telly
Wolf Hall
1.4 The Devil’s Spit
I got shot down the other day for adding caveats and qualifications about this show’s excellence, which I’m still annoyed about, apparently. I did think this episode was better than the third in the series, and I’m fairly sure I was dropping off on Wednesday because I was so tired, not because of the content. However, I tend to feel that the Cromwell and More tussle of wills almost took over the whole episode, and certainly the use of flashbacks is not excellent, actually.
But Mark Rylance and the acting generally is - Lady Rochfort (I still don’t fully understand her position in Anne Boleyn’s family) is played by that pretty girl who plays/played Nice Nurse Jenny on Call the Midwife, which I don’t really watch. But her willingness to go ugly out of expressiveness impressed.
The mystery of Cromwell’s feelings intensified - who was he asking dead Liz to let him love in his fever? Although sister in law Joan overheard, I don’t think it was her, and I think that canon supports him seeing Jane Seymour as potentially useful, beyond being deserving of pity because of her family/position. It can’t be Anne - he sees her too clearly.
Obviously, not the biggest concern as Henry reminded him of his vulnerability, and any glee he was feeling at being the serving boy now in a position of power (over nobles!!) was tempered.
Some great faces were cast.
I feel I should say more, but I really was battling with sleep in one scene.
The Good Wife
6.3
I think there was a bit of ‘oh, Kalinda, what have you done?’ going on from me, although what she had done made sense and fed into worrying about Bishop last week. I understand why she was focused on this case and Cary, but I’d very much like to see how she fits into the new set-up more broadly soon. How do she and Alicia work together now? And Cary for that matter!? How will Diane feel about sharing? Will she step on Robin’s toes? How much vulnerability will there be?
While I appreciate what they’re doing with Cary, and as he was only able to advise, and thus became an observer, I did some eye-rolling over how slow Alicia was to adapt (Taye Diggs’s character is comparatively ‘meh’) because arbitration wouldn’t be court in any case. And this one certainly wasn’t. I liked that justice got done and that it was made clear that lawyerly games are something separate.
The will to win we saw there should come into play with Alicia’s run for Peter’s old job. Gloria Steinem (at least I’d heard of her, unlike last week’s White House lady) managed to deflect Alicia’s annoyance with Peter, and I loved fantasy!Gloria Steinem and Alicia’s response. She may have started getting Alicia to think about running, but it was, as they’ve been building up, Castro that did it. Although the tagline is Good Woman versus Bad Man (or inept player, because you baited her into it, you fool, and Margulies was AMAZING at conveying Alicia’s fury when Castro raised up Will’s death) I think we all know it’s way more complicated than that.
Cary and his probation officer was another neat development. I loved her characterisation, how different she was in her office to court (there was an impairment/illness involved, right?). I loved how our lawyers were all guilty of smirking, and definitely lying and lying and lying some more through their teeth - neat use of flashbacks to answer some audience questions about how they’re getting on too. And then the report cut through most of that - and gave Cary a reprieve.
Involving, thought-provoking and tantalising stuff. (As ever.)
I am so behind on telly, but one show I’m not picking up on is The Casual Vacancy, because I read the book and was sufficiently depressed by it not to want to go through the same thing again or a slightly adapted version that the Beeb is touting as ‘original’.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/155833.html.
1.4 The Devil’s Spit
I got shot down the other day for adding caveats and qualifications about this show’s excellence, which I’m still annoyed about, apparently. I did think this episode was better than the third in the series, and I’m fairly sure I was dropping off on Wednesday because I was so tired, not because of the content. However, I tend to feel that the Cromwell and More tussle of wills almost took over the whole episode, and certainly the use of flashbacks is not excellent, actually.
But Mark Rylance and the acting generally is - Lady Rochfort (I still don’t fully understand her position in Anne Boleyn’s family) is played by that pretty girl who plays/played Nice Nurse Jenny on Call the Midwife, which I don’t really watch. But her willingness to go ugly out of expressiveness impressed.
The mystery of Cromwell’s feelings intensified - who was he asking dead Liz to let him love in his fever? Although sister in law Joan overheard, I don’t think it was her, and I think that canon supports him seeing Jane Seymour as potentially useful, beyond being deserving of pity because of her family/position. It can’t be Anne - he sees her too clearly.
Obviously, not the biggest concern as Henry reminded him of his vulnerability, and any glee he was feeling at being the serving boy now in a position of power (over nobles!!) was tempered.
Some great faces were cast.
I feel I should say more, but I really was battling with sleep in one scene.
The Good Wife
6.3
I think there was a bit of ‘oh, Kalinda, what have you done?’ going on from me, although what she had done made sense and fed into worrying about Bishop last week. I understand why she was focused on this case and Cary, but I’d very much like to see how she fits into the new set-up more broadly soon. How do she and Alicia work together now? And Cary for that matter!? How will Diane feel about sharing? Will she step on Robin’s toes? How much vulnerability will there be?
While I appreciate what they’re doing with Cary, and as he was only able to advise, and thus became an observer, I did some eye-rolling over how slow Alicia was to adapt (Taye Diggs’s character is comparatively ‘meh’) because arbitration wouldn’t be court in any case. And this one certainly wasn’t. I liked that justice got done and that it was made clear that lawyerly games are something separate.
The will to win we saw there should come into play with Alicia’s run for Peter’s old job. Gloria Steinem (at least I’d heard of her, unlike last week’s White House lady) managed to deflect Alicia’s annoyance with Peter, and I loved fantasy!Gloria Steinem and Alicia’s response. She may have started getting Alicia to think about running, but it was, as they’ve been building up, Castro that did it. Although the tagline is Good Woman versus Bad Man (or inept player, because you baited her into it, you fool, and Margulies was AMAZING at conveying Alicia’s fury when Castro raised up Will’s death) I think we all know it’s way more complicated than that.
Cary and his probation officer was another neat development. I loved her characterisation, how different she was in her office to court (there was an impairment/illness involved, right?). I loved how our lawyers were all guilty of smirking, and definitely lying and lying and lying some more through their teeth - neat use of flashbacks to answer some audience questions about how they’re getting on too. And then the report cut through most of that - and gave Cary a reprieve.
Involving, thought-provoking and tantalising stuff. (As ever.)
I am so behind on telly, but one show I’m not picking up on is The Casual Vacancy, because I read the book and was sufficiently depressed by it not to want to go through the same thing again or a slightly adapted version that the Beeb is touting as ‘original’.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/155833.html.