The one word that kept coming to mind while watching this Netflix original movie was: "perfunctory." But that mostly applies to the writing. The casting is actually brilliant, which is what saves this from being drivel.
The story is fairly basic: two overworked executive assistants conspire to set up their bosses in the hopes that, if distracted by a relationship, said bosses will not work them quite so hard. I guess? Maybe the logic is that, if only the bosses had someone or something to go home to, they wouldn't work all hours and demand that their assistants keep the same insane hours.
Everything that happens is fairly rote, every beat pretty standardly measured. But the leads—played by Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell—are cute and charming enough to be engaging, and while I don't 100% love seeing Taye Diggs as a jerkwad, he does the jerkiness with a light enough touch and just enough humor to make it perfect for a rom-com tempo. Lucy Liu does her thing, too, and as well as ever.
Still, it's not perfect. There were chances for cleverness that were missed. The gay best friend/roommate is given the absolute worst "joke" lines. He and other secondary characters were underdeveloped by a lot. Which isn't unusual for romantic comedy, but that doesn't make it okay either.
Overall, not terrible. It reminded me a bit of that movie Morning Glory (2010) in tone and style if not substance. So if you like that kind of thing, check this one out as a not terribly taxing bit of fluff entertainment.
Showing posts with label streaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label streaming. Show all posts
6.15.2018
5.25.2018
Movies: The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Full disclosure: I seem to be one of the only people on the planet who did not think The Squid and the Whale was a work of genius. I didn't care for it at all. And I haven't seen anything else Baumbach has directed, so . . . I didn't go in with very high expectations. Except I had seen a YouTube video by Nerdwriter1 that made me want to see this movie. So I finally watched it.
And I liked it.
Didn't love it.
Part of this is just the fact that I had trouble relating to the story, which is sort of The Royal Tenenbaums but less quirky and funny, I guess? Like, here is a creative and artistic family: patriarch Harold (Dustin Hoffman); adult children Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), Danny (Adam Sandler), and Matthew (Ben Stiller); and drunkard fourth wife Maureen (Emma Thompson). Except instead of pursuing their artistic talents and leanings, these kids are . . . not all right, anyway. Jean works for Xerox, Danny is unemployed and moving back home as he goes through a divorce, and Matthew is the only one whose made anything of himself—by moving across the country to L.A. and mostly avoiding the rest of his family. Harold is himself an artist who was also a professor at Bard, a self-centered child of a man who can only talk about himself or others in relation to himself. He tries and fails to use his name as a calling card and suffers to see a contemporary artist (Judd Hirsch) vault to recognition.
Like The Royal Tenenbaums, there is then a health crisis to bring the family together and force them to iron out their wrinkles.
As an only child of parents who are still married, I struggled to engage with the sibling and step-parent issues. Jean and Danny feel their father abandoned them when he left their mother for Matthew's mom. They also feel as though most of the burden of dealing with their dad falls to them since Matthew chooses to be far away. All valid, I suppose.
The movie starts out slow, too, with Danny struggling to find a parking space. It wasn't until we switched away from Danny to Matthew that I felt the movie got interesting. Stiller and Hoffman have a great dynamic and chemistry that just isn't there between Sandler and Hoffman. Maybe the flat feeling between the latter is intentional, but if so, it's a bad way to begin a movie.
I also have no sense of father-son relationships, which are showcased here far more than father-daughter ones. My husband, however, says this movie nails the way a father can treat two sons completely differently, as he's experienced with his dad and brother. For him, the movie struck a chord and felt very familiar.
The acting here is really good overall. The layers of dialogue (as showcased in that Nerdwriter1 video) are very well done. I definitely prefer the quirk and humor of Tenenbaums, but this one is still pretty good. I don't mean to damn with faint praise, it's just how I feel.
And I liked it.
Didn't love it.
Part of this is just the fact that I had trouble relating to the story, which is sort of The Royal Tenenbaums but less quirky and funny, I guess? Like, here is a creative and artistic family: patriarch Harold (Dustin Hoffman); adult children Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), Danny (Adam Sandler), and Matthew (Ben Stiller); and drunkard fourth wife Maureen (Emma Thompson). Except instead of pursuing their artistic talents and leanings, these kids are . . . not all right, anyway. Jean works for Xerox, Danny is unemployed and moving back home as he goes through a divorce, and Matthew is the only one whose made anything of himself—by moving across the country to L.A. and mostly avoiding the rest of his family. Harold is himself an artist who was also a professor at Bard, a self-centered child of a man who can only talk about himself or others in relation to himself. He tries and fails to use his name as a calling card and suffers to see a contemporary artist (Judd Hirsch) vault to recognition.
Like The Royal Tenenbaums, there is then a health crisis to bring the family together and force them to iron out their wrinkles.
As an only child of parents who are still married, I struggled to engage with the sibling and step-parent issues. Jean and Danny feel their father abandoned them when he left their mother for Matthew's mom. They also feel as though most of the burden of dealing with their dad falls to them since Matthew chooses to be far away. All valid, I suppose.
The movie starts out slow, too, with Danny struggling to find a parking space. It wasn't until we switched away from Danny to Matthew that I felt the movie got interesting. Stiller and Hoffman have a great dynamic and chemistry that just isn't there between Sandler and Hoffman. Maybe the flat feeling between the latter is intentional, but if so, it's a bad way to begin a movie.
I also have no sense of father-son relationships, which are showcased here far more than father-daughter ones. My husband, however, says this movie nails the way a father can treat two sons completely differently, as he's experienced with his dad and brother. For him, the movie struck a chord and felt very familiar.
The acting here is really good overall. The layers of dialogue (as showcased in that Nerdwriter1 video) are very well done. I definitely prefer the quirk and humor of Tenenbaums, but this one is still pretty good. I don't mean to damn with faint praise, it's just how I feel.
1.28.2018
Television: Mindhunter 1.1
I didn't like it.
It was boring.
There's this FBI agent named Holden Ford, and he's young and uptight but trying to find new methods for profiling murderers and stuff.
It's, like, 1977 or something.
I dunno. Nothing much actually happened. Holden got a girlfriend named Debbie and she's obnoxious. He went back to school and is supposed to be recruiting people for the FBI, but no one wants to be a Fed because it's 1977 and everything is anti-establishment.
Mostly I felt like I was being shown this character—Holden—and . . . shown him some more . . . and some more . . . And I want to shout, "Okay! I get it! Now is there a story here or what?"
But there wasn't really. At least not in this episode.
Eventually Holden gets picked up by a senior agent named Bill Tench who invites him along to lecture law enforcement in various cities and towns. They're asked to help with the murder of a woman and her young son, but Holden says they can't.
So . . . yeah. Nothing happens. Holden actively chooses not to do anything. Because he can't wrap his brain around the psychology of someone who would kill a woman and her son.
Um . . .
Like, do your job maybe?
I don't know. I usually like character-driven stuff, but this was all character and no drive.
It was boring.
There's this FBI agent named Holden Ford, and he's young and uptight but trying to find new methods for profiling murderers and stuff.
It's, like, 1977 or something.
I dunno. Nothing much actually happened. Holden got a girlfriend named Debbie and she's obnoxious. He went back to school and is supposed to be recruiting people for the FBI, but no one wants to be a Fed because it's 1977 and everything is anti-establishment.
Mostly I felt like I was being shown this character—Holden—and . . . shown him some more . . . and some more . . . And I want to shout, "Okay! I get it! Now is there a story here or what?"
But there wasn't really. At least not in this episode.
Eventually Holden gets picked up by a senior agent named Bill Tench who invites him along to lecture law enforcement in various cities and towns. They're asked to help with the murder of a woman and her young son, but Holden says they can't.
So . . . yeah. Nothing happens. Holden actively chooses not to do anything. Because he can't wrap his brain around the psychology of someone who would kill a woman and her son.
Um . . .
Like, do your job maybe?
I don't know. I usually like character-driven stuff, but this was all character and no drive.
1.06.2018
Movies: Victoria & Abdul
This movie has been on my watch list for a while now, but I'll admit the reason I finally did sit down and watch it is that I'm reading Eddie Izzard's memoir and he mentions being in the movie. I thought, Really? And then he said he played Bertie, and I thought, Oh, but Bertie was such a dick. So then I kind of had to see Eddie Izzard play a dick.
Anyway, I don't pretend to know how much of this is true. That Queen Victoria had an Indian servant for the last fifteen years of her reign is documented, but the rest . . . It turns out Abdul kept a diary that was made public in 2010, so I guess that's where a lot of this comes from?
Victoria had a reputation for making fast, deep, and sometimes strange attachments. That she was drawn to Abdul Karim was, perhaps, not so surprising, but the people around her were alarmed at his rapid rise in her household. This movie . . . I won't say "explores" that because that suggests something deeper. This movie skims that. It passes over in a very surface way the fact that Victoria had this servant—she made him a kind of teacher—and lots of people didn't like it. I won't even say it delved into the bond between the titular characters because it didn't really. We understand Abdul has a kind of awe of Victoria, but he also lies to her, and then there is another Indian character who basically fades into the background until he dies of bad English weather.
I dunno. I wanted to like this movie, but it was only kind of meh.
I will say Dame Judi does a marvelous job as per usual, and Eddie Izzard really does pull off being an absolute dick. Ali Fazal as Abdul also does nice work. The frilly extra characters, however, do feel a bit like caricatures. And the main characters are stuck with an unfortunately shallow script. The whole movie is like jumping from one puddle to the next, but there's so little water that nothing really makes a splash.
Anyway, it was okay. Very pretty to look at. But not anything that requires a lot of attention. It just glides gently by without leaving any mess.
Anyway, I don't pretend to know how much of this is true. That Queen Victoria had an Indian servant for the last fifteen years of her reign is documented, but the rest . . . It turns out Abdul kept a diary that was made public in 2010, so I guess that's where a lot of this comes from?
Victoria had a reputation for making fast, deep, and sometimes strange attachments. That she was drawn to Abdul Karim was, perhaps, not so surprising, but the people around her were alarmed at his rapid rise in her household. This movie . . . I won't say "explores" that because that suggests something deeper. This movie skims that. It passes over in a very surface way the fact that Victoria had this servant—she made him a kind of teacher—and lots of people didn't like it. I won't even say it delved into the bond between the titular characters because it didn't really. We understand Abdul has a kind of awe of Victoria, but he also lies to her, and then there is another Indian character who basically fades into the background until he dies of bad English weather.
I dunno. I wanted to like this movie, but it was only kind of meh.
I will say Dame Judi does a marvelous job as per usual, and Eddie Izzard really does pull off being an absolute dick. Ali Fazal as Abdul also does nice work. The frilly extra characters, however, do feel a bit like caricatures. And the main characters are stuck with an unfortunately shallow script. The whole movie is like jumping from one puddle to the next, but there's so little water that nothing really makes a splash.
Anyway, it was okay. Very pretty to look at. But not anything that requires a lot of attention. It just glides gently by without leaving any mess.
12.24.2017
Television: The Crown, "Paterfamilias" & "Mystery Man"
More Philip. Sigh. The more they show him, the less I like him, which I think is the opposite effect of what they intend. I'm supposed to sympathize, I think? But I don't.
In "Paterfamilias," Philip insists that young Charles be sent away to the same school he attended. Never mind that Philip himself was unhappy there; he considers is "character building" to go someplace that is just shy of an abusive military school. So then we get Philip's story in flashbacks, and I think that's what is supposed to make us feel sorry for him or at least give us insight. But look, misery loving company is no reason to subject your child to said misery. And sure, maybe Philip thought the school would toughen Charles up, but not all children are the same, and they don't have the same reactions to external pressures. Some rise to the challenge. Others shrink. It doesn't mean the shrinkers are bad people; it simply means their strengths lie elsewhere, to be discovered in other ways.
The episode made me a bit frustrated with Elizabeth, too. She should have put her foot down. I understand the line she's walking in trying not to rule Philip in family situations, but in this case it would have been merited.
As for "Mystery Man," Jesus, what a mess of an episode. It was as though a bunch of plot bits were thrown into a pot and stirred.
So Philip gets a crick in his neck and goes to see an osteopath named Stephen Ward. He's invited by Ward to a house party, but instead of showing us whether Philip attends, we skip ahead a year to Ward being on trial for the Profumo scandal. You have to know a bit of British history to understand this bit because the episode doesn't make it very clear at all. Short version is that Ward's house parties introduced very young women to older government officials, including possibly a Russian agent or something? Anyway, Ward commits suicide, and in going through his personalty, drawings of Philip are found (Ward being an artist). There is also a newspaper photograph from one of Ward's parties, and a man with his back turned looks remarkably like Philip.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is pregnant (as is Margaret). She goes off to Balmoral under doctor's orders to rest while Philip skips off here and there. Again, if they want me to like Philip . . . Well, but history is history, I suppose. When he does finally wander home, he and Elizabeth have it out. He swears he didn't go to Ward's house party, that he only even saw Ward the one time because the guy was weird. Elizabeth confronts Philip with the photograph of the ballerina, and he gives a really circumlocutory speech that, summed up, means he loves her and wants to stay with her. (The speech did nothing to warm my heart, and what choice does he have, really?)
We end with the birth of Prince Edward and a family photo.
In total, the season was a good one though not (in my opinion) as good as the first due to meandering interests that went away from Elizabeth much of the time. Things did always loop back to her eventually, but the episodes that heavily focused on Philip or Margaret only made me irritated with those characters. Also, a severe lack of corgi this season.
That said, it's still a fine show with remarkable production values and well worth watching. I look forward to more.
In "Paterfamilias," Philip insists that young Charles be sent away to the same school he attended. Never mind that Philip himself was unhappy there; he considers is "character building" to go someplace that is just shy of an abusive military school. So then we get Philip's story in flashbacks, and I think that's what is supposed to make us feel sorry for him or at least give us insight. But look, misery loving company is no reason to subject your child to said misery. And sure, maybe Philip thought the school would toughen Charles up, but not all children are the same, and they don't have the same reactions to external pressures. Some rise to the challenge. Others shrink. It doesn't mean the shrinkers are bad people; it simply means their strengths lie elsewhere, to be discovered in other ways.
The episode made me a bit frustrated with Elizabeth, too. She should have put her foot down. I understand the line she's walking in trying not to rule Philip in family situations, but in this case it would have been merited.
As for "Mystery Man," Jesus, what a mess of an episode. It was as though a bunch of plot bits were thrown into a pot and stirred.
So Philip gets a crick in his neck and goes to see an osteopath named Stephen Ward. He's invited by Ward to a house party, but instead of showing us whether Philip attends, we skip ahead a year to Ward being on trial for the Profumo scandal. You have to know a bit of British history to understand this bit because the episode doesn't make it very clear at all. Short version is that Ward's house parties introduced very young women to older government officials, including possibly a Russian agent or something? Anyway, Ward commits suicide, and in going through his personalty, drawings of Philip are found (Ward being an artist). There is also a newspaper photograph from one of Ward's parties, and a man with his back turned looks remarkably like Philip.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is pregnant (as is Margaret). She goes off to Balmoral under doctor's orders to rest while Philip skips off here and there. Again, if they want me to like Philip . . . Well, but history is history, I suppose. When he does finally wander home, he and Elizabeth have it out. He swears he didn't go to Ward's house party, that he only even saw Ward the one time because the guy was weird. Elizabeth confronts Philip with the photograph of the ballerina, and he gives a really circumlocutory speech that, summed up, means he loves her and wants to stay with her. (The speech did nothing to warm my heart, and what choice does he have, really?)
We end with the birth of Prince Edward and a family photo.
In total, the season was a good one though not (in my opinion) as good as the first due to meandering interests that went away from Elizabeth much of the time. Things did always loop back to her eventually, but the episodes that heavily focused on Philip or Margaret only made me irritated with those characters. Also, a severe lack of corgi this season.
That said, it's still a fine show with remarkable production values and well worth watching. I look forward to more.
12.20.2017
Television: The Crown, "Matrimonium" & "Dear Mrs. Kennedy"
Ah, God, another Margaret episode. So many people love them, but I don't. I find the episodes that focus on her to be pretty boring. And this one focused even more on Tony, and it tried to be all arty—I mean, even more arty than the show normally is—and *yawn*.
Okay, so the whole thing begins with Margaret getting word that love-of-her-life Peter, the man she was forbidden to marry and for whom she's pledged undying spinsterhood, is marrying someone else. ::record scratch:: So now it's very important to Margaret that she get married, too, and more than that—she needs to announce it before Peter does. She cannot bear to be the jilted one, at least not in the eyes of the world.
So she goes to Tony, and he turns her down, which miffs her. But then Tony has dinner with his mother and she suh-suhs* him, and so he thinks maybe he needs to marry Margaret in order to please Mummy. Or, more than please, but beat Mummy at her own game of snobbery.
Bad reasons on both sides to get hitched, but there you have it. There's a bunch of Tony having sex with other people, all presented as, "Well, you know, artists are like that." Barf. And there's the revelation that Tony had a sort of poly relationship with a Mr. and Mrs. Fry, and that Mrs. Fry is carrying a baby that she's pretty sure is Tony's, but I don't care enough about Tony to care about that. I don't even care enough about Margaret to care about that because Margaret isn't very likable. (At least, I don't find her likable in these past couple episodes, or even sympathetic. I did last season, so I don't know what happened.) Far more interesting to watch men try to break the news of Tony's reputation to Elizabeth.
Oh, and Elizabeth gives birth to Andrew.
Then we toss all that aside because, as I've mentioned in previous posts, the concept of flow has been completely lost this season, and we get the Kennedys. You know, John and Jackie. Elizabeth is feeling old and frumpy, and she's faced with this beautiful young American first lady that even her husband is keen to make time with. One really feels for Elizabeth in this episode. We're supposed to feel for Jackie, too, but her litany of excuses for her bad behavior feels like just that—excuses. I know it had to suck for her, the philandering husband and all the exposure. But (and maybe I'm feeling my British roots here; the DNA test says I'm pretty massively British along with the French) her outpouring bordered on distasteful to me. Get thee to a therapist, woman! Don't spill it all over tea!
I recently heard that Olivia Colman will be taking over as Elizabeth in future seasons, and I can see how they're styling Claire Foy in that direction. Ms. Foy has done a lovely job, and we'll miss her, but of course Elizabeth can't stay young forever. That was kind of the point of the Kennedy episode. I have faith in Ms. Colman's talents; she's done so well over a broad variety of work. So I'm looking forward to seeing her in this.
But! Before that happens, there are still two final episodes to watch. I'll bring them to you once I've had the opportunity to indulge.
Okay, so the whole thing begins with Margaret getting word that love-of-her-life Peter, the man she was forbidden to marry and for whom she's pledged undying spinsterhood, is marrying someone else. ::record scratch:: So now it's very important to Margaret that she get married, too, and more than that—she needs to announce it before Peter does. She cannot bear to be the jilted one, at least not in the eyes of the world.
So she goes to Tony, and he turns her down, which miffs her. But then Tony has dinner with his mother and she suh-suhs* him, and so he thinks maybe he needs to marry Margaret in order to please Mummy. Or, more than please, but beat Mummy at her own game of snobbery.
Bad reasons on both sides to get hitched, but there you have it. There's a bunch of Tony having sex with other people, all presented as, "Well, you know, artists are like that." Barf. And there's the revelation that Tony had a sort of poly relationship with a Mr. and Mrs. Fry, and that Mrs. Fry is carrying a baby that she's pretty sure is Tony's, but I don't care enough about Tony to care about that. I don't even care enough about Margaret to care about that because Margaret isn't very likable. (At least, I don't find her likable in these past couple episodes, or even sympathetic. I did last season, so I don't know what happened.) Far more interesting to watch men try to break the news of Tony's reputation to Elizabeth.
Oh, and Elizabeth gives birth to Andrew.
Then we toss all that aside because, as I've mentioned in previous posts, the concept of flow has been completely lost this season, and we get the Kennedys. You know, John and Jackie. Elizabeth is feeling old and frumpy, and she's faced with this beautiful young American first lady that even her husband is keen to make time with. One really feels for Elizabeth in this episode. We're supposed to feel for Jackie, too, but her litany of excuses for her bad behavior feels like just that—excuses. I know it had to suck for her, the philandering husband and all the exposure. But (and maybe I'm feeling my British roots here; the DNA test says I'm pretty massively British along with the French) her outpouring bordered on distasteful to me. Get thee to a therapist, woman! Don't spill it all over tea!
I recently heard that Olivia Colman will be taking over as Elizabeth in future seasons, and I can see how they're styling Claire Foy in that direction. Ms. Foy has done a lovely job, and we'll miss her, but of course Elizabeth can't stay young forever. That was kind of the point of the Kennedy episode. I have faith in Ms. Colman's talents; she's done so well over a broad variety of work. So I'm looking forward to seeing her in this.
But! Before that happens, there are still two final episodes to watch. I'll bring them to you once I've had the opportunity to indulge.
12.14.2017
Television: The Crown, "Lisbon" & "Beryl"
I feel like the corgi meter is way low this season. I mean, we see them in one of these episodes, albeit briefly. I'm seriously bummed about the lack of them.
That aside, "Lisbon" is a solid episode that continues practically linearly from the previous two. Philip's secretary Mike is being sued for divorce, and there is a fear this will reflect badly on Philip and/or his marriage to Elizabeth. So Philip must distance himself and demands that Mike resign. Again, I think I'm supposed to feel sorry for Philip, but I don't really. Despite Matt Smith's valiant efforts at looking hangdog and conflicted, I can't find a lot of sympathy for Philip's bad decisions.
Once we loop back around to the first episode of the season—the moment in which Elizabeth asks Philip what it will take to keep him "in"—we see him being invested as a prince. (Sorry if I've previously referred to him as "Prince Philip" in other posts; I'd forgotten he wasn't for a while. I have to admit, that makes me feel a bit sorry for him because what a yo-yo: you are a prince, then you aren't, and then the life you signed up for gets shunted down another path entirely. "Can I just have a bit of dignity?" Uh, here, be a prince again. Um . . . We all know that dignity and titles are not equivalent, right? But we'll get to that in a couple more episodes.)
Meanwhile, in "Beryl" we look more closely at Princess Margaret's continued struggle to be a modern woman in an antiquated monarchy. ("Modern" being relative to the 1950s.) I know a lot of people found this episode really interesting, but I didn't. I'm just not as into Margaret's counterculture thing as some others are, I guess. For me, she works better as punctuation throughout the story rather than a whole block of prose in and of herself.
Long story not all that short, Margaret is sad at a friend's wedding because she still can't marry that one divorced guy. So she makes a kind of verbal engagement with Billy Wallace who then can't even come to the event where they're supposed to announce their engagement because he's hungover and all bloodied up from a fight. Margaret disavows him and can hardly stomach Elizabeth's and Philip's tenth anniversary love fest, so she runs off to hang out with a photographer named Tony. Instead of going with Cecil Beaton's official birthday photos, Margaret uses one of Tony's "rawer" photographs, which appears in the newspapers and leaves everyone aghast.
Meh. This episode felt so incredibly slow, and I just didn't buy any tension between Margaret and Tony. I don't know if that's the actors or what, but I yawned my way through it. I would have preferred this woven together with some other story line rather than being the focus of an entire episode. But I know I'm in the minority here, so . . . ::shrug::
That aside, "Lisbon" is a solid episode that continues practically linearly from the previous two. Philip's secretary Mike is being sued for divorce, and there is a fear this will reflect badly on Philip and/or his marriage to Elizabeth. So Philip must distance himself and demands that Mike resign. Again, I think I'm supposed to feel sorry for Philip, but I don't really. Despite Matt Smith's valiant efforts at looking hangdog and conflicted, I can't find a lot of sympathy for Philip's bad decisions.
Once we loop back around to the first episode of the season—the moment in which Elizabeth asks Philip what it will take to keep him "in"—we see him being invested as a prince. (Sorry if I've previously referred to him as "Prince Philip" in other posts; I'd forgotten he wasn't for a while. I have to admit, that makes me feel a bit sorry for him because what a yo-yo: you are a prince, then you aren't, and then the life you signed up for gets shunted down another path entirely. "Can I just have a bit of dignity?" Uh, here, be a prince again. Um . . . We all know that dignity and titles are not equivalent, right? But we'll get to that in a couple more episodes.)
Meanwhile, in "Beryl" we look more closely at Princess Margaret's continued struggle to be a modern woman in an antiquated monarchy. ("Modern" being relative to the 1950s.) I know a lot of people found this episode really interesting, but I didn't. I'm just not as into Margaret's counterculture thing as some others are, I guess. For me, she works better as punctuation throughout the story rather than a whole block of prose in and of herself.
Long story not all that short, Margaret is sad at a friend's wedding because she still can't marry that one divorced guy. So she makes a kind of verbal engagement with Billy Wallace who then can't even come to the event where they're supposed to announce their engagement because he's hungover and all bloodied up from a fight. Margaret disavows him and can hardly stomach Elizabeth's and Philip's tenth anniversary love fest, so she runs off to hang out with a photographer named Tony. Instead of going with Cecil Beaton's official birthday photos, Margaret uses one of Tony's "rawer" photographs, which appears in the newspapers and leaves everyone aghast.
Meh. This episode felt so incredibly slow, and I just didn't buy any tension between Margaret and Tony. I don't know if that's the actors or what, but I yawned my way through it. I would have preferred this woven together with some other story line rather than being the focus of an entire episode. But I know I'm in the minority here, so . . . ::shrug::
12.10.2017
Television: The Crown, "Misadventure" and "A Company of Men"
Season (or Series) 2 of The Crown is here! Huzzah! I'm trying not to gorge on it because I want it to last. Thus far I've only watched the first two episodes. I've got a very busy week ahead, so it may be a while before I get around to watching more.
In any case, this season begins with Elizabeth and Philip having a tense conversation about their relationship. Divorce isn't an option, so Elizabeth asks Philip point blank what it will take to make it work.
Rewind five months. It's 1956 and Nassar, President of Egypt, announces that they will take back the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is sending Philip on a lengthy tour of a number of remote places via the Britannica. Alas, prior to his leaving, she discovers a little photo of a ballerina in one of Philip's bags.
While Philip is out carousing on board, Elizabeth is (a) witnessing the Suez disaster as Prime Minister Eden colludes with Israel over how to handle the situation and (b) feels compelled to go to the ballet for a look at this woman whose picture she found in her husband's bags.
Philip is, perhaps, running with the wrong crowd. His private secretary Mike is a terrible influence, and they are also part of something called the Thursday Club, which encourages bad behavior, namely infidelity. Mike's own wife is seeking ammunition for a divorce and receives just that from a waitress at the club who admits to having slept with Mike. "He never mentioned a wife or family," she says.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for Philip? By the end of it all, he certainly appears to feel guilty (or "homesick" as Mike labels it for him). Too little too late? Well, we know from history how it plays out, but still. I feel no compassion for him at this stage in the story. Yes, even after the terrible interview that dragged up all his old family horrors. Buck up, man. There's no excuse for your behavior.
Now Philip is headed home toward his reckoning. And the Suez is under military fire from Israel. And Prime Minister Eden has been advised by his doctor to go to Jamaica. Wish my doctor would send me somewhere nice . . . Maybe I'd eat better and exercise more elsewhere?
These were two fairly Philip-heavy episodes. That's fine for the moment, but at the same time, we get it. You don't have to draw the picture in such detail. We know what he did (and at least he saved that one dying sailor, so . . .) Broaden the scope a little? I'm finding it difficult to breathe amid the cigar smoke and testosterone.
In any case, this season begins with Elizabeth and Philip having a tense conversation about their relationship. Divorce isn't an option, so Elizabeth asks Philip point blank what it will take to make it work.
Rewind five months. It's 1956 and Nassar, President of Egypt, announces that they will take back the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is sending Philip on a lengthy tour of a number of remote places via the Britannica. Alas, prior to his leaving, she discovers a little photo of a ballerina in one of Philip's bags.
While Philip is out carousing on board, Elizabeth is (a) witnessing the Suez disaster as Prime Minister Eden colludes with Israel over how to handle the situation and (b) feels compelled to go to the ballet for a look at this woman whose picture she found in her husband's bags.
Philip is, perhaps, running with the wrong crowd. His private secretary Mike is a terrible influence, and they are also part of something called the Thursday Club, which encourages bad behavior, namely infidelity. Mike's own wife is seeking ammunition for a divorce and receives just that from a waitress at the club who admits to having slept with Mike. "He never mentioned a wife or family," she says.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for Philip? By the end of it all, he certainly appears to feel guilty (or "homesick" as Mike labels it for him). Too little too late? Well, we know from history how it plays out, but still. I feel no compassion for him at this stage in the story. Yes, even after the terrible interview that dragged up all his old family horrors. Buck up, man. There's no excuse for your behavior.
Now Philip is headed home toward his reckoning. And the Suez is under military fire from Israel. And Prime Minister Eden has been advised by his doctor to go to Jamaica. Wish my doctor would send me somewhere nice . . . Maybe I'd eat better and exercise more elsewhere?
These were two fairly Philip-heavy episodes. That's fine for the moment, but at the same time, we get it. You don't have to draw the picture in such detail. We know what he did (and at least he saved that one dying sailor, so . . .) Broaden the scope a little? I'm finding it difficult to breathe amid the cigar smoke and testosterone.
11.25.2017
Movies: The Hitman's Bodyguard
Not quite as clever or endearing as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but in the same vein.
Ryan Reynolds plays Michael Bryce, a hired protection . . . agent? Is that what they're called? He was once the cream of the crop, but after losing a client, he now slums it and picks up jobs where and when he can.
Samuel L. Jackson plays an assassin named Darius Kincaid whose testimony is needed in International Court trial against the tyrannical president of Belarus. But of course INTERPOL has a mole, or a leak, or whatever they're calling it nowadays. So one of the agents—Bryce's ex, in fact—calls in Bryce to get Kincaid to the Hague. Hilarity in the form of banter and action set pieces ensues.
In truth, Reynolds and Jackson play well off one another. However, the plot here is rote and everything that happens is utterly predictable. Also, the two love stories—Bryce's ex, Kincaid's equally incarcerated wife (played wonderfully by Salma Hayek)—unfortunately fail to have impact because we're simply told that these two main characters love these women and are expected to take it at face value. We don't see them interact much with their respective ladies, only hear them talk about their relationships. If there's anything I dislike in movies, it's being told: "Here. Believe this. We're not going to show you (which is the f'ing point of a movie), just tell you, but we need you to believe it because a big part of the plot hinges on it." Ugh. Fuck no. Do the work.
Still and all, the movie is overall fairly entertaining. Good soundtrack, too. If you like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or The Nice Guys, you'd probably like this one, even though it's not Shane Black. It has a similar vibe.
Ryan Reynolds plays Michael Bryce, a hired protection . . . agent? Is that what they're called? He was once the cream of the crop, but after losing a client, he now slums it and picks up jobs where and when he can.
Samuel L. Jackson plays an assassin named Darius Kincaid whose testimony is needed in International Court trial against the tyrannical president of Belarus. But of course INTERPOL has a mole, or a leak, or whatever they're calling it nowadays. So one of the agents—Bryce's ex, in fact—calls in Bryce to get Kincaid to the Hague. Hilarity in the form of banter and action set pieces ensues.
In truth, Reynolds and Jackson play well off one another. However, the plot here is rote and everything that happens is utterly predictable. Also, the two love stories—Bryce's ex, Kincaid's equally incarcerated wife (played wonderfully by Salma Hayek)—unfortunately fail to have impact because we're simply told that these two main characters love these women and are expected to take it at face value. We don't see them interact much with their respective ladies, only hear them talk about their relationships. If there's anything I dislike in movies, it's being told: "Here. Believe this. We're not going to show you (which is the f'ing point of a movie), just tell you, but we need you to believe it because a big part of the plot hinges on it." Ugh. Fuck no. Do the work.
Still and all, the movie is overall fairly entertaining. Good soundtrack, too. If you like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or The Nice Guys, you'd probably like this one, even though it's not Shane Black. It has a similar vibe.
10.31.2017
Television: Stranger Things 2
I'm not going to go into detail because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. So I'm going to be pretty general in my statements here.
I've often written about how difficult it is to maintain great quality in sequels, particularly when the first installment was brilliant and somewhat unexpected. When you set the bar that high—and therefore people's expectations as well—it becomes hard to clear it. But Stranger Things 2 does, I think, the best it possibly could to meet the stellar quality of its first season.
That's not to say it's perfect. But you can see they took care not to coast on their good reputation. Real work went into this.
Encapsulated so as not to spoil it for anyone: ST2 returns to Hawkins, and the Upside Down is sort of . . . leaking? The gate sealing it off is weakening. Problems ensue.
I did think it was interesting that, in order to make Steve not appear to be quite so much of a jerk, they simply introduced an ever bigger jerk character. Everything is relative, I suppose. We all exist somewhere on a jerk scale of one kind or another in this world.
There is real tension in this season, too, and some honest-to-goodness horror. Sure, some of it plays like Jurassic Park, but I like JP, so . . .
Did I enjoy it as much as the first season? Not quite. But again, some of that goes back to the first season being a novelty, an unexpected good fortune. I think ST2 is a worthy successor. That's really all we could ask for, or even hope for. It's easy for shows (*cough*Sherlock*cough*) to be pleased with themselves after a brilliant start and just know that people will watch no matter what. It takes commitment to the story, the characters, the actors, and the audience to continue to deliver quality work. For that much, I'm grateful to the Duffer Brothers and their team for putting in the effort.
I've often written about how difficult it is to maintain great quality in sequels, particularly when the first installment was brilliant and somewhat unexpected. When you set the bar that high—and therefore people's expectations as well—it becomes hard to clear it. But Stranger Things 2 does, I think, the best it possibly could to meet the stellar quality of its first season.
That's not to say it's perfect. But you can see they took care not to coast on their good reputation. Real work went into this.
Encapsulated so as not to spoil it for anyone: ST2 returns to Hawkins, and the Upside Down is sort of . . . leaking? The gate sealing it off is weakening. Problems ensue.
I did think it was interesting that, in order to make Steve not appear to be quite so much of a jerk, they simply introduced an ever bigger jerk character. Everything is relative, I suppose. We all exist somewhere on a jerk scale of one kind or another in this world.
There is real tension in this season, too, and some honest-to-goodness horror. Sure, some of it plays like Jurassic Park, but I like JP, so . . .
Did I enjoy it as much as the first season? Not quite. But again, some of that goes back to the first season being a novelty, an unexpected good fortune. I think ST2 is a worthy successor. That's really all we could ask for, or even hope for. It's easy for shows (*cough*Sherlock*cough*) to be pleased with themselves after a brilliant start and just know that people will watch no matter what. It takes commitment to the story, the characters, the actors, and the audience to continue to deliver quality work. For that much, I'm grateful to the Duffer Brothers and their team for putting in the effort.
9.25.2017
Television: Star Trek: Discovery, "The Vulcan Hello"
I've only watched the first hour because that's the part that actually aired on, you know, an actual television station. Sorry, but I'm really sick of being asked to subscribe to twenty different streaming services for a show here, a show there. If CBS offered me more interesting stuff, maybe I'd consider it. But for one show? Even if it is a Trek show? ::smh:: No, I'm not paying a premium to watch one goddamn TV show.
That said, the first hour of this show is pretty good. Not sure why everyone needs to work in half light, and it's pretty talky—also has the sin of putting exposition in dialogue, particularly in the scene where we meet Captain Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green), which had me asking aloud, "Wouldn't they have had this briefing before going to the planet?" But whatever.
Michael Burnham (apparently in the future Michael becomes a girl's name) is first officer on Captain Georgiou's ship. Michael was also raised by Vulcans after her parents were killed by Klingons. In fact, she was raised by Sarek, so it's totally weird that Spock has never mentioned her, like, ever. In this case, too, Sarek is played by James Frain's nose. (Sorry, I'm so very sorry, but I just can't not say it whenever I see James Frain. It's just so obviously James Frain that I can't even think of him as Sarek. It's problematic for me.)
Anyway, there hasn't been any interaction between the Federation and the Klingons for 100 years or something, but then there they are: Klingons. And Michael goes to Sarek for advice because Klingons don't bother Vulcans, so she wants to know what Vulcans do to keep Klingons away. Some kind of repellant? Citronella candles?
Turns out Vulcans always fire first. That somehow earned the Klingons' respect and now they leave Vulcans alone.
Alas, Michael is unable to convince her captain that they need to fire on the Klingons. So she assaults her commanding officer instead, which I'm pretty sure is worthy of court martial. Alas, the hour ended and I'm not paying for the subscription, so . . . ::shrug:: Bummed I didn't even get to see Jason Isaacs, though.
That said, the first hour of this show is pretty good. Not sure why everyone needs to work in half light, and it's pretty talky—also has the sin of putting exposition in dialogue, particularly in the scene where we meet Captain Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green), which had me asking aloud, "Wouldn't they have had this briefing before going to the planet?" But whatever.
Michael Burnham (apparently in the future Michael becomes a girl's name) is first officer on Captain Georgiou's ship. Michael was also raised by Vulcans after her parents were killed by Klingons. In fact, she was raised by Sarek, so it's totally weird that Spock has never mentioned her, like, ever. In this case, too, Sarek is played by James Frain's nose. (Sorry, I'm so very sorry, but I just can't not say it whenever I see James Frain. It's just so obviously James Frain that I can't even think of him as Sarek. It's problematic for me.)
Anyway, there hasn't been any interaction between the Federation and the Klingons for 100 years or something, but then there they are: Klingons. And Michael goes to Sarek for advice because Klingons don't bother Vulcans, so she wants to know what Vulcans do to keep Klingons away. Some kind of repellant? Citronella candles?
Turns out Vulcans always fire first. That somehow earned the Klingons' respect and now they leave Vulcans alone.
Alas, Michael is unable to convince her captain that they need to fire on the Klingons. So she assaults her commanding officer instead, which I'm pretty sure is worthy of court martial. Alas, the hour ended and I'm not paying for the subscription, so . . . ::shrug:: Bummed I didn't even get to see Jason Isaacs, though.
11.29.2016
Television: The Crown, "Assassins" and "Gloriana"
"Assassins": Winston Churchill hates a painting some guy did of him so much he burns it and resigns as Prime Minister.
Also, Phillip is actually jealous of some guy named "Porchey." Just because the guy runs Elizabeth's stables and shares her love of horses. (If he didn't, he wouldn't be running the stables, one supposes.) I guess there's this idea that, once upon a time, Liz and Porchey were expected to make a match of things. Prince Porchey does have a ring to it... But anyway, if Phillip is that upset about his wife spending time at the stables, maybe he should stay home instead of haring off to party every night.
"Gloriana": Princess Margaret finally turns 25, but just as she's ready to announce her engagement to Peter Townsend, the Cabinet tells Liz that they won't agree to the match. And somehow they have that power. It's that old church hangup about divorced people getting married. And so Liz frets over a childhood promise to put family before all things versus her need to be The Crown, which includes being Defender of the Faith. A call to UncleJerk David helps her decide, and now Margaret will never forgive her. (Cuz, you know, Elizabeth told her she can't marry Townsend.)
Meanwhile, Phillip is encouraged to go to Melbourne and open the Olympics there. Alone. Cuz he needs something to do. Really, this royal family is big on sending their problems away, by which I mean people who are problems. Townsend, Phillip... Wish I could tell my family members to go cut a ribbon halfway across the world when I'm fed up with them.
And that's how the season ends. The last episode was a tad overwrought, leaning just a little into soap opera drama, but in all it's a fine show. Looking forward to more whenever that happens to be.
Also, Phillip is actually jealous of some guy named "Porchey." Just because the guy runs Elizabeth's stables and shares her love of horses. (If he didn't, he wouldn't be running the stables, one supposes.) I guess there's this idea that, once upon a time, Liz and Porchey were expected to make a match of things. Prince Porchey does have a ring to it... But anyway, if Phillip is that upset about his wife spending time at the stables, maybe he should stay home instead of haring off to party every night.
"Gloriana": Princess Margaret finally turns 25, but just as she's ready to announce her engagement to Peter Townsend, the Cabinet tells Liz that they won't agree to the match. And somehow they have that power. It's that old church hangup about divorced people getting married. And so Liz frets over a childhood promise to put family before all things versus her need to be The Crown, which includes being Defender of the Faith. A call to Uncle
Meanwhile, Phillip is encouraged to go to Melbourne and open the Olympics there. Alone. Cuz he needs something to do. Really, this royal family is big on sending their problems away, by which I mean people who are problems. Townsend, Phillip... Wish I could tell my family members to go cut a ribbon halfway across the world when I'm fed up with them.
And that's how the season ends. The last episode was a tad overwrought, leaning just a little into soap opera drama, but in all it's a fine show. Looking forward to more whenever that happens to be.
11.26.2016
Television: The Crown, "Gelignite," "Scientia Potentia Est," and "Pride & Joy"
Episodes 6, 7, and 8 respectively.
In "Gelignite," we deal with the fact that Princess Margaret's romance with Peter Townsend (not that Peter Townsend) has become public knowledge/scandal depending on your point of view. The fact that Townsend is divorced is an issue because the church doesn't acknowledge remarriage if both parties are still living. The loophole: Once Margaret reaches the age of 25, she can marry without Elizabeth's permission. This also allows Elizabeth to save face because she does not have to make an unpopular decision in order to please her sister. Of course, she then goes on to upset Margaret anyway by sending Townsend to Brussels so things can cool off for a bit while Margaret literally waits to grow up.
We then move on to "Scientia Potentia Est" (it means "knowledge is power"). Elizabeth is feeling the lack of her overall education. Oh, she had a tutor as a kid and all that, but she mostly learned, uh... Decorum? And probably a lot of history and all about how Parliament works or whatever. But because there was so much focus on those things, her general curriculum suffered. So she decides to employ a new tutor to help her with things like science so that she can understand things like atomic bombs. Not a bad idea, really. Meanwhile, Churchill is practically in a sitcom as he tries to hide his illness from Elizabeth as well as that of the Foreign Secretary. Of course they get caught and dressed down for it. That's how sitcoms work. Oh, and Elizabeth really wants Martin to come be her new Personal Secretary but she's told that Martin is only a junior and she has to promote the senior to the job. Because even though she's The Queen, she's not allowed to do end runs around the proper form and order of things. Hierarchy, you know. The system—and monarchy—relies on it.
Remember way back when Liz and Phil were doing that big tour because her dad was too ill to do it? But then he died and so she had to go home and be Queen? Yeah, so in "Pride & Joy" it's decided she and Phillip should go finish that tour. They're going to be gone for three months, meaning the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret will be filling in back home. Except the Queen Mother up and leaves for Scotland and Margaret acts more like a wannabe movie star than royalty by drawing a lot of attention to herself. Liz wrestles with a certain amount of envy at how loved Margaret seems to be by the public. She also knows that the monarchy is not meant to be the spectacle Margaret is making of it, and she tells Margaret as much upon returning home. Margaret accuses Elizabeth of being too perfect. Meanwhile, the episode title is explained in that their father used to call Elizabeth his pride and Margaret his joy. Though to hear Margaret tell it, he used "but" instead of "and." Because Margaret firmly believes she was daddy's favorite and is mean enough to fling that in her sister's face.
So that's that for those three episodes. Only two more this season. It continues to be fun, though I'm waiting for Phillip to get in trouble with that club he keeps hanging out with. Nothing worse than a bunch of bored, wealthy men.
In "Gelignite," we deal with the fact that Princess Margaret's romance with Peter Townsend (not that Peter Townsend) has become public knowledge/scandal depending on your point of view. The fact that Townsend is divorced is an issue because the church doesn't acknowledge remarriage if both parties are still living. The loophole: Once Margaret reaches the age of 25, she can marry without Elizabeth's permission. This also allows Elizabeth to save face because she does not have to make an unpopular decision in order to please her sister. Of course, she then goes on to upset Margaret anyway by sending Townsend to Brussels so things can cool off for a bit while Margaret literally waits to grow up.
We then move on to "Scientia Potentia Est" (it means "knowledge is power"). Elizabeth is feeling the lack of her overall education. Oh, she had a tutor as a kid and all that, but she mostly learned, uh... Decorum? And probably a lot of history and all about how Parliament works or whatever. But because there was so much focus on those things, her general curriculum suffered. So she decides to employ a new tutor to help her with things like science so that she can understand things like atomic bombs. Not a bad idea, really. Meanwhile, Churchill is practically in a sitcom as he tries to hide his illness from Elizabeth as well as that of the Foreign Secretary. Of course they get caught and dressed down for it. That's how sitcoms work. Oh, and Elizabeth really wants Martin to come be her new Personal Secretary but she's told that Martin is only a junior and she has to promote the senior to the job. Because even though she's The Queen, she's not allowed to do end runs around the proper form and order of things. Hierarchy, you know. The system—and monarchy—relies on it.
Remember way back when Liz and Phil were doing that big tour because her dad was too ill to do it? But then he died and so she had to go home and be Queen? Yeah, so in "Pride & Joy" it's decided she and Phillip should go finish that tour. They're going to be gone for three months, meaning the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret will be filling in back home. Except the Queen Mother up and leaves for Scotland and Margaret acts more like a wannabe movie star than royalty by drawing a lot of attention to herself. Liz wrestles with a certain amount of envy at how loved Margaret seems to be by the public. She also knows that the monarchy is not meant to be the spectacle Margaret is making of it, and she tells Margaret as much upon returning home. Margaret accuses Elizabeth of being too perfect. Meanwhile, the episode title is explained in that their father used to call Elizabeth his pride and Margaret his joy. Though to hear Margaret tell it, he used "but" instead of "and." Because Margaret firmly believes she was daddy's favorite and is mean enough to fling that in her sister's face.
So that's that for those three episodes. Only two more this season. It continues to be fun, though I'm waiting for Phillip to get in trouble with that club he keeps hanging out with. Nothing worse than a bunch of bored, wealthy men.
11.16.2016
Television: The Crown, "Act of God" and "Smoke and Mirrors"
I continue to make my way through this series. In the episode "Act of God" we come close to horror story territory as a dense fog cloaks London, posing a health hazard that leaves many ill and dead. It turns out Churchill knew of the possibility of such an occurrence, had been urged to limit coal consumption because the pollutants are the major contributing factor to the fog, but dismissed it and now... The fog has come... dun-dun-DUN.
Seriously, though, keep in mind this really did happen in 1952, and Churchill nearly lost his position over it. But he's a cunning old thing. When his assistant is hit by a bus that didn't see her because, you know, fog, Churchill goes to the hospital morgue to identify her then uses that to make a public appearance that boosts his popular appeal. Just as Elizabeth is about to give him a good kick in the pants, too, because he won't let Phillip take flying lessons. (Spoiler for those who haven't been around in the last 70+ years: Phillip is allowed to fly in the end.)
"Smoke and Mirrors" then moves on to Elizabeth's coronation. Against tradition and all advice, Liz puts Phil in charge of arranging it, and he brings in TV crews. That's kind of the sum total of the episode except that Uncle David, who had been king for less than a year and never got a coronation, continues to bitch about things. I do understand his frustration, sure—his family is fairly nasty about the whole abdication and his marrying that Wallis woman. It's a wonder their relationship lasted given that, in the end, it seems neither of them were very happy. A lifetime of not getting what you really want will do that to you, I suppose.
Oh, and Queen Mary dies.
As for the coronation, there's a bit of tension between Elizabeth and Phillip when he doesn't want to have to kneel to her during the ceremony but she insists. She tries to explain to Phillip that she is his wife but also the Queen. It's complicated, but once again the show does a fine job of relaying that tension to the viewers. We feel it.
So that leaves us at the halfway mark for this season. So far so good.
Seriously, though, keep in mind this really did happen in 1952, and Churchill nearly lost his position over it. But he's a cunning old thing. When his assistant is hit by a bus that didn't see her because, you know, fog, Churchill goes to the hospital morgue to identify her then uses that to make a public appearance that boosts his popular appeal. Just as Elizabeth is about to give him a good kick in the pants, too, because he won't let Phillip take flying lessons. (Spoiler for those who haven't been around in the last 70+ years: Phillip is allowed to fly in the end.)
"Smoke and Mirrors" then moves on to Elizabeth's coronation. Against tradition and all advice, Liz puts Phil in charge of arranging it, and he brings in TV crews. That's kind of the sum total of the episode except that Uncle David, who had been king for less than a year and never got a coronation, continues to bitch about things. I do understand his frustration, sure—his family is fairly nasty about the whole abdication and his marrying that Wallis woman. It's a wonder their relationship lasted given that, in the end, it seems neither of them were very happy. A lifetime of not getting what you really want will do that to you, I suppose.
Oh, and Queen Mary dies.
As for the coronation, there's a bit of tension between Elizabeth and Phillip when he doesn't want to have to kneel to her during the ceremony but she insists. She tries to explain to Phillip that she is his wife but also the Queen. It's complicated, but once again the show does a fine job of relaying that tension to the viewers. We feel it.
So that leaves us at the halfway mark for this season. So far so good.
11.10.2016
Television: The Crown, "Windsor"
All right, so Elizabeth is now queen, though she hasn't been officially crowned yet. Churchill seeks to put off her coronation for a year, partly because he feels doing so will stall his party's attempts to unseat him.
Elizabeth—really, Phillip, though Elizabeth ostensibly supports and agrees with him—has two items on her checklist: (1) keeping her married name of Mountbatten, and (2) living at Clarence House rather than Buckingham Palace. She doesn't mind going to Buckingham to do the work, but the family would rather live at Clarence House, which Phillip has recently spent a pretty penny to renovate.
She's told "no" to both.
And she caves. Without much of a fight.
Once supposes she was young and easily led at that point, too uncertain to put her foot down, but it just seems so random that she didn't press harder on either point. Phillip is, of course, unhappy. His manhood is at stake, to a degree (and keeping in mind the time period)—his wife outranks him, and she won't even take his [adopted] name. Nor will she let him live in the house he redecorated. One can feel sorry for him under the circumstances, at least a little.
Meanwhile, Princess Margaret continues her affaire de coeur with Townsend. His wife has left him, and she urges him to get a divorce so he can remarry. But we all know what the royal family thinks of divorcés; it's made very clear in the circumstances of David, Duke of Windsor, who was briefly king before having to abdicate in order to marry a divorced American (Wallis Simpson). The bad blood lingers as David comes home for the funeral, his wife left behind in New York because she is not welcome. David's goals are to keep, if not increase, the allowance his brother Bertie (aka George VI) had given him, and to ideally have his wife given a proper royal title. The first may be possible, but the second, uh, no. It is Elizabeth who extends an olive branch to David, saying she would value his advice in the absence of her father. Meanwhile, the rest of the family blames David for Bertie's death, the logic being that if David had remained king, Bertie would not have had to be and would not have died from, er . . . stress? I don't think being king gave him cancer, but whatever.
Of course, it is Uncle Jerk who tells Elizabeth to keep the name Windsor—hardly an unbiased opinion, since he's the Duke of Windsor—and to move into Buckingham. Such is the deal Jerk made with Churchill, to push Elizabeth in the direction the Council wanted. "Good Job, Uncle Jerk!"
The Crown continues to be enchanting. It's a string of small moments, nicely matched, like pearls. This is the strand of a life . . .
One last thing, however. Can I just say that every f***ing credit sequence for everything ever now looks and sounds exactly the same? I'm really, really sick of it. The sequence for The Crown looks the same as the sequence for The Night Manager which in turn looks like Westworld and the sequence for any number of other things I've seen recently. Ugh. Stop it. Get an original idea, guys. Come on.
Elizabeth—really, Phillip, though Elizabeth ostensibly supports and agrees with him—has two items on her checklist: (1) keeping her married name of Mountbatten, and (2) living at Clarence House rather than Buckingham Palace. She doesn't mind going to Buckingham to do the work, but the family would rather live at Clarence House, which Phillip has recently spent a pretty penny to renovate.
She's told "no" to both.
And she caves. Without much of a fight.
Once supposes she was young and easily led at that point, too uncertain to put her foot down, but it just seems so random that she didn't press harder on either point. Phillip is, of course, unhappy. His manhood is at stake, to a degree (and keeping in mind the time period)—his wife outranks him, and she won't even take his [adopted] name. Nor will she let him live in the house he redecorated. One can feel sorry for him under the circumstances, at least a little.
Meanwhile, Princess Margaret continues her affaire de coeur with Townsend. His wife has left him, and she urges him to get a divorce so he can remarry. But we all know what the royal family thinks of divorcés; it's made very clear in the circumstances of David, Duke of Windsor, who was briefly king before having to abdicate in order to marry a divorced American (Wallis Simpson). The bad blood lingers as David comes home for the funeral, his wife left behind in New York because she is not welcome. David's goals are to keep, if not increase, the allowance his brother Bertie (aka George VI) had given him, and to ideally have his wife given a proper royal title. The first may be possible, but the second, uh, no. It is Elizabeth who extends an olive branch to David, saying she would value his advice in the absence of her father. Meanwhile, the rest of the family blames David for Bertie's death, the logic being that if David had remained king, Bertie would not have had to be and would not have died from, er . . . stress? I don't think being king gave him cancer, but whatever.
Of course, it is Uncle Jerk who tells Elizabeth to keep the name Windsor—hardly an unbiased opinion, since he's the Duke of Windsor—and to move into Buckingham. Such is the deal Jerk made with Churchill, to push Elizabeth in the direction the Council wanted. "Good Job, Uncle Jerk!"
The Crown continues to be enchanting. It's a string of small moments, nicely matched, like pearls. This is the strand of a life . . .
One last thing, however. Can I just say that every f***ing credit sequence for everything ever now looks and sounds exactly the same? I'm really, really sick of it. The sequence for The Crown looks the same as the sequence for The Night Manager which in turn looks like Westworld and the sequence for any number of other things I've seen recently. Ugh. Stop it. Get an original idea, guys. Come on.
11.08.2016
Television: The Crown, "Hyde Park Corner"
As predicted, some sobbing when no one is around, but Elizabeth, er, [wo]mans up relatively quickly.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. See, Elizabeth and Phillip are off in Africa because her father George VI is too ill to travel and so cannot tour the Commonwealth as planned. But while Liz and Phil (can I call them that?) watch elephants and hippos, George passes away. Then there is much tension over getting the news to Elizabeth before she can hear it broadcast on the radio somewhere. Lucky for England she was off in the bush or whatever! :thumbs up:
Other things happening include the Conservative Party attempting to unseat Churchill (who is their own man, but they're unhappy because he's fixated on foreign countries rather than helping his own), and Princess Margaret carrying on a flirt with Captain Peter Townsend, equerry to King George and a married man. *gasp!*
Again, if you know any of the history, you know how all this ends, but it's fun to watch anyway.
And oh, hey, look! Nicholas Rowe! Bonus points there in my book.
I'm actually quite impressed with Matt Smith who continues to do a very good job of walking the line as Phillip. His frustration is palpable, yet so is his real love for Elizabeth. He also gets the bluntness—sometimes bordering on seeming stupidity—just right. It's a nicely nuanced performance, so good on him.
I really am enjoying the series. Very well done.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. See, Elizabeth and Phillip are off in Africa because her father George VI is too ill to travel and so cannot tour the Commonwealth as planned. But while Liz and Phil (can I call them that?) watch elephants and hippos, George passes away. Then there is much tension over getting the news to Elizabeth before she can hear it broadcast on the radio somewhere. Lucky for England she was off in the bush or whatever! :thumbs up:
Other things happening include the Conservative Party attempting to unseat Churchill (who is their own man, but they're unhappy because he's fixated on foreign countries rather than helping his own), and Princess Margaret carrying on a flirt with Captain Peter Townsend, equerry to King George and a married man. *gasp!*
Again, if you know any of the history, you know how all this ends, but it's fun to watch anyway.
And oh, hey, look! Nicholas Rowe! Bonus points there in my book.
I'm actually quite impressed with Matt Smith who continues to do a very good job of walking the line as Phillip. His frustration is palpable, yet so is his real love for Elizabeth. He also gets the bluntness—sometimes bordering on seeming stupidity—just right. It's a nicely nuanced performance, so good on him.
I really am enjoying the series. Very well done.
11.05.2016
Television: The Crown, "Wolferton Splash"
This 10-part series about the life of Elizabeth II begins with her fiancé renouncing his titles in Greece and Denmark, taking the name Mountbatten and being properly naturalized as a British citizen so that he can marry Elizabeth. From there, the focus in this first episode rests largely on the ill health of Elizabeth's father King George VI.
Doctor Who's Matt Smith plays young Philip and does a fair job showing him champing the bit, being restive after his career in the Royal Navy. He's not keen to do a bunch of junkets, and father-in-law George (a puffy-looking Jared Harris) must sit him down and give him a talking to. John Lithgow as Winston Churchill is, unfortunately, just a bit too John Lithgow to be believable; while watching one is too aware it's John Lithgow to ever feel he could be Churchill. But that's the standout; the remainder of the cast is quite on point, and the production values are lavish.
Still and all, not a whole lot happens in this first installment. Aside from the wedding and some faux home movie footage, we're really only given the ominous sense of George's imminent death. Those of us who know our history know how and when it will happen (and the rest of you can go look it up if you like), so this we really only have a "dramatic re-enactment" to look forward to—that's the extent of the tension, waiting for the news and to see lots of crying or, being they're British, a lot of not crying until they're alone in a room somewhere. Then we'll be treated to a Coronation, and won't that be fun?
Yes, I'm making light, but in truth I look forward to watching more. The Crown is so well made that I can forgive its somewhat slow pace and heretofore lack of depth. It will get there, I'm sure. It's easing out of the dock like a steamliner, but soon enough we'll hit open water and there will be smooth sailing.
Doctor Who's Matt Smith plays young Philip and does a fair job showing him champing the bit, being restive after his career in the Royal Navy. He's not keen to do a bunch of junkets, and father-in-law George (a puffy-looking Jared Harris) must sit him down and give him a talking to. John Lithgow as Winston Churchill is, unfortunately, just a bit too John Lithgow to be believable; while watching one is too aware it's John Lithgow to ever feel he could be Churchill. But that's the standout; the remainder of the cast is quite on point, and the production values are lavish.
Still and all, not a whole lot happens in this first installment. Aside from the wedding and some faux home movie footage, we're really only given the ominous sense of George's imminent death. Those of us who know our history know how and when it will happen (and the rest of you can go look it up if you like), so this we really only have a "dramatic re-enactment" to look forward to—that's the extent of the tension, waiting for the news and to see lots of crying or, being they're British, a lot of not crying until they're alone in a room somewhere. Then we'll be treated to a Coronation, and won't that be fun?
Yes, I'm making light, but in truth I look forward to watching more. The Crown is so well made that I can forgive its somewhat slow pace and heretofore lack of depth. It will get there, I'm sure. It's easing out of the dock like a steamliner, but soon enough we'll hit open water and there will be smooth sailing.
10.12.2016
Television: Narrowing It Down
So I can strike two shows off my viewing list. (You may remember in my previous post I was agonizing over everything I wanted to watch.) I tried Crisis in Six Scenes, which is that Woody Allen thing on Amazon. Boring. Not funny. Didn't even finish the first episode. I was like, "What am I supposed to be getting from this? Cuz I'm getting exactly nothing." Well, okay, one less thing to watch.
And then I switched over to the second episode of Luke Cage. But I really can't get into that show either. The politics of the urban underworld just don't interest me in the least. So, much as I like the character of Luke Cage, this story isn't for me. Another thing I can cross off.
This is progress!
And then I switched over to the second episode of Luke Cage. But I really can't get into that show either. The politics of the urban underworld just don't interest me in the least. So, much as I like the character of Luke Cage, this story isn't for me. Another thing I can cross off.
This is progress!
10.10.2016
Television: I Can't Even
I am so behind on television, you guys. Like, so behind. This is what happens when you get a life, I guess.
I have this list of shows that I either want to start watching or else started watching and want to continue but haven't had the chance.
This doesn't even cover the fact that we also watch Supergirl and The Flash with the kids. At some point we'll loop back and grab Arrow, too, I suppose. Geez.
The shows we keep up with in real time are Brooklyn Nine-Nine and This Week Tonight with John Oliver. I won't go to bed on Sunday without seeing Johnny first. He makes my week and is the only television I consider "appointment television" any more. As for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it just airs at a time that's convenient. By Sunday evening we're ready to relax prior to the week starting, and we usually want light rather than heavy (Game of Thrones excepted given that we do John Oliver after). I also will often manage to catch up with any House Hunters at some point during the week when I'm looking for something mindless and undemanding. These days, busy as I've been, I often do want something unchallenging to watch.
How about you? What do you watch? Is there something I should add to my growing list? Something on the list I shouldn't bother with? Tell me about it in the comments!
I have this list of shows that I either want to start watching or else started watching and want to continue but haven't had the chance.
- Timeless — it's on the DVR, looks super cute
- MacGyver — also on the DVR, and I think I'm, like, three episodes behind now
- Designated Survivor — watched the pilot, want to keep watching
- Luke Cage — also watched the first episode, wasn't blown away but I do want to see where it goes
- Elementary — premiered a couple weeks ago and is sitting on my DVR
- Documentary Now! — we do manage to watch this usually; there's only one on the DVR at the moment
- Scream Queens — loved the first season, watched the first episode of the second season and haven't gotten any further than that
- AHS: My Roanoke Nightmare — sounds like my kind of thing, hoping to get around to it
- Westworld — looks cool, plan to watch it . . . someday . . .
- Luther — I keep being told to watch this and I really, really want to because I love Idris Elba, but I just don't know when
- Poldark — another one I keep being urged to try, but the hubby isn't keen and we only have one telly
This doesn't even cover the fact that we also watch Supergirl and The Flash with the kids. At some point we'll loop back and grab Arrow, too, I suppose. Geez.
The shows we keep up with in real time are Brooklyn Nine-Nine and This Week Tonight with John Oliver. I won't go to bed on Sunday without seeing Johnny first. He makes my week and is the only television I consider "appointment television" any more. As for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it just airs at a time that's convenient. By Sunday evening we're ready to relax prior to the week starting, and we usually want light rather than heavy (Game of Thrones excepted given that we do John Oliver after). I also will often manage to catch up with any House Hunters at some point during the week when I'm looking for something mindless and undemanding. These days, busy as I've been, I often do want something unchallenging to watch.
How about you? What do you watch? Is there something I should add to my growing list? Something on the list I shouldn't bother with? Tell me about it in the comments!
10.01.2016
Television: Luke Cage, "Moment of Truth"
I'm fond of Paul McGuigan's direction, and this pilot episode for Luke Cage is nicely done. It's just so s...l...o...w... I realize they wanted to take time to establish Cage as someone longing only for a quiet life under the radar. We see he's lonely, and good deep down. They're also setting up the overarching situation of how club owner Cottonmouth is powerful and bad, and this may be where they lost me a bit because I have little to no interest in mob or mob-like things, the seedy underworld of making deals with politicians, etc. It's why I wandered away from Gotham, and if anything drives me away from Luke Cage, it might be that or—unless things begin to move—the pacing.
In short, less plot and more of Luke himself, please.
I felt like I waited the entire episode for that bit at the end, in which we finally see Luke do his thing by taking on henchmen menacing his landlady. It's a fabulous moment, and McGuigan's style shows through. I suppose it's the payoff for sitting through all the rest, but I really just want more of that. Afterward, his landlady offers to hire Luke [for protection] but he declines. For someone who has spent the last hour talking about needing money, this feels silly, though it doesn't at all feel out of character. Still, I thought he was supposed to be a "hero for hire." Looks like he's more of a boy scout.
It's probably too soon to tell how it will all play out. Unlike with Jessica Jones, I didn't feel like I could watch more than one of these at a go. If it starts to move faster, maybe I'll feel differently.
In short, less plot and more of Luke himself, please.
I felt like I waited the entire episode for that bit at the end, in which we finally see Luke do his thing by taking on henchmen menacing his landlady. It's a fabulous moment, and McGuigan's style shows through. I suppose it's the payoff for sitting through all the rest, but I really just want more of that. Afterward, his landlady offers to hire Luke [for protection] but he declines. For someone who has spent the last hour talking about needing money, this feels silly, though it doesn't at all feel out of character. Still, I thought he was supposed to be a "hero for hire." Looks like he's more of a boy scout.
It's probably too soon to tell how it will all play out. Unlike with Jessica Jones, I didn't feel like I could watch more than one of these at a go. If it starts to move faster, maybe I'll feel differently.
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