What Are You Watching

[kinuta]

Wolf Hall - Peter Kosminsky (2015) BBC Mini Series

 

 

Excellent, I binged the whole thing in one day. Terrific cast.

[jlhoots]

tonight's episode of The Good Wife 

[A Lark Ascending]

More bloody culture:

"Doctor Faustus" at the Swan Theatre, the smaller room at the RSC in Stratford (with the most extraordinary 'high' seats that have you sitting a mile off the ground). Last had contact with this in June 1973 when I finished my English A Level - it was a set text. Enjoyed it then (eventually, you know how it is with school set texts).

Although I'd remembered the broad story line and some of the scenes, hardly any of the text had stuck in my mind apart from the final scene when Faustus is watching the clock. Completely enthralling performance - quite minimalist apart from the costumes and cabaret of the seven deadly sins and the demons. The play struck me as being rather different to Shakespeare - a fairly straight linear plot where Shakespeare has all those sub-plots and comic aside scenes (not sure if I thought that or if I'm just recycling something that I read 40 years ago from the depths of my brain).

Can't work out if the resemblance between Faustus and Vladimir Putin was deliberate or accidental...but it added an extra layer of unease. 

Never really been one for live theatre but I'm starting to understand why people are so hooked on it. Hope to get to "The Tempest" and "King Lear" in the autumn. 

Edited February 16, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

Strangely enough, I've got the feeling that that 'Faustus' was one of my set texts at English O Level (or maybe we just covered it in passing). Along with the Scottish Play..

Edited February 16, 2016 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

You mean Macbeth? 

[A Lark Ascending]

Popped down to the local cinema to see this yesterday evening (20 minutes walk away). Don't know much about Renoir but I remember going to the Jeu de Paume in Paris around 1980 with my sister (who knew a lot more more about paintings than I did) and being struck by the dappled light effects of some of the famous ones. This film is based around his later paintings, with the major focus on the Barnes collection in Philadelphia. Mainly concerns the differences of opinion on that period. 

Interesting and a very different way of looking at paintings on a huge screen. Can't say I'll be buying a late-Renoir in the near future but I'll go to one of these film of the exhibition things again. Worksop isn't exactly a town of luvvies but there were 30 of us there.  

***********************

Then back to reality with episode 2 of Happy Valley. Gets grimmer by the minute! 

Edited February 17, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[jlhoots]

Better Call Saul - episode 1, season 2 - 

Vinyl - 2 hour pilot, over the top, but I'll stick with it for now.

[jazzbo]

Personally I loved it. And the hour "talk show" afterwards was fun.

Today I'm getting caught up on X-Files and Flash.

[jlhoots]

I loved Better Call Saul too - it's Vinyl I'm not sure about yet.

[jazzbo]

I know, I was replying sloppily. So excited to have another season of Better Call Saul ahead of us.

[Shawn]

Almost finished with The Shield (currently on season 7) and quite a wild ride it has been!  One of the most consistent series I've run across, with only season 5 being a slight notch below the rest (Forest Whitaker's character drove me so nuts I wanted to reach inside the TV and strangle him to death).  

Aside from that I've been watching The X-Files reboot (clunky yet endearing).  

 

 

[A Lark Ascending]

Rather cartoony but fun. I spent the three hours thinking I was watching Brad Pitt - only the credits revealed the truth. Long film but I didn't get bored. The main character's speeches reminded me of a certain real life American presidential candidate.  

Edited February 18, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Good news for fans of recent French series:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/french-tvs-reputation-spirals-upward

[Jazzjet]

9 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Good news for fans of recent French series:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/french-tvs-reputation-spirals-upward

That is good news. I'm currently only on Series 2 on DVD so quite a lot to look forward to.

[jlhoots]

London Spy - finale

[Shawn]

18 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Good news for fans of recent French series:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/french-tvs-reputation-spirals-upward

I haven't watched this series yet but I'm a big fan of Les Revenants which is also mentioned in the article.  Which reminds me I need to see season 2...  

Will check out Spiral soon.  

 

 

 

[kinuta]

Endeavour- All season three. Interesting film references throughout. The last episode had the Jaws beach scene and Dirty Harry how many bullets.

11.22.63  First episode which I really liked. Hope the following parts keep up the focus and forward momentum.

[A Lark Ascending]

4 hours ago, kinuta said:

Endeavour- All season three. Interesting film references throughout. The last episode had the Jaws beach scene and Dirty Harry how many bullets.

Are you talking about the Morse spin-off or is there a different 'Endeavour'? I don't recall any beach in any of the last series! Enjoyed it though it got rather far-fetched especially the tiger one. 

Finished off Deutschland '83 - I thought the ending was anticlimactic and as implausible as the rest. The hero doing action man heroics straight out of a hospital bed where he'd just donated his kidney to his mum (he did wince once). Not bad TV - we're used to the implausible - but I'm surprised how well it's been received. 

Episode 5 of 'The Story of China' - This really is the BBC at its best. I've been enthralled throughout. My knowledge of Chinese history is patchy but Michael Wood has really done a marvellous overview job on this, sorting out all those dynasties. Beautiful camera work throughout. Above all, Wood brings home just how wrong our western view of China as a closed society for much of its history has been. And in this episode he pulls no punches in demonstrating the greed and inhumanity of the British, bullying their way into Chinese trade in the mid-19thC. Made for a welcome corrective to all the 'We're British, we're special!' nonsense that is swirling around at present (and will only get worse in the next few months). He's got to polish off c.1850 to the present in the last episode next week. I'm sure he'll manage it with his broad brush strokes.  

[sidewinder]

I thought the ending of 'Deutschland 83' was pretty rubbish - totally implausible, nothing like the way the military worked or works. Specially if you were around at the time and 'lived the era'. Enjoyable series on the whole but no surprise that the Germans hated it. Having said that, some of them were 'into' Bagwan and Udo Lindenberg back then..

Edited February 20, 2016 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

I assumed Udo Lindenberg was fictitious. I spent a fair bit of time in Germany in the 70s and early 80s and German musical taste was very different to Britain. The family we knew well there had two young lads in their early teens who were obsessed with Wham and even dressed like them - in Britain Wham were an uncool band for young girls. One of them went on to be a successful DJ/radio presenter.  

The way Martin constantly slipped through security was completely daft. Just as well my Dad wasn't around to see it. As an RAF policeman at the time he was involved in security on various bases including Rheindahlen in Germany. The security of our house was better than the military bases in the TV series. You couldn't even go to the loo in the middle of the night without a SWAT team descending on you.   

[kinuta]

2 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Are you talking about the Morse spin-off or is there a different 'Endeavour'? I don't recall any beach in any of the last series! Enjoyed it though it got rather far-fetched especially the tiger one. 

Finished off Deutschland '83 - I thought the ending was anticlimactic and as implausible as the rest. The hero doing action man heroics straight out of a hospital bed where he'd just donated his kidney to his mum (he did wince once). Not bad TV - we're used to the implausible - but I'm surprised how well it's been received. 

Episode 5 of 'The Story of China' - This really is the BBC at its best. I've been enthralled throughout. My knowledge of Chinese history is patchy but Michael Wood has really done a marvellous overview job on this, sorting out all those dynasties. Beautiful camera work throughout. Above all, Wood brings home just how wrong our western view of China as a closed society for much of its history has been. And in this episode he pulls no punches in demonstrating the greed and inhumanity of the British, bullying their way into Chinese trade in the mid-19thC. Made for a welcome corrective to all the 'We're British, we're special!' nonsense that is swirling around at present (and will only get worse in the next few months). He's got to polish off c.1850 to the present in the last episode next week. I'm sure he'll manage it with his broad brush strokes.  

The beach scene from Jaws was recreated near a lake or very large pond in the woods. The kids sitting round the camp fire, guitar strummer, girl and boy make eye contact, girl flirtingly runs away pursued by the boy, culminating in the grizzly discover of an arm the next day. it was in the last episode of S3. The Dirty Harry nod comes near the end as DI Thursday aims his very large revolver at the evildoer and Morse chimes in about the number of bullets remaining in the chamber, which turns out to be a bluff. There were other film references in the previous episodes but I can't recall them at the moment. Agree that there were several far fetched elements throughout the series.

Although it's a bit of a stretch, the tiger allowed some of Chief Superintendent Bright's colonial past to be introduced, tying in nicely with him being the one to unexpectedly fell the beast and heroically save the day. Previously his role has always been a bit of a killjoy stick in the mud and the plot twist served nicely to expand his character .

Edited February 20, 2016 by kinuta

[A Lark Ascending]

Ah, I see. I've not seen either Jaws or Dirty Harry (I'm so cool I've never even seen Star Wars (as the radio series has it)) but I remember those scenes in Endeavour. 

Very silly and breaking virtually every 60s + taboo in the book. But it was nice to hear the songs in their original context. 

Edited February 21, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[kinuta]

4 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Ah, I see. I've not seen either Jaws or Dirty Harry (I'm so cool I've never even seen Star Wars (as the radio series has it)) but I remember those scenes in Endeavour. 

Very silly and breaking virtually every 60s + taboo in the book. But it was nice to hear the songs in their original context. 

I would seriously recommend both Jaws and Dirty Harry (1).

I'd go as far as to say I'll pay the Netflix charge if you are not 100% entertained.

Edited February 21, 2016 by kinuta

[jlhoots]

Happy Valley - season 1, final episode

[kinuta]

1 hour ago, jlhoots said:

Happy Valley - season 1, final episode

I'm simply curious but I wondered if you found the dialect at all difficult to follow ?