Pure

CBC's 'Pure' depicts sheltered characters struggling to survive in a suddenly brutal world. And it is that reverent portrayal of new pastor Noah Funk and his wife Anna that elevates the series beyond its already intriguing 'Mennonite Mob' premise. The first episode is a good indicator of whether or not you will enjoy the rest of the series, which maintains the steady pacing and attention to character. The showrunner, Micheal Amo, had Mennonite grandparents, and the community certainly isn't portrayed as flat or stereotypical. However, the show's weakest link is easily Detective Bronco Novak. I mean, just look at that name. He's the archetypal drunk and rebellious cop who nevertheless manages to be competent (or incompetent) at exactly the right moment. In comparison to the nuanced performances by Ryan Robbins (Noah) and Alex Paxton-Beesley (Anna), Novak somehow seems less believable than drug smuggling Mennonites. The direction is fine, and the writing and acting is pretty good across the board, with the exception of both of the Novaks. Overall, the show is at its best when it focuses on community and questions of morality,but 'Pure' still struggles to overcome conventional plot and characters

Im not a pro-movie/TV reviewer so I'll keep this short. Season 1 was perfection. Short and butter sweet. Season 2 which i thought would be a letdown was a welcome surprise. It was even better.

Noah Funk (Ryan Robbins) plays a life changing game similar to a game you may have seen in which a card shark tries to deceive his paying audience with his sleight of hand by switching around three overturned cards and the mark has to find the right overturned card. In this case four Mennonites are asked to participate in a game in which four identical bibles are quickly mixed around on a table in front of the churches entire congregation, and the four Mennonites at the front of the church are requested to step up one by one, and select one of the four mixed up bibles. Noah Funk gets to pick his bible as the third of the four participants and lo and behold he happens to pick the only bible with the invitation to become the churches new pastor.

In Noah's role as their new pastor he is responsible for his congregations spiritual and physical well being. Evil does lurk in this little southern Ontario (Canada) town of Antioch, population 9,500. One of Noah's old schoolmates Bronco Novak (A. J. Buckley) the football jock who is now a police detective with the Antioch detachment approaches the new pastor Noah looking for assistance in the recent disappearance of a family of four Mennonites from another community after discovering their torched vehicle's registration number originated in Mexico. After contacting the U.S. drug enforcement agency, and talking to detective Phoebe O'Reilly (Rosie Perez) about the burned out car with a Mexican V.I.N. number, Bronco Novak takes a second closer look at the burnt out vehicle and he finds a kilo of pure heroin hidden in the cars under carriage.

Eli Voss (Peter Outerbridge) who is a drug mule and dealer in pure heroin disguises himself as a Mennonite, but his community fears him and what he would do to them if they went to the police authorities. In the opening scene we witness that Eli Voss is responsible for the murder of three of the four Mennonites who have their vehicle run off of the road then torched after Voss recovers his heroin from the cars under carriage. A young boy named Ezekiel Janzen (Felix Bieger) is able to escape from the wrecked car before Eli Voss can murder him along with his father and siblings, but poor Ezekiel is burdened with witnessing his father and brothers murders.

This is a drama series about hard working Mennonite families like the new pastor Noah Funk, his wife and two teenage high school aged children, trying to live their isolated lives but within a melting pot of drugs, prostitution and police corruption, and 21st century liberal attitudes. Noah Funk is accepting of his new role as his congregations new pastor, but as he tries to maneuver his way around the Mennonite criminal element, his little white lies like trying to pass orphaned Ezekiel Janzen off as his nephew, and planting drugs in the homes of the drug pushers, the drug lord Eli Voss gives Noah an ultimatum, work within the drug trade or his family will become Eli Voss's next target.

I found this series got of to a rip roaring good start and I am looking forward to how the young new pastor and his family will cope with going against the crime lord Eli Voss, and unwillingly have to rely on outsiders for support like his old high school nemesis detective Bronco Novak.

Eeny meeny miny moe, I wonder if Noah wished he had picked another bible instead of the congregations new pastors bible?

I didn't realize or forgot that the Mennonite Mob was a real thing, starting back in the 90s, under El Chapo. The Canadian/Mexican connection is that the original Canadian colony (or colonies) split off to create the Mexican colony, thus ongoing family connections between the two. At one time, they were moving thousands of tons of weed and coke in the US and Canada. Plus some murder, extortion, etc. The things human beings become involved with, regardless of religion or creed. Note that there are many kinds of Mennonites (Anabaptists), from the most conservative Amish to very progressive Mennonites who don't live in colonies, use technology and dress modern. This series certainly covers all of the spectrum, but may jumble several groups into one, although I read that even within sects, there can be major differences. So there's not ONE Mennonite stereotype, of course.

Season 1 isn't a Canadian version (CBC production) of the quality of Breaking Bad, but it 's good enough to binge and sustain my interest, although predictable and cliched. Noah is acted and written as an intriguing character and even Bronco, the cop, adds a good counterpoint to the Mennonite "blandness", even if he is a cliche. Rose Perez is a bit of a disappointment because someone thought it would be a good idea to have her speak with a heavy (and bad) Southern US accent. Her real accent is what makes her compelling and adds to her whole package, so why a cop, based in El Paso, would be from the Southern US (Texas is NOT the traditional "South", esp not far West Texas) and be more interesting or realistic than a Latina cop, who knows. Doubt that subtlety carries over into Canada. I just hope that such errors also don't encompass the Mennonite portrayals and dress.

But the 2nd season season is almost unwatchable. It's the same basic plot, without a couple of the more interesting characters. Noah's wonderfully expressive face has been covered with a huge beard, so he's effectively been neutralized and he's not the main character anymore and his replacements can't carry the show. I'm on episode 3 and Rosie Perez has yet to make an appearance (we are presented with a lot of cop changes). The plot jumps are astounding, with no reason for them given or even implied. There's a serious lack of realism at every turn. And WHY was Noah and his family excommunicated for what they did in the 1st season? Makes NO sense. That's not a spoiler, as it's in the S2e1 description. The acting is sub-par and having an Irish/German accent can't cover up bad acting/direction. I'm about to give up on this one. It's so implausible that I even re-watched the first 2, 2nd season episodes to make sure I hadn't missed a ton of backstory, but alas, I hadn't. Season 2 is one of the worst seasons of any series I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot. Like a class of kindergartners wrote it. Enjoy the first season and move on.

The core characters are believable as Mennonites, but casting Rosie Perez with what I think is supposed to be a southern accent is absurd. To hire Rosie Perez for any role is foolish because they all require something she doesn't have-acting talent. Aside from the fact that she can't act, her real voice is more annoying than the fake voice Fran Dresher used to when playing The Nanny. Even in roles where she is supposed to be "pretending" to be uneducated Bronx street trash, which is something that should be as easy for her as falling down she sucks because her natural voice is so annoying it seems unrealistic. Whoever told this woman she had a future as an actor must have been playing a cruel joke on her the way someone might evilly convince a mentally handicapped person that she could be Ms. America. As far as I'm concerned the joke has gone on far too long and her trying to do a southern accent is like watching that mentally handicapped person I mentioned before enter the talent competition as a break-dancer. Hollywood, please stop hiring this woman; she ruins everything she is in the way she has in Pure because her voice is like nails on a chalkboard and hearing it takes some viewers "out of the moment" and ruins the immersive experience of the story. They could save Pure by having Detective Bronco simply call the Texas police station where an actual actor tells his character that Detective Squeakydrawl was killed in the line of duty when she tried to speak to a suspect whose head exploded at the sound of her voice and she was caught in the blast radius. If you didn't give her lines it would be the best performace of her career, but her face would still ruin the scene because she looks like a squirrel (who can't act) pretending to be human while storing nuts in its mouth. For her to be cast in anything is ridiculous, but to hire her to attempt to play something other than an uneducated Bronxite who has a weird voice and can't act even with her native New York accent is a complete farce.