Give Gareth David-Lloyd a decent job or I'll set angry Ianto on you with his hockey stick
I like Gareth David-Lloyd. I don’t just like him because he has a pretty face and I don’t just like him because he played my favouritist be-suited BAMFy boy. No, I like him because I think he's a good actor who I enjoy seeing on screen.
He has his moments of over-egging things but usually I find him natural and eminently watchable. Often he is veritable master-class in reacting over acting which is what makes him such a great character actor and adds to my enjoyment watching him. And I have a partic soft spot for the way he changes between tone and emotion as a scene evolves.
With this point of view it’s disappointing that he gets so little acting work. And because he doesn't, I understand that he will take what he can get.
But holy fuck and damming all that is natural, what was the piece of shit he was in today?
I had high hopes. Web shorts can be very good. And a series of them too. Yey!
But this was appalling. Gareth amused and disturbed in equal measure and - with the exception for me of the first minute maybe,- was his usual competent self and I really enjoyed his performance. But his co star? I hate being mean, but there was more life in Paul’s phone-hand. I can only assume she was maybe a friend of the makers rather than an actress. She hit her cues alright, but it was just too obvious that that was what she was doing.
I did like the direction; the composition and the angles, and there were some neat shots. But the editing sucked, the sound quality was abysmal and they couldn't get their lighting right. And I get what they were doing with the camera work, but didn’t quite pull it off. When the girlfriend was around the camera was static on a tripod as she gave him stability, and the camera was mobile when Paul was alone or talking to Peter to give a sense of instability. But it just looked like the camera guy had the shakes sadly.
And it’s so disappointing. I actually really liked the mad, twisted little story and would happily watch something much longer based on the premise. The shared arm as phone thing? Kinda cool in my head. But when there is so much good web content but there, to see something of this quality anywhere but on YouTube is unnecessary. You don't even need expensive equipment to produce film better than this anymore. I was planning to watch the series now that I had heard about them, but if the next one is the same quality, not a chance.
But, I’m going to link to it anyway. Watch for the story and watch for Gareth being a bit mad. Watch for the way Gareth swings between moods at the intervention of another person. And there is the slimmest of slim hopes that if people watch with any sort of numbers, someone somewhere will remember that Gareth is a watchable actor who can draw an audience and cast him in something that's actually enjoyable to watch.
Please?