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Has anyone else been watching Amazon's Mozart in the Jungle episodes? (If you own a newer TV, it's not difficult to connect to Netflix and Amazon streaming services.)

The series was created by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Alex Timbers, and directed by Paul Weitz.

I've seen the first 2 seasons and find it mostly very enjoyable. Something makes me think that if one likes the New Yorker magazine, one will enjoy this show. It does try too hard sometimes to be playfully debauched, or too obviously "hipster". But's it's really a middle-aged person's view of what is hip. The main characters were well cast. The episodes shot in Mexico City were well done and now seem very timely.

 

NPR: What We Love And Hate About 'Mozart In The Jungle'

http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/01/15/377232599/what-we-love-and-hate-about-mozart-in-the-jungle

 

Classical Music as ‘Jungle’ Rings True

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/arts/television/mozart-in-the-jungle-an-amazon-series.html

Edited by pherank
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2 hours ago, Barbara said:

I've watched it, pherank! I think it's charm wears a little thin after the first season but hey, how many tv shows are based in the world of classical music? I'll be watching as long as they keep making them.

 

One thing I like about the show is that the characters do develop over time and the side characters are being fleshed out. One of the writer/critics that reviewed the show early on mentioned that Maestro Rodrigo was a stereotypical "Latin lover", and that may be the assumption in the beginning, but I find him to be a much more complex character than that, and fortunately, charming enough to bear up under repeated viewings. The same with characters played by Bernadette Peters  and Malcolm McDowell - they begin as caricatures, but slowly become human.

 

I appreciate one of the subtle themes of the show - that music is music, and genre names don't count for much. People of all times and ages have loved playing and listening to music.

Edited by pherank
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I think I love this program most for the beautiful music it's brought back into my life. As I've gotten older, I've craved silence more than music, but this series reawakened my classical music senses. I found myself returning to Brahms and Mozart. Younger fans of the series say that it's introduced them for the first time to the beauty of classical music. The episode filmed at the prison brought me to tears.

Edited by vagansmom
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59 minutes ago, vagansmom said:

As I've gotten older, I've craved silence more than music

 

You and me both. ;)

 

There are particular scenes that are very powerful, and then there are those many over-the-top moments, just played for laughs. I'm not certain the show's creators have found a good balance yet. The scene in which Maestro Rodrigo is cursed by his old mentor in front of the youth orchestra, is quite affecting. And the Dali-esque scene at the donor's party (Season 1?) where Rodrigo sees the young girl Alice playing the flute beautifully, and spends the rest of the episode searching for her in the house, and finally happens upon Alice standing in front of a white horse eating cake (inside the house) - that was all great. Sometimes it seems like he's used as a Don Draper (Mad Men) character - the person everyone else blames for their own inabilities to manage life.

Edited by pherank
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