I suppose I should begin my review of THE METHOD (original Russian language with English subtitles) with a disclosure or a confession, or whatever you'd like to call it, but I'm pretty heavily prejudiced AGAINST Russian dramas. This is based on a lot of experience of trying to watch a few and finding them to be tedious, interminable, and boring. Additionally, Russians seem to congenitally confuse irritating, unlikable and ill-behaved people as "characters" exhibiting "personality".
I hold out BETTER THAN US as a perfect illustration of this point. Monotonous and unremitting, I only managed to make it through BETTER THAN US as an expression of grim determination. Like whaling away on your own skull with a ball peen hammer, it felt so good when it stopped. It would be inappropriate to air the laundry list of things I didn't like about it and how unpleasant the experience of watching it was in THIS review. Suffice to say here that the only thing I liked about it was the vaguely THE ADOLESCENCE OF P-1-esque ending which was mildly enjoyable.
Having got all that off my chest, and with the proviso that you do have to give THE METHOD an episode or two to get airborne, I have to say that on the whole I enjoyed it immensely.
I would describe THE METHOD as sort of a synthesis of MONK and DEXTER with a little SILENCE OF THE LAMBS criminal insanity thrown in for flavor, though minus the cannibalism.
The plot line is relatively simple but organically intriguing just because of subject-matter. Apparently under the theory of "set a thief to catch a thief" slightly altered to "set a psycho to catch a psycho", the older than middle-aged male lead, Major Rodion Meglin, a mysterious and clearly unbalanced fellow in his own right, runs a little fringe operation of the police tracking down and neutralizing the worst of the deranged criminals preying upon Russian society. Given the fact that Meglin's charter is rather open ended, the practical implementation of the nature of such "neutralization" has a very broadly defined definition. He has the latitude to determine what's best for society in general when it comes to the disposition of the apprehended, and you can draw your own conclusions about that.
Over time, we gradually discover that he was specifically recruited for this "assignment" because of his personal background, training and mentality. Somehow his character manages to exude dangerous imbalance, alcoholic disability, rumpled affability and just a suggestion of genius insight. Is it really genius or is he just in a unique position to identify with, and therefore especially understand, the monsters that he hunts with his little cadre of helpers?
Newly minted graduate Esenya, coincidentally also the daughter of a high-ranking police official father, turns down the plum career offers carefully tilted her way to become the protégé of Meglin by the simple expedient of asking him, all to the horror of her very-establishment father. Over the course of the 16-episode first season, set against the background context of Esenya's life-long determination to solve the mysterious murder of her own mother, we slowly learn all of the intricate interconnections between Meglin and Esenya's own family history.
The technical story structure of THE METHOD features the sturdy and serviceable common structure of most of today's crime shows: a series-arch that is apparently going to span more than one season, a season arch that is resolved by the end of the season, and a mystery-du-jour that is most often solved within a single episode. There are occasional overlaps and intersections and slight variations on a theme, but that's mostly how the show is presented. Why improve upon a formula that works?
Some of the drama is a bit melodramatic and soap opera-ish. For example, Meglin's particular psychopathy, a mental illness faculty he has to exercise and employ in order to do his job, takes a physical toll upon him to the point that, if he doesn't take a break, it will kill him. But if he takes the needed rest, dozens of innocents will die. What to do, what to do? Wring our hands a lot, that's what.
Predictably, though still interestingly, Meglin shows a particular empathy for the criminals he targets. He, after all, is one of them himself, and could just as easily have ended up on the wrong side of things had circumstances turned out differently. Many, if not most of the criminals he neutralizes were more made criminally insane then born that way, and a lot of the evil that they do is an expression of mental damage and pain than willing evil. Still in all, can't have random butchery of the public now, can we? Frequently throughout the show there is reference made to "our kind" in reference to Meglin, his new protégé Esenya, some of the odd helpers that Meglin occasionally makes use of and the criminals, all as a group. I guess in a sort of murderous psychopath variant of "gaydar", apparently the criminally unhinged are capable of recognizing each other for their commonality, and there is a sort of general empathy and even sympathy all around.
Intentionally I have left many details regarding Esenya out of this review to leave plenty for you to discover on your own, but genuinely it would be a tossup as to whether Meglin or Esenya would be the "main character" of the series. Watching her evolution as a character over the course of the 16 episodes is one of those elements of the show that is particularly enjoyable.
Probably not for everyone, but in my opinion THE METHOD is well worth watching, even through the draggy bits.
I hold out BETTER THAN US as a perfect illustration of this point. Monotonous and unremitting, I only managed to make it through BETTER THAN US as an expression of grim determination. Like whaling away on your own skull with a ball peen hammer, it felt so good when it stopped. It would be inappropriate to air the laundry list of things I didn't like about it and how unpleasant the experience of watching it was in THIS review. Suffice to say here that the only thing I liked about it was the vaguely THE ADOLESCENCE OF P-1-esque ending which was mildly enjoyable.
Having got all that off my chest, and with the proviso that you do have to give THE METHOD an episode or two to get airborne, I have to say that on the whole I enjoyed it immensely.
I would describe THE METHOD as sort of a synthesis of MONK and DEXTER with a little SILENCE OF THE LAMBS criminal insanity thrown in for flavor, though minus the cannibalism.
The plot line is relatively simple but organically intriguing just because of subject-matter. Apparently under the theory of "set a thief to catch a thief" slightly altered to "set a psycho to catch a psycho", the older than middle-aged male lead, Major Rodion Meglin, a mysterious and clearly unbalanced fellow in his own right, runs a little fringe operation of the police tracking down and neutralizing the worst of the deranged criminals preying upon Russian society. Given the fact that Meglin's charter is rather open ended, the practical implementation of the nature of such "neutralization" has a very broadly defined definition. He has the latitude to determine what's best for society in general when it comes to the disposition of the apprehended, and you can draw your own conclusions about that.
Over time, we gradually discover that he was specifically recruited for this "assignment" because of his personal background, training and mentality. Somehow his character manages to exude dangerous imbalance, alcoholic disability, rumpled affability and just a suggestion of genius insight. Is it really genius or is he just in a unique position to identify with, and therefore especially understand, the monsters that he hunts with his little cadre of helpers?
Newly minted graduate Esenya, coincidentally also the daughter of a high-ranking police official father, turns down the plum career offers carefully tilted her way to become the protégé of Meglin by the simple expedient of asking him, all to the horror of her very-establishment father. Over the course of the 16-episode first season, set against the background context of Esenya's life-long determination to solve the mysterious murder of her own mother, we slowly learn all of the intricate interconnections between Meglin and Esenya's own family history.
The technical story structure of THE METHOD features the sturdy and serviceable common structure of most of today's crime shows: a series-arch that is apparently going to span more than one season, a season arch that is resolved by the end of the season, and a mystery-du-jour that is most often solved within a single episode. There are occasional overlaps and intersections and slight variations on a theme, but that's mostly how the show is presented. Why improve upon a formula that works?
Some of the drama is a bit melodramatic and soap opera-ish. For example, Meglin's particular psychopathy, a mental illness faculty he has to exercise and employ in order to do his job, takes a physical toll upon him to the point that, if he doesn't take a break, it will kill him. But if he takes the needed rest, dozens of innocents will die. What to do, what to do? Wring our hands a lot, that's what.
Predictably, though still interestingly, Meglin shows a particular empathy for the criminals he targets. He, after all, is one of them himself, and could just as easily have ended up on the wrong side of things had circumstances turned out differently. Many, if not most of the criminals he neutralizes were more made criminally insane then born that way, and a lot of the evil that they do is an expression of mental damage and pain than willing evil. Still in all, can't have random butchery of the public now, can we? Frequently throughout the show there is reference made to "our kind" in reference to Meglin, his new protégé Esenya, some of the odd helpers that Meglin occasionally makes use of and the criminals, all as a group. I guess in a sort of murderous psychopath variant of "gaydar", apparently the criminally unhinged are capable of recognizing each other for their commonality, and there is a sort of general empathy and even sympathy all around.
Intentionally I have left many details regarding Esenya out of this review to leave plenty for you to discover on your own, but genuinely it would be a tossup as to whether Meglin or Esenya would be the "main character" of the series. Watching her evolution as a character over the course of the 16 episodes is one of those elements of the show that is particularly enjoyable.
Probably not for everyone, but in my opinion THE METHOD is well worth watching, even through the draggy bits.