Posted: 07/15/2011

Zen

by Ruben R. Rosario

Premieres on Masterpiece Mystery on July 17th, 2011 on PBS.

Zen, based off of the Aurelio Zen Mystery novels by Michael Dibden is a worthy addition to PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery. Rufus Sewell (Dark City) stars as the Italian Detective, that must use his wits to deal with corrupt cops, scheming bureaucrats and evil criminals in the city of Rome. With the help from his colleague and love interest Tania, played by Caterina Murino (Casino Royale) , they travel all around Rome to battle crime and corruption. The TV series adapts the first three books of the Aurelio Zen novels, in the order of Vendetta, Cabal and Ratking.

Zen shows off a lot of flair, due to the quality placed into its production. The series was shot on location in Rome and other places of Italy. These locales are showcased through wonderful time lapses through out each episode or just following Aurelio throughout Italy as he gets deeper into his investigations. The city of Rome adds much character to Zen and gives it an authentic feel for the series.

One thing, unlike the beautiful city of Rome, that is not authentic is the acting in Zen. A majority of the main cast in Zen is played by english actors, with the exception of Caterina Murino. By no means is the acting poor from anybody in the cast, especially the great chemistry and sexual tension built by Sewell and Murino. The main problem lies in the fact that everyone has a British accent and not an Italian one and it really stands out with them being in the middle of the beautiful ancient city of Rome.

Having no experience reading the novels, I found the stories and investigations to be very engaging. Partly due to the wonderful pacing of each episode and the wonderful cast of characters. I would recommend this show to fans and non fans of the original mystery novels. Each episode has it’s twists and turns that keeps the audience glued to the screen until the end credits.

Overall, Zen is a well done mystery show with great production and presentation to boot. The series will be premiering in this order:

Vendetta on July 17th, 2011
Cabal on July 24th, 2011
Ratking on July 31st, 2011

Check your local PBS station for the exact show times in your area.

Ruben R. Rosario is a graduate from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Audio for Visual Media. He works as a freelance location sound mixer, boom operator, sound designer, and writer in his native Chicago. He’s an avid collector of films, comics, and anime.

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