META: "Beating Up the Wrong Guy" - Why ABC's Gene Hunt Doesn't Live Up to Standards
Okay, so if you're one of my fannish girls (or boys? Do I have any menfolk around?), you're probably aware of the massive amounts of love I have for the original British Life on Mars, starring John Simm and Philip Glenister. I haven't written too much fic, but I adore the show, and I love introducing it to new fans - and if you haven't seen it GO NETFLIX IT.
And I knew what I'd be in for if I watched the premiere tonight of the American remake, starring Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel. I'd scream and rant and throw things at my television, and I ended up doing all three (luckily, it was just a stuffed badger fireflyinajar gave me).
But honestly, I won't be watching. It's like watching the Boise dinner theatre production of Henry VIII, with the way they've painstakingly reproduced everything the British version did with none of the heart. Not only did they crib dialogue WORD FOR WORD from the original, but they reproduced half the signature shots, too (watch the Bowie scene, it's like looking at a Van Gogh through the wrong end of a telescope). I can deal with the fact that most of the time, O'Mara can't act his way out of a paper bag (the opening and the confrontation with Willy Kramer excepting). I can deal with renaming Annie ("This is America! We don't need all those letters!" - carla_scribbles), the complete elimination of Phyllis, and making Nelson into a wise guy from Poughkeepsie.
I can't deal with the complete and utter FAIL that is Keitel's Gene Hunt.
In the original, Gene Hunt, as played by Philip Glenister, is the Guv, the Detective Chief Inspector of Manchester. He's the king of the jungle, and you are in his fuckin' jungle, sweetheart. Yeah, Gene cracks skulls and kicks in nonces, and acts the sheriff, but he's got this inexplicable charm to him. You cheer for him, you pee yourself at his signature Gene-isms ("I'm not a religious man, Mr. Warren, but isn't there something in the Bible that says 'thou shalt not suck off rent boys'?"), and you love him despite the racism, sexism, and every other -ism he favors.
Keitel's Hunt, in contrast, is nothing but a thug. He shows none of the charm or the wit that made you at least pay attention to Glenister's Hunt. He bellows and threatens and punches his way into results, and yes, that's a big aspect of the character. The only problem is, he doesn't have the physical presence to pull it off.
Glenister, as you can see here, is broader and taller than John Simm. He will throw his weight around, literally, and that's part of what makes him so dangerous. He's a freight train (which makes 2.08 so fun to ponder in a meta context), and he's not afraid to kick Sam around, in the literal sense. Gene's physicality was always a factor when you watched the character - it made the scenes where Sam stood up to him, pushed back, all the more cheer-worthy.
But in the American version, there is NO. FREAKING. WAY. you can convince me that Harvey Keitel can kick around Jason O'Mara. Keitel is 5'8". O'Mara is 6'2". Seriously, check it out. I wish I had photo evidence of that scene from the pilot - "It's 1973. Almost dinner-time. I'm Gene Hunt, your Lieutenant."- because it just looked so unrealistic. And really, before you jump on me for disbelieving that a smaller guy could ever beat up a bigger guy, let me just say: I watch professional wrestling. Believe me, I'm familiar with the techniques a smaller man can use to beat a larger man. Keitel wasn't using them. He didn't convince me that he was a former boxer - like the original Gene was - nor did he convince me that he outmaneuvered Sam. He just looked like he gave him three gut-shots that a big guy like O'Mara could have blocked.
This adds a really strange dynamic to the show. In the original, Sam was the brains and the profiler, Gene was the brawn and the gut-instinct. Together, they made one entire brilliant policeman. Sam Tyler was a bored desk jockey, a slave to his job. Except for Colin Raimes, it didn't feel like Sam had any sort of passion for his job, and it made you wonder why he'd want to go back to 2008 if it weren't to save Maya (who is really one-dimensional in the British version, and I love what Lisa Bonet's done for the character in the remake - the only improvement, really). But as you watch the series, Simm makes you feel that it's not the job/Maya that Sam misses, it's his home, where he's comfortable and lived all his life.
In the new version, Sam's actually a great physical cop. He takes charge of his team, leading a raid into an apartment building for Colin Rames, and seems to leave the profiling to Maya. Then, when Raimes runs, O'Mara tackles him after a really believable chase, and you never doubt for a second that that's the reason Sam's around. To chase after the bad guys. It's what makes the tandem desk-leaping in the remake so stupid (and not nearly so poignant), because again, you don't buy Keitel as that physical a prescence, despite the copious punching. You never feel for a second in the ABC pilot that Sam and Gene are anywhere in the vicinity of the same page, and what should be a punch-the-air moment of awesome is just a cheesy 70's shot.
So, if new!Sam is the muscle and new!Gene is also the muscle, the only thing that really seperates them is experience. This Gene is still a veteran cop - and it seems like they're going to be playing that up a little more. New!Sam is never specifically referred to by rank, so I'm just guessing, but it doesn't seem that he was ever equal to Gene in rank in 2008. That dynamic was important in the original - Sam and Gene were equals, whether Gene knew/acknowledged it or not. Both were DCI's, and bumping Sam down to DI doesn't invalidate all of the experience he acquired. Simm!Tyler could have run that squad room just as well and/or better than Glenister!Hunt. O'Mara!Tyler doesn't seem to have the same experience as Keitel!Hunt.
Basically, it boils down to this: Glenister's Gene Hunt was a man you thought you knew, and who thought he knew himself until he met Sam Tyler. Keitel's Gene Hunt seems like a man you might know, but who doesn't know himself at all. I can't see the backstory for Gene that you got in the original working in the new version. I don't see this Gene taking backhanders, and if he did, I don't see him ever feeling badly about it, or being brave enough to bring Warren down. I don't see him relentlessly going after drug dealers because of a dead junkie brother - he seems like more the type to turn the blind eye as long as they're not killing people in his town. I don't see him as a vet - would have been Korea or WWII in this timeline - nor do I think he was ever a boxer. Obviously, those things can be changed. New conflicts can be inserted in place of them. But I don't think it'll have the same dramatic impact and resonance that the qualities possessed by the original Gene did.
And if I can be shallow for a moment? Keitel's Gene Hunt may be king, but he ain't got the threads to prove it, and he definitely can't match the original Gene-Genie for style.
And I knew what I'd be in for if I watched the premiere tonight of the American remake, starring Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel. I'd scream and rant and throw things at my television, and I ended up doing all three (luckily, it was just a stuffed badger fireflyinajar gave me).
But honestly, I won't be watching. It's like watching the Boise dinner theatre production of Henry VIII, with the way they've painstakingly reproduced everything the British version did with none of the heart. Not only did they crib dialogue WORD FOR WORD from the original, but they reproduced half the signature shots, too (watch the Bowie scene, it's like looking at a Van Gogh through the wrong end of a telescope). I can deal with the fact that most of the time, O'Mara can't act his way out of a paper bag (the opening and the confrontation with Willy Kramer excepting). I can deal with renaming Annie ("This is America! We don't need all those letters!" - carla_scribbles), the complete elimination of Phyllis, and making Nelson into a wise guy from Poughkeepsie.
I can't deal with the complete and utter FAIL that is Keitel's Gene Hunt.
In the original, Gene Hunt, as played by Philip Glenister, is the Guv, the Detective Chief Inspector of Manchester. He's the king of the jungle, and you are in his fuckin' jungle, sweetheart. Yeah, Gene cracks skulls and kicks in nonces, and acts the sheriff, but he's got this inexplicable charm to him. You cheer for him, you pee yourself at his signature Gene-isms ("I'm not a religious man, Mr. Warren, but isn't there something in the Bible that says 'thou shalt not suck off rent boys'?"), and you love him despite the racism, sexism, and every other -ism he favors.
Keitel's Hunt, in contrast, is nothing but a thug. He shows none of the charm or the wit that made you at least pay attention to Glenister's Hunt. He bellows and threatens and punches his way into results, and yes, that's a big aspect of the character. The only problem is, he doesn't have the physical presence to pull it off.
Glenister, as you can see here, is broader and taller than John Simm. He will throw his weight around, literally, and that's part of what makes him so dangerous. He's a freight train (which makes 2.08 so fun to ponder in a meta context), and he's not afraid to kick Sam around, in the literal sense. Gene's physicality was always a factor when you watched the character - it made the scenes where Sam stood up to him, pushed back, all the more cheer-worthy.
But in the American version, there is NO. FREAKING. WAY. you can convince me that Harvey Keitel can kick around Jason O'Mara. Keitel is 5'8". O'Mara is 6'2". Seriously, check it out. I wish I had photo evidence of that scene from the pilot - "It's 1973. Almost dinner-time. I'm Gene Hunt, your Lieutenant."- because it just looked so unrealistic. And really, before you jump on me for disbelieving that a smaller guy could ever beat up a bigger guy, let me just say: I watch professional wrestling. Believe me, I'm familiar with the techniques a smaller man can use to beat a larger man. Keitel wasn't using them. He didn't convince me that he was a former boxer - like the original Gene was - nor did he convince me that he outmaneuvered Sam. He just looked like he gave him three gut-shots that a big guy like O'Mara could have blocked.
This adds a really strange dynamic to the show. In the original, Sam was the brains and the profiler, Gene was the brawn and the gut-instinct. Together, they made one entire brilliant policeman. Sam Tyler was a bored desk jockey, a slave to his job. Except for Colin Raimes, it didn't feel like Sam had any sort of passion for his job, and it made you wonder why he'd want to go back to 2008 if it weren't to save Maya (who is really one-dimensional in the British version, and I love what Lisa Bonet's done for the character in the remake - the only improvement, really). But as you watch the series, Simm makes you feel that it's not the job/Maya that Sam misses, it's his home, where he's comfortable and lived all his life.
In the new version, Sam's actually a great physical cop. He takes charge of his team, leading a raid into an apartment building for Colin Rames, and seems to leave the profiling to Maya. Then, when Raimes runs, O'Mara tackles him after a really believable chase, and you never doubt for a second that that's the reason Sam's around. To chase after the bad guys. It's what makes the tandem desk-leaping in the remake so stupid (and not nearly so poignant), because again, you don't buy Keitel as that physical a prescence, despite the copious punching. You never feel for a second in the ABC pilot that Sam and Gene are anywhere in the vicinity of the same page, and what should be a punch-the-air moment of awesome is just a cheesy 70's shot.
So, if new!Sam is the muscle and new!Gene is also the muscle, the only thing that really seperates them is experience. This Gene is still a veteran cop - and it seems like they're going to be playing that up a little more. New!Sam is never specifically referred to by rank, so I'm just guessing, but it doesn't seem that he was ever equal to Gene in rank in 2008. That dynamic was important in the original - Sam and Gene were equals, whether Gene knew/acknowledged it or not. Both were DCI's, and bumping Sam down to DI doesn't invalidate all of the experience he acquired. Simm!Tyler could have run that squad room just as well and/or better than Glenister!Hunt. O'Mara!Tyler doesn't seem to have the same experience as Keitel!Hunt.
Basically, it boils down to this: Glenister's Gene Hunt was a man you thought you knew, and who thought he knew himself until he met Sam Tyler. Keitel's Gene Hunt seems like a man you might know, but who doesn't know himself at all. I can't see the backstory for Gene that you got in the original working in the new version. I don't see this Gene taking backhanders, and if he did, I don't see him ever feeling badly about it, or being brave enough to bring Warren down. I don't see him relentlessly going after drug dealers because of a dead junkie brother - he seems like more the type to turn the blind eye as long as they're not killing people in his town. I don't see him as a vet - would have been Korea or WWII in this timeline - nor do I think he was ever a boxer. Obviously, those things can be changed. New conflicts can be inserted in place of them. But I don't think it'll have the same dramatic impact and resonance that the qualities possessed by the original Gene did.
And if I can be shallow for a moment? Keitel's Gene Hunt may be king, but he ain't got the threads to prove it, and he definitely can't match the original Gene-Genie for style.