Your Moment of Zen

Yes, we actually watch PBS. It's not the majority of our viewing pleasures, but when there's something intriguing, it's usually on Masterpiece Mystery.

If Zen appears confused, he's dealing with a lot.
Though oddly he deals with the stress in a cool manner.
He IS Zen, after all.

Lately we've been into ZEN. No, not the school of Buddhism, but Aurelio Zen, a fictional Italian detective by author Michael Dibdin. There's 11 books by my counting and only the first three have been made into feature length episodes. The BBC axed the series. A brilliant move that sounds like another organization I know. Producers are looking elsewhere. I wish them luck because I want more Zen. Dammit.

Rufus Sewell plays the character without all the macho posturing, swagger or cliched alcoholic spiral crap you see in every American series. In fact, not having read the books to compare, but this character is simply hard to pin down all the way around. He's so understated and that's the ringer.

Italian corruption is so common that Zen is used to being set up for failure, or used to protect those with power, money and dirty secrets. He has learned to deftly navigate these hostile waters and even use them for his own advantage. Still, no matter the victories or the compromises, the sticky nature of dealing with the elite and corrupt gets even stickier.

Then all he has to deal with is his lovelife or his homelife.

Yikes!