User:Bigmoney/Lament of the Raven
Lament of the Raven (Tyreseian: Odurmu djal corveja) is a Tyreseian television series, aired on RTT 2 between 2004 and 2006. The show explores the life of policeman Adam Haviv (Marcelu Banjeru), who suddenly discovers himself experiencing the 1960s for unclear reasons. The show garnered immense appeal for its balance of episode-long procedural arcs and overarching narratives and plot mysteries. Lament of the Raven was a success both commercially and critically upon its release, and received syndication in several nations.
The series was also adapted by several studios internationally.
| Bigmoney/Lament of the Raven | |
|---|---|
| Odurmu djal corveja | |
| Genre | Period drama Procedural Science fiction Supernatural drama |
| Created by | Juañi Bosso |
| Written by | Juañi Bosso Perru Campu Adina Monchel |
| Directed by | Carru Samxagu-Barrju |
| Starring | Marcelu Banjeru Miriam Braxa Frerricu Torri Oscar Seguru Abril Norjega |
| Theme music composer | XEX |
| Composer(s) | Jiegu Marnu |
| Country of origin |  Tyreseia |
| Original language(s) | Tyreseian |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 55 minutes |
| Distributor | Radjutelevijuni Tirejanu |
| Release | |
| Original network | RTT2 |
| Picture format | 16:9 |
| Original release | 04 June 2004 – 22 October 2006 |
| External links | |
| [{{#property:P856}} Website] | |
Premise
Lead actor Marcelu Banjeru plays Senior Inspector Adam Haviv, a veteran detective working for the New Tyria Metropolitan Constabulary (NTMC). While investigating a crime scene in contemporary New Tyria's dockyards district in the pilot episode, he is struck in the head by an errant crane winch; he subsequently falls unconscious. Following this scene, it is deliberately made unclear if Adam has died, entered a dream while comatose, or somehow traveled through time. Immediately upon "waking," however, Adam discovers that he is experiencing a different world: the hospital in which he is being treated, Constabulary Hospital, was closed in 1983 and demolished several years later. Upon being discharged, Adam is able to deduce that his current experience can be happening no later than the year 1967. Upon returning to his place of work, he finds a desk assigned to him under a lower rank; even more mysteriously, his wife Alexandra (played by Miriam Braxa) in the "waking world" is now his working partner. The pair spend their time solving various crimes in the standard police procedural fashion. Haviv must balance his new life with investigations into his own circumstances. He wrestles with the implications of telling his wife-turned-partner, and tries not to arouse suspicion in his quest for truth.
Cast
Production
The series was originally conceived in 2002 following head writer Juañi Bosso's graduation from the Faculty of Creative Arts at Periclean University in Oyat. During his studies, he had grown enamored with magic realism in Tyreseian literature; seeking a way to bring such concepts into modern visual arts, he at first presented a draft screenplay in October 2002 to the Tyreseian State Cinema Guild. Bosso's first draft was rejected by the Guild's production team as being too amateurish and lacking the potential to become a work with artistic merit. Spurned by this out-of-hand rejection, Bosso obtained temporary work as a roofer, dedicating his spare nights to obsessively rewriting the screenplay into a television pilot pitch. After several months, Bosso met fellow screenwriter Perru Campu and actor Marcelu Banjeru at a house party in late 2003. After convincing the two to support his request, Bosso formally submitted the pilot episode pitch to Campu's production studio, which was affiliated with the national company Radjutelevijuni Tirejani (Radio-Television Tyreseia). Far more impressed with the pilot than the Cinema Guild was with the screenplay, the series was quickly greenlit and a reworked edition of the pilot was aired as the first series premiere on June 4th, 2004.
During its initial season, the series aired on the channel RTT2. The first season was aired weekly, in a 8:00 pm slot on Tuesday nights. The show was later moved to a 7:00 pm slot for its second and third seasons in order to line up with early-evening mealtimes and conflict less with traditional Tyreseian dinnertime. The show proved enormously popular, and its two-season plot was later extended to three. Reception was so positive that the possibility of continued seasons or even spinoff shows were proposed, but eventually shot down by Bosso and Banjeru. When the final episode of Odurmu djal corveja was aired on October 22, 2006, it was the most-watched television program in Tyreseian history until that point, with an estimated 15 million viewers tuning in for the finale. In an interview following production, Bosso revealed that plans had been made for an elaborate scheme to shoot at least two finale episodes and to broadcast different endings in different parts of Tyreseia. The hope was to take advantage of the burgeoning Internet, causing intrigue and speculation among fans as to which ending was the "true" ending of the story. The plan was ultimately scrapped due to cost, and only a single finale was broadcast that night. To this day, however, rumors persist that multiple finale episodes were in the process of being shot; RTT has consistently declined to comment on the topic and it remains unknown if such "lost footage" actually exists.
Music
As the show was named after a song by Tyreseian artist XEX, his works naturally featured heavily in the soundtrack. The eponymous superhit song "Odurmu djal corveja" was used as the show's ending theme, while XEX wrote a new song, "Vazi," for the show's opening theme. XEX worked frequently with notable film composer Jiegu Marnu to create background songs, ambient tracks, and even fake "period piece" songs. Such songs were designed to sound as if they were top hits in the late 1960s but were in fact written solely for the show. The two went on to release two albums of these songs. The two albums dominated the Soundtracks and Scores section of the Tyreseian music charts at 1st place for the entire year of 2007.
Reception
For the most part, Odurmu djal corveja was recieved extremely well by both television audiences and critics. "For most media, the questions of life after death, the meaning of dreams and the possibility of time travel are so meaty as to be more than sufficient to devote all examination. The Lament of the Raven, however, flaunts these lesser pieces by devouring them all at once, while artfully sampling discussions of the role of law enforcement, how Tyreseia remembers it's own past, and the national cultural divide of the times in such a way as to suggest the writers are showing off. This artful coup de grace of a show is augmented by the very talented Banjeru and cast, which give a sense of ironically timeless drama and thrill to a show that, by design, is extremely dated."
International spinoffs
Odurmu dja corveja lent itself to international spinoffs as easily as it did to widespread syndication.