the fun kind of history lessons
So, obviously, I'm home tonight studiously avoiding the Twilight hysteria currently overtaking Leicester Square (watching the media shit storm only just hitting this side of the pond is highly amusing, naturally) and wondering who paid off Empire for their kinda scarily nice coverage (four stars?! in which alternate universe was that ever likely to happen..). But then, considering I've only ever braved Leicester Square for festivals and the Serenity premiere, not so surprising I'm home alone watching tv.
Except when it means i get to watch The Devil's Whore, then I can totally claim it's educational, obviously :o)
It's a tough sell on the title, of course... sounds a tad dodgy, but it's actually an English Civil War drama. Plus being a fabulous bodice-ripper in disguise, of course. And, yet, it's never that simple. It keeps reminding me of Firethorn and A Heroine of the World, which isn't exactly what you normally get from costume drama.
Gawd knows Our Heroine Angelica gets through husbands like they're going out of fashion, but it's just so damn addictive. Considering Angelica also hallucinates the devil at really inappropriate moments, and accidentally killed a guy for pigeon pie (ok, it wasn't exactly for the pie), Andrea Risebrough also looks eerily like a Rembrandt brought to life as she variously runs around Charles I's court in fabulous dresses, then does the whole rags/riches/rags shuffle. Considering I know precisely nothing about the historical context (damn the History A level teachers who decided I had to do British 19th C politics rather than the civil war class. Thanks a bunch guys), I don't have a clue how historically accurate it all is, plus I don't really care all that much.
It's shot like a dream; all glowing light and vivid colours (all the better to frame Angelica's face usually) with a fabulous cast, and they really specialise in heart-rending executions-- but I really didn't expect to find myself obsessing over John Simm's grouchy mercenary Sexby. He's really, really good at killing people, and from the moment he runs into Angelica on her first wedding day, absolutely besotted. Luckily for him (cue some freaky, half-dead on battlefield hallucinations), and really lucky for Angelica, as he then proceeds to save her life about a billion times. The guy is really very good at violence, after all, plus he has a wicked cool scar right across one eye... Not really Ange's type unfortunately, as she prefers her blokes ridiculously pretty (hellooo, Michael Fassbender! Shame about the silly wig, but hey)
The point being that I could kinda watch John Simm and Andrea Riseborough bitch at each other for hours (and be Robin Hood-stylee highwaymen together... that was cool). And there's a pretty good chance it's spiking my interest so much because he kinda sorta reminds me of a character I've been trying to write for donkey's years... As this is the character that came in and stomped all over my plot way back when, I'm sucked in to the point where I was yelling at the tv tonight (and wanting to bitch slap Angelica for walking into quite so many lifethreatening situations) and just totally hooked on how far he would go to protect someone who only barely deserved it. Hacking off Ebil Lord Nemesis's daughter's hair to stop the court case was brilliant.. hanging the hangman (and then letting Angelica hang half to death before some timely mouth to mouth) was truly classic. Of course Sexby would know CPR, he's just that kinda dude. And considering she was kinda the reason he ended up arresting Charles last episode, gawd only knows what he'll do next week. What with Angelica's acting like a hippy-dippy idiot with the dude that's actually working for Ebil Lord Nemesis and the whole marriage of convenience to Sexby so.. she could go dig fields at her own house? I think?
Also highly entertaining tonight: Boris Johnson being grilled by the London Assembly over the Damien Green case. Gotta love the dude sitting there swinging on his chair, really not taking the situation very seriously... there's just something so alternately cool and slightly worrying about having a mayor that behaves like a hyperactive schoolboy...
Also, my DVD of Persuasion has gone missing..! I sat through half an hour of the godawful ITV version on Monday, and really really needed something to take the nasty taste away, dammit (why oh why would anyone move Anne's big finale speech TO THE MIDDLE?! And buying Kellynch at the end?! and the frickin' inaugural Bath marathon at the end *shudder*. Now i really need the calming effect of Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds strolling off into the wake of the circus like grown-ups... The ITV version IS the circus!
Except when it means i get to watch The Devil's Whore, then I can totally claim it's educational, obviously :o)
It's a tough sell on the title, of course... sounds a tad dodgy, but it's actually an English Civil War drama. Plus being a fabulous bodice-ripper in disguise, of course. And, yet, it's never that simple. It keeps reminding me of Firethorn and A Heroine of the World, which isn't exactly what you normally get from costume drama.
Gawd knows Our Heroine Angelica gets through husbands like they're going out of fashion, but it's just so damn addictive. Considering Angelica also hallucinates the devil at really inappropriate moments, and accidentally killed a guy for pigeon pie (ok, it wasn't exactly for the pie), Andrea Risebrough also looks eerily like a Rembrandt brought to life as she variously runs around Charles I's court in fabulous dresses, then does the whole rags/riches/rags shuffle. Considering I know precisely nothing about the historical context (damn the History A level teachers who decided I had to do British 19th C politics rather than the civil war class. Thanks a bunch guys), I don't have a clue how historically accurate it all is, plus I don't really care all that much.
It's shot like a dream; all glowing light and vivid colours (all the better to frame Angelica's face usually) with a fabulous cast, and they really specialise in heart-rending executions-- but I really didn't expect to find myself obsessing over John Simm's grouchy mercenary Sexby. He's really, really good at killing people, and from the moment he runs into Angelica on her first wedding day, absolutely besotted. Luckily for him (cue some freaky, half-dead on battlefield hallucinations), and really lucky for Angelica, as he then proceeds to save her life about a billion times. The guy is really very good at violence, after all, plus he has a wicked cool scar right across one eye... Not really Ange's type unfortunately, as she prefers her blokes ridiculously pretty (hellooo, Michael Fassbender! Shame about the silly wig, but hey)
The point being that I could kinda watch John Simm and Andrea Riseborough bitch at each other for hours (and be Robin Hood-stylee highwaymen together... that was cool). And there's a pretty good chance it's spiking my interest so much because he kinda sorta reminds me of a character I've been trying to write for donkey's years... As this is the character that came in and stomped all over my plot way back when, I'm sucked in to the point where I was yelling at the tv tonight (and wanting to bitch slap Angelica for walking into quite so many lifethreatening situations) and just totally hooked on how far he would go to protect someone who only barely deserved it. Hacking off Ebil Lord Nemesis's daughter's hair to stop the court case was brilliant.. hanging the hangman (and then letting Angelica hang half to death before some timely mouth to mouth) was truly classic. Of course Sexby would know CPR, he's just that kinda dude. And considering she was kinda the reason he ended up arresting Charles last episode, gawd only knows what he'll do next week. What with Angelica's acting like a hippy-dippy idiot with the dude that's actually working for Ebil Lord Nemesis and the whole marriage of convenience to Sexby so.. she could go dig fields at her own house? I think?
Also highly entertaining tonight: Boris Johnson being grilled by the London Assembly over the Damien Green case. Gotta love the dude sitting there swinging on his chair, really not taking the situation very seriously... there's just something so alternately cool and slightly worrying about having a mayor that behaves like a hyperactive schoolboy...
Also, my DVD of Persuasion has gone missing..! I sat through half an hour of the godawful ITV version on Monday, and really really needed something to take the nasty taste away, dammit (why oh why would anyone move Anne's big finale speech TO THE MIDDLE?! And buying Kellynch at the end?! and the frickin' inaugural Bath marathon at the end *shudder*. Now i really need the calming effect of Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds strolling off into the wake of the circus like grown-ups... The ITV version IS the circus!