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The Serpent (Netflix miniseries)

Tahar Rahim (A Prophet, The Mauritanian) is smooth and sexy as the handsome, charismatic serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who robbed and murdered travelers along the 'Hippie Trail.' Lots of shirtless scenes.

Two episodes in, there's no sighting yet of Rahim's serpent.

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by Anonymousreply 45February 21, 2023 11:40 PM

I read he won’t do nude scenes anymore. He was naked briefly in the incredible film, The Prophet.

by Anonymousreply 1April 3, 2021 4:05 AM

I am astonished by how much Jenna Coleman looks like Mila Kunis. I never noticed it before. She is not a great actress, but she has far more range than I had previously given her credit for having.

Tahar Rahim is gorgeous, but he's not exuding nearly enough charisma as Charles Sobhraj. It's not believable hat people would give him so much power or that they would be so afraid of him bending them to his will once they discover he's evil.

Everyone else is great, though.

by Anonymousreply 2April 3, 2021 5:55 AM

Thanks for the good news, OP. I can't believe they finally produced a film based on Tommy Thompson's "Serpentine." I loved the book and followed the case for years; fascinating stuff. I can't wait to see this.

by Anonymousreply 3April 3, 2021 6:46 AM

It's set in a really fascinating Seventies world of the cheap hotels and seedy apartments in the cities along the "Hippie Trail" from Istanbul to Bangkok. It's a great story, although it went on for so long (Sobhraj KEPT escaping from or outwitting the police) that I can see why it takes eight episodes to film this.

It's got a great score, too.

by Anonymousreply 4April 3, 2021 7:02 AM

One would think Netflix could spend more than $19.95 for a toupee.

by Anonymousreply 5April 3, 2021 7:16 AM

[...]

by Anonymousreply 6April 3, 2021 8:04 AM

He does have a charismatic personality and is a smart actor who works with good directors. He's not conventionally handsome but I find him very sexy.

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by Anonymousreply 7April 3, 2021 3:15 PM

[quote] He does have a charismatic personality

That doesn't carry through in this performance.

by Anonymousreply 8April 3, 2021 3:26 PM

Boring. Could not make it through the first episode.

by Anonymousreply 9April 3, 2021 3:51 PM

Oh. It’s “Tahar”, not “Tamar”. I was gonna say: I know two women named “Tamar”. That’s a woman’s name.

by Anonymousreply 10April 3, 2021 3:58 PM

Is the Dominique guy supposed to be gay? They hint that the villain has some sexual hold over him and he never has sex with women.

by Anonymousreply 11April 3, 2021 4:04 PM

Why wouldn't they show it, though, if he were gay?

by Anonymousreply 12April 3, 2021 4:06 PM

Because Netflix only shows lesbians never gay men.

by Anonymousreply 13April 3, 2021 4:20 PM

Netflix is only airing it. It originally aired on BBC One some months ago.

by Anonymousreply 14April 3, 2021 4:23 PM

Why does it matter, r14? It's on Netflix now. Most Dataloungers are Americans and do not get BBC One.

by Anonymousreply 15April 3, 2021 4:25 PM

[quote]Why does it matter, [R14]? It's on Netflix now. Most Dataloungers are Americans and do not get BBC One.

It's for people criticizing it for lacking gay men or for the low production value. It is not a Netflix original.

by Anonymousreply 16April 3, 2021 4:36 PM

It's a British series so it probably goes over the heads of most Americans who think good television is Fuller House.

by Anonymousreply 17April 3, 2021 4:50 PM

It needs more sex in it one way or the other. Even just straight sex.

This would have been the perfect story for it since onviously Sobhraj had such a deep hold on everyone who worked with him anbd everyone he expoited or killed, and Rahim is so gorgeous.

by Anonymousreply 18April 3, 2021 11:35 PM

I couldn't figure out who it was Tahar Rahim reminds me of so much, and then I realized he looks like gay model and porn star D. O. (Dionysio Heiderscheid).

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by Anonymousreply 19April 4, 2021 6:30 AM

Finished the series. It's very suspenseful, and worth seeing, although thee central problem until the end was Rahim's lack of charisma. Jenna Colman is much more compelling, and so are the group of people in Bangkok who keep putting the pressure on to see him get caught,.

SPOILERS:

There's not much explanation for why Charles Sobhraj was so murderous. He is unlike almost every other prolific serial killer in real life in that he never had a true pattern; he just basically killed people who got in the way when he wanted to rob them and they put up resistance in one way or the other. That makes him very unusual. But the series does little to explain him--it's clear he's psychopathic, and by the end his girlfriend and accomplice calls him "a momma's boy whose momma hates him" (there are some good scenes in the sixth episode with his mother in Paris, and she exactly knows his number but still consents to see him). Apparently in real life Sobhraj is a mystery and no one knows exactly why he killed so many people (12 for sure, but perhaps as many as 24). I guess the series went with that and kept him an enigma, but it's not very satisfying.

by Anonymousreply 20April 5, 2021 3:25 AM

I remember reading "The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj" by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke years ago and finding the story disturbing and kind of scary.

CS's face reminds me of Richard Ramirez. Both had a certain magnetism and a cunning, animal-like look to them. Very compelling to look at. The guy playing CS looks too bland and soft, but I'm looking forward to this miniseries anyway.

by Anonymousreply 21April 5, 2021 12:43 PM

I saw this a few months ago on BBC One and loved it. I loved the mood of the time and location and found the story really compelling. I also love Tahar Rahim, so there's that.

by Anonymousreply 22April 5, 2021 12:46 PM

interesting story... here's a great site that shows what the real people looked like

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by Anonymousreply 23April 11, 2021 11:11 PM

I was impressed how well the actors resembled the actual persons involved.

by Anonymousreply 24April 11, 2021 11:14 PM

He looks like David Muir would have in the 1970's, with extra bronzer.

by Anonymousreply 25April 11, 2021 11:15 PM

And all I saw was Jim Jones. He looked exactly like Jim Jones.

by Anonymousreply 26April 12, 2021 12:36 AM

Jim Jones had charisma. I don't know why anyone found Charles Sobhraj appealing.

by Anonymousreply 27April 12, 2021 1:02 AM

[quote]There's not much explanation for why Charles Sobhraj was so murderous. He is unlike almost every other prolific serial killer in real life in that he never had a true pattern; he just basically killed people who got in the way when he wanted to rob them

Its always a bit difficult to provide an explanation for sociopaths. They just don't think like we do. The filmmakers, however, did suggest that a lot of his reasons for making these white hippie kids his marks were down to his rage at being stuck between two worlds and treated like the other brown people. He was a Frenchman of mixed race, Vietnamese and Indian, with a white affluent stepfather. He targeted those hippies because they carried a lot of travelers cheques and were sometimes willing to move his gems for him.

And yes, he was a thief, so his pattern was to kill people he could rob, and to keep those who could be useful hanging around.

by Anonymousreply 28April 12, 2021 1:19 AM

I wonder if Jenna Coleman and Ellie Bamber, who are both in this series, discussed their mutual "ex," Richard Madden.

by Anonymousreply 29April 12, 2021 2:25 AM

Enjoying this now. Tahar is sexy, the real guy was fug. Scary what can happen to you amongst strangers.

by Anonymousreply 30April 19, 2021 3:25 AM

Those poor trusting clueless hippies....

by Anonymousreply 31April 19, 2021 10:51 PM

I just started watching it and will probably finish it since the original story, which I'm familiar with, is interesting. I am having a really hard time imagining the action taking place in the 70's Asia, since everything has that Instagram fuzzed-out filter look, the wigs are really distracting, and the look of mid-70s Bangkok is just not there. It looks like it was made on a shoestring budget by someone with very tenuous grasp of the 70s' aesthetic and looks, and particularly someone who has very little idea what Asia and the hippie travelers of the time were like.

by Anonymousreply 32May 6, 2021 1:24 PM

Were you there at that time, R32? I was a teenager then, never traveled there, but I thought the show was pretty atmospheric.

by Anonymousreply 33May 6, 2021 1:36 PM

That's all it had going for it.

by Anonymousreply 34May 6, 2021 1:54 PM

It was dirtier, in your face, and far more chaotic than portrayed on the show. I've noticed that most of the scenes have a very narrow, cheap studio feel to them, or are set in a generic house with a manicured garden. The exterior shots look more like some cheapie UK production such as "Murder in Paradise" than real Southeast Asia. It's not a bad show but its somewhat limited budget really shows.

by Anonymousreply 35May 7, 2021 1:35 AM

Forgot to sign it ^^ R32

by Anonymousreply 36May 7, 2021 1:35 AM

I think I read that halfway through production they had to switch filming location to the UK because of the pandemic. What can I say, I bought it. Then again, I still buy old movie scenes where people drive their cars in front of screens.

by Anonymousreply 37May 7, 2021 1:53 AM

This was a werid series. I watched it several episodes a night for a couple of nights until i finished it, and when i was done with it I could find a million things wrong with it. Yet it gave me nightmares for several nights, while much better horror miniseries and movies don;t get under my skin at all.

The freakiest episode to me was the one about the Frenchman who was trying to escape out of Bangkok to get back to his parents in France, and who was yet so vulnerable to Sobhraj's uncanny charisma that he knew if Sobhraj knew he was trying to escape and then directly confronted him, he'd be unable to get away because he felt powerless before him.

by Anonymousreply 38May 7, 2021 3:18 AM

I didn't feel like I needed an explanation for the murders, but I'd love to know why the hell he went to Nepal after finally getting out of jail. I'm assuming just a need for attention and sheer arrogance in thinking he could evade the law again?

by Anonymousreply 39May 7, 2021 3:25 AM

[quote] I didn't feel like I needed an explanation for the murders, but I'd love to know why the hell he went to Nepal after finally getting out of jail. I'm assuming just a need for attention and sheer arrogance in thinking he could evade the law again?

No one knows to this day why.

Your assumption is the best guess.

by Anonymousreply 40May 7, 2021 4:31 AM

The real Charles Sobhraj has actually been released from jail and has flown back to France after serving 19 years. Crazy.

I love the look on the girls faces who were sitting next to him on the plane.

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by Anonymousreply 41December 24, 2022 2:14 AM

^I wonder if the airline refunded them?

by Anonymousreply 42December 29, 2022 8:02 PM

Thank goodness for Herman Knippenberg.

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by Anonymousreply 43December 29, 2022 8:24 PM

[quote]Why does it matter, [R14]? It's on Netflix now. Most Dataloungers are Americans and do not get BBC One.

It aired on Netflix España last April. I watched it, convinced there was a great story in it...if only it were rewritten, reordered, recast, etc Unfortunately the great story exists only in fragments in the series, which is too long as written and falls short. Even a quick look at the basis of the story on Wiki, etc shows rich material for a story. Too bad this one isn't it

by Anonymousreply 44December 29, 2022 8:58 PM

I may be late to the party but i just started watching this series. So far it seems like a budget Monday night movie. Should I continue?

by Anonymousreply 45February 21, 2023 11:40 PM
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