PLAY IT BY EAR – Review by Marcello Rollando

Karen Twins Productions — Play it by Ear is (in equal measure) full of comic, tragic and chaotic life lessons about relationships and self-discovery – spooned together in a plethora of romantic reality and sexual fantasies – all perfectly seasoned with very few unobtrusive sub-titles, gently reminding us that dreams can partially come true, over the entirety of our imaginings – especially when enveloped by the inspirations of Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Vincent van Gogh.

This twisting and shouting Rom-Com zooms by often in cleaver profiles, then exploding in the eternal internal war between fixation’s fantasies, and the hunger if not true love, absent half a world away. 

Play it by Ear is a title deceivingly cheeky, but this TV Miniseries is no superficial interlocking of opposites attract. Alternatively, it is a passionate salute to talent and life, abiding in every human, conditioned to open up to both – when your duo completes your solo.

Clearly writers/directors, Emily Ann Zisko and Simon Kienitz Kincade know how to grab us by the appetites, with an exposition exposing our most intimate musings, projected on (and from) our innermost voyeur:  a willing captive, activated in partnership with every moment exquisitely directed – then copulated by DP/EditorIngrid Sanchez whose post juxtapositions, are as figuratively linked as characters Mila (Emily Ann Zisko) and Lukas (Dillon Bentlage) are tantalizingly framed by the movie in our minds.

Play it by Ear even when not bedridden, is, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

As such, I trust this amazing behind and in front of every rolling camera angle one can imagine will entice the, menage et toi, of Golden Globes, Emmys and Oscar winning gratifications.

But before taking the plunge – despite all expected group participations, this, Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines) has earned this warning.  So, parents, whether coming alone or together, leave the children with your parents.  And for your best wraparound postproduction, make it a sleepover.

Even when not spreading the depths of internal connection – all while subtly dripping with foreshadowing of:  where you live might dictate a different intercourse of priorities especially at the intersection of Joie de Vie at 5pm, where someone somewhere is touching somebody touching back, on our passionate plant it, planet.

Within the first seven minutes of this arousing first season, we know two solos on two different continents doesn’t necessarily a oneness make – but with a meeting of the minds, it is often funny amidst speed of light transitions to agonizing tears, so gut wrenchingly real, it hurts too much to stop saying, I love you.

Only the music, especially some of the singing, fails to quite measure up to the magnificent peaks, peeks and foreshadowing delivered like dessert served up by directors, writers and cast – especially Zisko’s Mila, Bentlage’s Lukas and Elise Rose Martin’s ever so subtle manipulations as the other woman.

If you don’t know much about intercontinental affairs, soaring far and wide with broad glimpses of the scope of sexual imagination vs. career writings on the wall, the intel will drench you before the end of your first episode.

However, don’t expect any help from chronology, beyond an almost transparent onscreen clue of what month of the year it is.  Chronology, in the fog of afterglow willingly defers to flashbacks, flashforwards and the ever uplifting:  flashes.

Just sit back and allow your mind to whistle up whimsical wanderings in wonder, wishing for the wanton windfall of college boyfriends and girlfriends, but feeling the Crush that leaves us wanting wider panoramics – until mom calls to see what we’re up to.

What’s the most dangerous thing that can happen when we intermingle re-imaginings of what was and what might have been?  Maybe losing ourselves in lost horizons, we’ve forgotten how to Play it by Ear.

Allow writers Emily Ann Zisko and Simon Kienitz Kincade to cue our next climatic thought, until we can rise again to Play it by Ear.

If you don’t want to know, don’t ask, but know this, we lose more when we settle for less.  So, Play it by Ear.

I cannot predict your reactions to the new Karen Twins Productions of, Play it by Ear – because itis love’s unanswered riddle to those who are immersed in it, wrapped in the mystery of why we can’t live without it, inside the enigma of overthinking it from only one POV.

Yet, with just a smattering of where we left our missed opportunities, second thoughts and what ifs – this gifted ensemble of directors, writers, cast and DP/Editor Sanchez derails our edited memory lanes, and frames us on the road we’ve less travelled by.

While indulging their collective desire to engulf us in each flaming frame – this single-minded ensemble unites our every memorized past vapor and aroma into teasing us into a climatic removal of our, Seventh Veil. 

Once recognizing ourselves in Play it by Ear, we too can shout WTZwengle – if you mean it darlings!

Glowing after vicariously, Play it by Ear with outtakes – and you’ll find these awesome intuitive artists have shared an essential truth:  loving who you are enhances everything you do – and where you are, is simply a fade out shot, to black.