Grown-up TV
Real life problems have completely upended my plans for the weekend, like catching up on TV shows, but I’m snatching some downtime to post this now.
Wolf Hall - 1.6 Masters of Phantoms
This episode was all about Cromwell’s close-up view of Anne Boleyn’s death and the preparations to make it possible and thus, inevitable flashback to the masque aside, riveting. For Anne had been guilty of...not reading the signs or wilfully ignoring them, at least. Of going a little too far and assuming her power was secure. She hadn’t realised she’d created Cromwell and he’d created ‘Queen Anne’ and King Henry was tired of her, and he was, after all, the boss. And he wanted a son.
Plus, hello, the way he’d treated his first wife. However much you’d annulled the marriage in your head, parliament and wherever, he cast her off for you.
The dream sequence of Anne’s body, laid out on the table to be killed, was chilling, followed as it was by the reality of a domestic meal. The image had a resonance of other cultures, other events. And Cromwell ate on. (Give Rylance all the awards, and also Foy based on this episode. And Lewis. The style of this adaptation has demanded a lot, because it is heightened. There are scenes that are as much pageant as anything, with the camera lingering on faces for us to watch these characters react or think or plot.)
Of course, throughout all this is our and Cromwell's knowledge that he could be next. The king who embraces him so heartily is doing so because Cromwell 'got rid' of a woman Henry once embraced even more enthusiastically.
The juxtaposition of the execution and Cromwell’s earlier visit worked well. Having his son there and all the complexity of Cromwell’s feelings reminded me that the past is another country, in many ways, for all the empathy induced , Cromwell was probably behind the king’s ‘mercy’ - the less painful death by execution compared with burning, which we know was meted out to others. But everything about that execution scene, from Anne’s shuddering to the women demanding they take care of the two component parts of the body, was horrifying and wrenching.
And we had the echo of the previous visits to More in the Tower.
I’m looking forward to the next series. While not as faultless as its most ardent fans claim (I have a right to watch it wrong in my haven’t read the books/ignorant way!) there’s been much that’s excellent about it. It has been gripping and complex and a sharp corrective to lazy, superficial thinking about ‘Ye Olde Tudor Times’.
The Good Wife 6.5 Shiny Objects
Crammed episode, but I think there were some things maybe could have worked better, and I’m really wondering about the future ramifications’ of a a couple of decisions, for the direction of the show more than for the character, first and foremost.
I had forgotten Tascioni (and whatshername, her partner) would be turning up, so I was very excited to see here. Although it became more of a plot point later, I wasn’t entirely convinced about the need for a visual representation of Tascioni’s mental landscape. After all, we’ve seen her at it for quite a few years now (why can’t Carrie Preston be the lead actress in some amazing show of her own?) Plus, I don’t think visual style is one of The Good Wife’s strengths, and that’s fine, it gets the job done, and it’s more about content, which, if I had to choose, I’d prefer. But by hoiking in clowns, I couln$’nt help but think of Ashes to Ashes, which was visual poetry.
Elsbeth was beating our guys WITH LAW. I loved that. All Alicia had was her knowledge of what would distract Tascioni, not an argument to stand on. Of course, it was made clear from the throwing phones at assistants (!) that their client probably deserved the sack. Although I liked that it was obvious that sexsm was part of the mix.
And THEN Kyle Maclachlan turned up, doing a slightly more charming turn than he does in AoS, although I’m not rooting for his character as Tascioni unless if Elspeth decides she wants to go for it. However, I am chuffed the two firms are going to work together against him, because Tascioni = delight for me.
Alicia had plenty of other stuff to be worrying about than the case (oh, but before I finish, Taye Diggs’s character is basically filler. He asks new to the set-up questions, which the viewer could answer along with Alicia, and every now and then makes a point about racism. That’s the extent of it.)
I think we saw the birth of Alicia the Politician during her fight with Peter, when she brought up the ratings. I love that they both score points during their quarrels. I would imagine that Eli told Elfman at some point that Alicia and Peter’s relationship is ‘complicated’.
I saw more heat in her scene with Finn than I’ve ever seen between them before. But part of her rationale for asking him to endorse her was to do with Will’s death.
Ugh, Cary and Kalinda. I SAID it was going to be a car crash. Once again, we saw a really emotionally vulnerable Kalinda. There’s been a moment like that in every episode this season. And then there was her total failure in assuming FBI lady had brought in Kyle Maclachlan’s character (I’d assumed it was Alicia). Just because you would, Kalinda...
The ransomware stuff didn’t quite work in and of itself - I assume it’s ripped from the headlines, but even the ‘helpline’? It felt pantomime-y to be yelling ‘Don’t press that!’ at Diane. I was amused that Alicia isn’t talking to her usual IT specialist, Zach, and it would have made more sense to me if Kalinda had called in an IT expert instead of FBI lady and had hacking skills now. (Also, where was Robin?)
But it led to Diane going to see David Lee. I loved the turn where basically Diane, like Alicia with Peter, said ‘final offer, take it or leave it’ in their various negotiations with the men.
I know this episode built up how the building wasn’t working for Diane. (The continuity announcer ‘warned’ for cockroaches at the start of this episode. Ha, ha, very funny, except it appeared forty minutes in and so was a spoiler, because I was waiting for it to appear throughout.) I don’t know how I feel about them returning to the old set, however interesting the question of who gets which office may be. Fine, stick it to Canning and Lee - it was pointed for Diane to hear her surname bandied about in the name of a firm she has nothing to do with. But you could have done that in a courtroom. Overall, it feels like a retrograde step.
But then, if Alicia does get State’s Attorney, that’s going to have interesting ramifications for the show. Certainly the firm is going to become less important to her. I’d also like to see Alicia-Diane-Cary working together on a case sooner rather than later.
Other Cary’s Russian simultaneous translation of computer jargon was - I was going to say ‘impressive’ but I’ll go for the more honest ‘unrealistic’. But by all means, blackmail a blackmailer. However I hope that the next thing the firm does is to get an IT security expert and back-up!
All those quibbles sound really critical, but I was mostly enjoying watching it play out.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/157873.html.
Wolf Hall - 1.6 Masters of Phantoms
This episode was all about Cromwell’s close-up view of Anne Boleyn’s death and the preparations to make it possible and thus, inevitable flashback to the masque aside, riveting. For Anne had been guilty of...not reading the signs or wilfully ignoring them, at least. Of going a little too far and assuming her power was secure. She hadn’t realised she’d created Cromwell and he’d created ‘Queen Anne’ and King Henry was tired of her, and he was, after all, the boss. And he wanted a son.
Plus, hello, the way he’d treated his first wife. However much you’d annulled the marriage in your head, parliament and wherever, he cast her off for you.
The dream sequence of Anne’s body, laid out on the table to be killed, was chilling, followed as it was by the reality of a domestic meal. The image had a resonance of other cultures, other events. And Cromwell ate on. (Give Rylance all the awards, and also Foy based on this episode. And Lewis. The style of this adaptation has demanded a lot, because it is heightened. There are scenes that are as much pageant as anything, with the camera lingering on faces for us to watch these characters react or think or plot.)
Of course, throughout all this is our and Cromwell's knowledge that he could be next. The king who embraces him so heartily is doing so because Cromwell 'got rid' of a woman Henry once embraced even more enthusiastically.
The juxtaposition of the execution and Cromwell’s earlier visit worked well. Having his son there and all the complexity of Cromwell’s feelings reminded me that the past is another country, in many ways, for all the empathy induced , Cromwell was probably behind the king’s ‘mercy’ - the less painful death by execution compared with burning, which we know was meted out to others. But everything about that execution scene, from Anne’s shuddering to the women demanding they take care of the two component parts of the body, was horrifying and wrenching.
And we had the echo of the previous visits to More in the Tower.
I’m looking forward to the next series. While not as faultless as its most ardent fans claim (I have a right to watch it wrong in my haven’t read the books/ignorant way!) there’s been much that’s excellent about it. It has been gripping and complex and a sharp corrective to lazy, superficial thinking about ‘Ye Olde Tudor Times’.
The Good Wife 6.5 Shiny Objects
Crammed episode, but I think there were some things maybe could have worked better, and I’m really wondering about the future ramifications’ of a a couple of decisions, for the direction of the show more than for the character, first and foremost.
I had forgotten Tascioni (and whatshername, her partner) would be turning up, so I was very excited to see here. Although it became more of a plot point later, I wasn’t entirely convinced about the need for a visual representation of Tascioni’s mental landscape. After all, we’ve seen her at it for quite a few years now (why can’t Carrie Preston be the lead actress in some amazing show of her own?) Plus, I don’t think visual style is one of The Good Wife’s strengths, and that’s fine, it gets the job done, and it’s more about content, which, if I had to choose, I’d prefer. But by hoiking in clowns, I couln$’nt help but think of Ashes to Ashes, which was visual poetry.
Elsbeth was beating our guys WITH LAW. I loved that. All Alicia had was her knowledge of what would distract Tascioni, not an argument to stand on. Of course, it was made clear from the throwing phones at assistants (!) that their client probably deserved the sack. Although I liked that it was obvious that sexsm was part of the mix.
And THEN Kyle Maclachlan turned up, doing a slightly more charming turn than he does in AoS, although I’m not rooting for his character as Tascioni unless if Elspeth decides she wants to go for it. However, I am chuffed the two firms are going to work together against him, because Tascioni = delight for me.
Alicia had plenty of other stuff to be worrying about than the case (oh, but before I finish, Taye Diggs’s character is basically filler. He asks new to the set-up questions, which the viewer could answer along with Alicia, and every now and then makes a point about racism. That’s the extent of it.)
I think we saw the birth of Alicia the Politician during her fight with Peter, when she brought up the ratings. I love that they both score points during their quarrels. I would imagine that Eli told Elfman at some point that Alicia and Peter’s relationship is ‘complicated’.
I saw more heat in her scene with Finn than I’ve ever seen between them before. But part of her rationale for asking him to endorse her was to do with Will’s death.
Ugh, Cary and Kalinda. I SAID it was going to be a car crash. Once again, we saw a really emotionally vulnerable Kalinda. There’s been a moment like that in every episode this season. And then there was her total failure in assuming FBI lady had brought in Kyle Maclachlan’s character (I’d assumed it was Alicia). Just because you would, Kalinda...
The ransomware stuff didn’t quite work in and of itself - I assume it’s ripped from the headlines, but even the ‘helpline’? It felt pantomime-y to be yelling ‘Don’t press that!’ at Diane. I was amused that Alicia isn’t talking to her usual IT specialist, Zach, and it would have made more sense to me if Kalinda had called in an IT expert instead of FBI lady and had hacking skills now. (Also, where was Robin?)
But it led to Diane going to see David Lee. I loved the turn where basically Diane, like Alicia with Peter, said ‘final offer, take it or leave it’ in their various negotiations with the men.
I know this episode built up how the building wasn’t working for Diane. (The continuity announcer ‘warned’ for cockroaches at the start of this episode. Ha, ha, very funny, except it appeared forty minutes in and so was a spoiler, because I was waiting for it to appear throughout.) I don’t know how I feel about them returning to the old set, however interesting the question of who gets which office may be. Fine, stick it to Canning and Lee - it was pointed for Diane to hear her surname bandied about in the name of a firm she has nothing to do with. But you could have done that in a courtroom. Overall, it feels like a retrograde step.
But then, if Alicia does get State’s Attorney, that’s going to have interesting ramifications for the show. Certainly the firm is going to become less important to her. I’d also like to see Alicia-Diane-Cary working together on a case sooner rather than later.
Other Cary’s Russian simultaneous translation of computer jargon was - I was going to say ‘impressive’ but I’ll go for the more honest ‘unrealistic’. But by all means, blackmail a blackmailer. However I hope that the next thing the firm does is to get an IT security expert and back-up!
All those quibbles sound really critical, but I was mostly enjoying watching it play out.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/157873.html.