained - has come to pass.
In these fractured worlds the appearance of a young woman's body kicks off the resumption of a quest to solve his own wife's disappearance for Beszel detective Inspector Tyador Borlu. The victim is from America, a nation bewildered by the seen/unseen twin cities of Beszel and UI Qoma. She's apparently been murdered in the affluent UI Qoma and dumped in the more down-at-heel Beszel and has links to a shady cult-like group invested in the belief of a utopian 'third city'.
With his cocky offsider Constable Lizbyet Cowri in tow, Borlu quickly starts making waves, and attracting the attention of an omnipresent group known as 'the breach' which exists to identify and punish illegal contact between the two cities.
Overall the performances are solid, especially from Mandeep Dhillon who is terrific as the potty-mouthed Cowri.
The plot twists and turns across a few timelines and between the two cities and their blurred ('cross-hatched) intersections. For me, the whodunnit it pretty stock-standard detective fare, but its wonderfully imagined setting is the real star. Frankly, if Mieville is into writing about the history of this perverse world, I'd be lining up to buy it, but I could take or leave any further attempts at the crime genre.
The production values could have been higher. The attempt to render the two cities and their complicated connections was a bit undergraduate. I wondered how Beszel and UI Qoma could look in the hands of someline like Ridley Scott.
Overall though, the four-part miniseries was a good watch. A solid 7 for me.
Review of The City and the City
