Holiday TVS rant
Dec. 27th, 2010 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
awanderingbardIt's been a nice Christmas season on TVO for costume drama lovers like my mum and I. On Christmas eve, they showed Persuasion (the newest one, the one that has Rupert Penry-Jones and is shot pretty much entirely up Sally Hawkins' nose), followed by The Old Curiosity Shop (I missed most of it due to struggling with my sweet potato recipe for Christmas dinner), followed by Oliver Twist. Mum and I watched the first part of Oliver, but the second came right after and was on until 2:00AM, so we dvr'd it and watched it on Christmas night. It was wonderful! It had Timothy Spall as Fagan, Sophie Okenado as Nancy and Tom Hardy as Bill Sykes. Tom Hardy blew me away. I've never seen him in anything before, but he was wonderful in a very thankless role. He was the perfect handsome asshole and though you never sympathized with him, he managed to play it so that he was a human and not just a moustache-twirling villain. I was very impressed
Last night was a documentary on the history of costume dramas on TVO, followed by the new Doctor Who Christmas Special on Space, which I loved mightily. It says something that my favourite Eleven stories are the ones that feature Amy the least. I really think Matt Smith came into his own as the Doctor in last series' finale and I'm starting to like him a lot. He's got his timing down really well and I like his absent-minded, all-over-the-place-and-back-again energy. The story was bittersweet, in fine Who tradition, and probably the Christmassy-ist Christmas special we've had. I thought the special effects were way better than I've seen before, too.
Tonight on TVO they started the Little Dorrit marathon, which is continuing for most of the week. We'd seen it on PBS when they showed it, but missed the first episode and were kind of lost throughout it, so we thought we'd watch it from the beginning this time. However, during the second episode we discovered that PBS had cut out huge chunks of the story, which explains why it never made sense to us.
So, with The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, a Whovian take on A Christmas Carol and Little Dorrit, it's been, appropriately, a very Dickens Christmas.
Last night was a documentary on the history of costume dramas on TVO, followed by the new Doctor Who Christmas Special on Space, which I loved mightily. It says something that my favourite Eleven stories are the ones that feature Amy the least. I really think Matt Smith came into his own as the Doctor in last series' finale and I'm starting to like him a lot. He's got his timing down really well and I like his absent-minded, all-over-the-place-and-back-again energy. The story was bittersweet, in fine Who tradition, and probably the Christmassy-ist Christmas special we've had. I thought the special effects were way better than I've seen before, too.
Tonight on TVO they started the Little Dorrit marathon, which is continuing for most of the week. We'd seen it on PBS when they showed it, but missed the first episode and were kind of lost throughout it, so we thought we'd watch it from the beginning this time. However, during the second episode we discovered that PBS had cut out huge chunks of the story, which explains why it never made sense to us.
So, with The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, a Whovian take on A Christmas Carol and Little Dorrit, it's been, appropriately, a very Dickens Christmas.
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Date: 2010-12-28 12:42 pm (UTC)I have that version of Wuthering Heights on my Ziplist, though who knows when it will arrived. They've been steadfastly refusing to send me North & South for months and I want my Richard Armitage fix, damnit!
I just tried to read Wuthering Heights a couple of weeks ago. I've read Jane Eyre and really loved it, so I thought I'd give WH a try as well. But after I finally figured out the 'story told to me as told by somebody as told to them by somebody' narration, I just kept going 'these people are crazy. This is not romantic. This is disturbing. These people are mentally ill.' and decided to give it up. It reminded me of Twilight in that way. Really disturbing relationships that people seem to think are epically romantic.
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Date: 2010-12-28 04:37 pm (UTC)I have to say, Scenes of a Sexual Nature stars everyone and their mother and it really never goes anywhere. But it's always fun to play spot the familiar actor.
This is not romantic. This is disturbing. These people are mentally ill.' and decided to give it up. It reminded me of Twilight in that way. Really disturbing relationships that people seem to think are epically romantic.
YES. Oh my god, yes. The first time I read WH, I was disturbed that this was considered an epic romance when it just felt uber creepy and obsessive. Can't really say the WH with Hardy changed my mind, but good acting all around, I thought. Plus, it had Burn Gorman and I always grin at seeing Owen again.
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Date: 2010-12-29 02:15 pm (UTC)With WH, I get why maybe when it was first released, in a time where you were more refined and repressed and didn't show your emotions, these people who were passionate and emotional and madly in love would be considered romantic. In modern times, though, it's not romantic that they have to watch Cathy to make sure she won't jump out of a window when Heathcliff leaves. It's just disturbing.