ZEN - MASTERPIECE MYSTERY - HITFIX: TV Review: PBS' 'Zen'
Gorgeous Italian locations upstage the drama in this ongoing mystery
By Daniel Fienberg
Saturday, Jul 16, 2011
Even if I could afford to take a trip to Rome this summer, I probably couldn't spare the time, what with an unprecedented number of new TV shows premiering across broadcast and cable dials through months which once used to be quite fallow.
Kudos to PBS, I supposed, for solving one problem while compounding another.
"Zen," which premieres this Sunday (July 17), may have added a few hours of work to my weekend, but with its rather magnificent use of locations in and around Rome, it took the place of of a quick getaway to Italy. [Please, though, don't ask me what kind of vacation to Italy lasts only three hours, doesn't include a single strand of homemade pasta and forces me to take notes the entire time.]
Based on the novel series by Michael Dibdin, "Zen" unfolds in three mysteries airing over the next three Sundays and is it any good? Well, as whodunnit? It's not really all that involving. But as a low-cost getaway to Europe? It serves its purpose admirably. Temper your expectations accordingly and you'll find some value in "Zen," even if the thrills are lacking...
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