Like other *post-communist Polish movies or series, "Blinded by the Lights" suffers from the same, consistent fault - poorly written screenplay. The dialogues is cringey, and robotic, and poor acting which results from a poorly written screenplay, which is further exposed by cliche character archetypes assigned to the characters, because the plot demands it.
Speaking of cliches, the first episode has a few of them - from the opening credits sequence mimicking The Sopranos, to a Pulp Fiction reference when two of Jacek's goons, accompanied by the protagonist, show up to collect a late payment from a dealer. The plot is incohesive, some scenes make no sense. Random curse words are added for effect to make the characters seem more badass, but have nothing to do with the given scene and are simply put there because its HBO.
Take the gym scene where we are introduced to Jacek (the drug lord) - his exchange with his personal trainer over how out of breath he is from being pushed so hard is negated by the fact that he's yelling and hollering full of energy at everybody around him about how out of breath he is. A simple, but annoying continuity error that exposes the amateurism of the screenwriting.
The shows graphic scenes were a pleasant surprise and the cinematography is fantastic - it takes a modern and gritty look at Warsaw and the neon/almost cyberpunky aesthetic of the club/night scenes are definitely a great artistic choice and are eye catching. The casting is superb - the characters feel authentic.
The viewer is quickly brought back down to reality once the characters start talking.
*And I say "post-communist", because the reason why "Sami Swoi" and "Mis" are classics, is because they didn't attempt to be something they weren't. They didn't try to imitate western movies or stack the movie with cliches. They operated within a realm that was well known to everybody involved. Polish cinema would do itself a favor if it went back to that.
Take the gym scene where we are introduced to Jacek (the drug lord) - his exchange with his personal trainer over how out of breath he is from being pushed so hard is negated by the fact that he's yelling and hollering full of energy at everybody around him about how out of breath he is. A simple, but annoying continuity error that exposes the amateurism of the screenwriting.
The shows graphic scenes were a pleasant surprise and the cinematography is fantastic - it takes a modern and gritty look at Warsaw and the neon/almost cyberpunky aesthetic of the club/night scenes are definitely a great artistic choice and are eye catching. The casting is superb - the characters feel authentic.
The viewer is quickly brought back down to reality once the characters start talking.
*And I say "post-communist", because the reason why "Sami Swoi" and "Mis" are classics, is because they didn't attempt to be something they weren't. They didn't try to imitate western movies or stack the movie with cliches. They operated within a realm that was well known to everybody involved. Polish cinema would do itself a favor if it went back to that.