You should always waste time when you don't have any - I've been watching things!
A lot of reactions, no spoilers (unless you don't want to know anything at all).
I love Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None so when I heard BBC was going to make a mini-series based on the novel, I was very excited. How they're going to tell the story when so much people already know the answer?, I thought. Well, it turned out they focused on presenting the characters, their motives and feelings, and creating that feeling of the inevitable death on an isolated island. Most details of the solution have been omitted, although the murderer is, of course, revealed. The effect is worth watching, however, I still think the most interesting part of Christie's story is the unsolvable crime so all attempts of pretending it's not crucial are bound to fail.
It's been funny to see how everyone was wondering who the mysterious Mr. Owen was, with one of the characters played by Burn Gorman, who played Owen in Torchwood (by the way, that's the obligatory actor from Doctor Who who, as the rule says, has to appear in every single piece of Brisish television). I wanted to shout: "look, it's him, he's got a moustache but he's Owen!" ;)
And I have to say, I've been indifferent about Aidan Turner playing in the Hobbit or in Poldark. But give him a haircut, put him in a nice suit and make him evil and suddenly, he's attractive!
Have I got your attention? ;)
I've played The Escape Artist knowing very little about it, just that David Tennant was there - that's all the recommendation I needed. (Seriously, I think I've watched more than twenty or even twenty five things with him, so statistically, about a third should have been rubbish, the "I needed to pay my bills" kind of rubbish. But that man seems to have played only in "decent" to "very good" productions! "Spies of Warsaw" was, I guess, the worst from the big things, but if it made him visit my country, well, I hope he had a good time.) It turned out The Escape Artist was a thriller, and a good one, with a nice twist at the end. Three episodes, three trials, each connected with David's character Will, but differently. From Doctor Who obligatory representants, apart from David, there was Sophie Okonedo (aka Liz Ten).
When you do the dishes for the first time ;)
dieastra will be delighted to see I finally managed to watch Recovery :) I don't know why but I thought it was a mini-series and not a television film (how can you differ those two things apart these days? Two parts make a movie but three a mini-series? Is it the bugdet?) but I have obviously been mistaken. And wow, it was heavy. David has played various characters but that role stands out, demanded a different approach, I think, as he had to find out how to act as someone with a brain damage and be as close to reality as he could. The script was well written as well - I half expected it to go "rainbows and unicorns" at the end but of course, the writers have been too smart for that. (And Carson, what are you doing, pretending to be a doctor? Doctors don't have such deep voices!)
Have you seen last week's Graham Norton Show? I think it's one of the best I've seen (not that I've seen much, though), the guests have really talked to each other, and that doesn't seem to happen often if they have so little in common. Olivia was lovely as usual (no mentions of Broadchurch 3, though) and I missed Hugh Laurie and his sense of humour. My watch list has a new item, The Night Manager.
Derren Brown's Pushed To The Edge has been aimed as, I suppose, a fake television remake of the Milgram experiment. I don't mind it was obviously staged and I think from time to time we all need to be reminded how we're trained to obey all kinds of authorities but it would help if Derren's whole scenario has made more sense. A disease that makes you look dead (but you're not) when you forget to take some pills and a fake body looking and feeling exactly as a human body? Yeah, sure...
A short film 96 Ways To Say I love You produced by Georgia Tennant has been released (interestingly, she seems to use her married name only when she's producing). Definitely worth watching, it's accurate, funny and it's a pleasure for eyes. David plays there, too, and I had no problems to believe his character and Nina Sosanya's were married. I know they have played a couple before many years ago, but I'm still amazed how actors can pull something like that off, in minutes. Speaking about actors from Doctor Who - Georgia and Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) on screen, together. It was nice to see them playing other characters, they seem very talented. And they're both so beautiful.
I just love when he smiles.
To be maybe more serious now; I've been also to the cinema and watched The Danish Girl. What a beautifully filmed movie, almost every shot is a piece of art there. I have to admit, at the beginning, I was thinking "is aestethics the only reason the action was set in 1920s (I know Lili was a real person but everything is changable), since everyone seem to be so 21th century, open and acceptive?" But I was proved wrong - it was fascinating to see how being a transgender person in a world when there was no precedence of that, led Lili to identity crisis and the doctors to many wrong diagnosis, even schizophrenia. It's hard enough now so I can only try to imagine what Lili must have been through.
Having said that, I know I'm talking about last year's Oscar winner and this year's Oscar nominee but I wasn't convinced by Eddie Redmayne's portrayal. His Einar and Lily seemed to be two different people, and it was very hard for me to see Lily as a full character, she was just a set of two or three poses and two face expressions: a huge smile (I thought she looked like she's been told to smile by Kilgrave) and a shy, looking-at-the-floor, face. The fact that she wasn't saying much to other people but Gerda didn't help as well. To be honest, I think Alicia Vikander playing Einar's wife deserved a nomination much more than Redmayne.
I love Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None so when I heard BBC was going to make a mini-series based on the novel, I was very excited. How they're going to tell the story when so much people already know the answer?, I thought. Well, it turned out they focused on presenting the characters, their motives and feelings, and creating that feeling of the inevitable death on an isolated island. Most details of the solution have been omitted, although the murderer is, of course, revealed. The effect is worth watching, however, I still think the most interesting part of Christie's story is the unsolvable crime so all attempts of pretending it's not crucial are bound to fail.
It's been funny to see how everyone was wondering who the mysterious Mr. Owen was, with one of the characters played by Burn Gorman, who played Owen in Torchwood (by the way, that's the obligatory actor from Doctor Who who, as the rule says, has to appear in every single piece of Brisish television). I wanted to shout: "look, it's him, he's got a moustache but he's Owen!" ;)
And I have to say, I've been indifferent about Aidan Turner playing in the Hobbit or in Poldark. But give him a haircut, put him in a nice suit and make him evil and suddenly, he's attractive!
Have I got your attention? ;)
I've played The Escape Artist knowing very little about it, just that David Tennant was there - that's all the recommendation I needed. (Seriously, I think I've watched more than twenty or even twenty five things with him, so statistically, about a third should have been rubbish, the "I needed to pay my bills" kind of rubbish. But that man seems to have played only in "decent" to "very good" productions! "Spies of Warsaw" was, I guess, the worst from the big things, but if it made him visit my country, well, I hope he had a good time.) It turned out The Escape Artist was a thriller, and a good one, with a nice twist at the end. Three episodes, three trials, each connected with David's character Will, but differently. From Doctor Who obligatory representants, apart from David, there was Sophie Okonedo (aka Liz Ten).
When you do the dishes for the first time ;)
dieastra will be delighted to see I finally managed to watch Recovery :) I don't know why but I thought it was a mini-series and not a television film (how can you differ those two things apart these days? Two parts make a movie but three a mini-series? Is it the bugdet?) but I have obviously been mistaken. And wow, it was heavy. David has played various characters but that role stands out, demanded a different approach, I think, as he had to find out how to act as someone with a brain damage and be as close to reality as he could. The script was well written as well - I half expected it to go "rainbows and unicorns" at the end but of course, the writers have been too smart for that. (And Carson, what are you doing, pretending to be a doctor? Doctors don't have such deep voices!)
Have you seen last week's Graham Norton Show? I think it's one of the best I've seen (not that I've seen much, though), the guests have really talked to each other, and that doesn't seem to happen often if they have so little in common. Olivia was lovely as usual (no mentions of Broadchurch 3, though) and I missed Hugh Laurie and his sense of humour. My watch list has a new item, The Night Manager.
Derren Brown's Pushed To The Edge has been aimed as, I suppose, a fake television remake of the Milgram experiment. I don't mind it was obviously staged and I think from time to time we all need to be reminded how we're trained to obey all kinds of authorities but it would help if Derren's whole scenario has made more sense. A disease that makes you look dead (but you're not) when you forget to take some pills and a fake body looking and feeling exactly as a human body? Yeah, sure...
A short film 96 Ways To Say I love You produced by Georgia Tennant has been released (interestingly, she seems to use her married name only when she's producing). Definitely worth watching, it's accurate, funny and it's a pleasure for eyes. David plays there, too, and I had no problems to believe his character and Nina Sosanya's were married. I know they have played a couple before many years ago, but I'm still amazed how actors can pull something like that off, in minutes. Speaking about actors from Doctor Who - Georgia and Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) on screen, together. It was nice to see them playing other characters, they seem very talented. And they're both so beautiful.
I just love when he smiles.
To be maybe more serious now; I've been also to the cinema and watched The Danish Girl. What a beautifully filmed movie, almost every shot is a piece of art there. I have to admit, at the beginning, I was thinking "is aestethics the only reason the action was set in 1920s (I know Lili was a real person but everything is changable), since everyone seem to be so 21th century, open and acceptive?" But I was proved wrong - it was fascinating to see how being a transgender person in a world when there was no precedence of that, led Lili to identity crisis and the doctors to many wrong diagnosis, even schizophrenia. It's hard enough now so I can only try to imagine what Lili must have been through.
Having said that, I know I'm talking about last year's Oscar winner and this year's Oscar nominee but I wasn't convinced by Eddie Redmayne's portrayal. His Einar and Lily seemed to be two different people, and it was very hard for me to see Lily as a full character, she was just a set of two or three poses and two face expressions: a huge smile (I thought she looked like she's been told to smile by Kilgrave) and a shy, looking-at-the-floor, face. The fact that she wasn't saying much to other people but Gerda didn't help as well. To be honest, I think Alicia Vikander playing Einar's wife deserved a nomination much more than Redmayne.