[quote=""Vanessa""]Thanks for that, SPB. I'll look forward to watching it.
Madeleine, do you know when the re-run of The Tudors is starting? We started watching it and then got out of the habit. I would like to watch it again from the beginning right to the end![/quote]
Starts this Monday (20th), two eps a night but unfortunately it's on quite late, around 11.30 so probably one to record!
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Starz announces "White Queen" adaptation (Phillipa Gregory)
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Vanessa
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 4334
- Joined: August 2008
- Currently reading: The Farm at the Edge of the World by Sarah Vaughan
- Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
- Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
- Preferred HF: Any
- Location: North Yorkshire, UK
Thanks, Madeleine. Yes, I will record. Do you know which channel?
Last edited by Vanessa on Fri May 17th, 2013, 9:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
currently reading: My Books on Goodreads
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
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Vanessa
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 4334
- Joined: August 2008
- Currently reading: The Farm at the Edge of the World by Sarah Vaughan
- Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
- Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
- Preferred HF: Any
- Location: North Yorkshire, UK
Thanks, Madeleine.
currently reading: My Books on Goodreads
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
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Madeleine
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- Currently reading: "Murder on the Moorland" by Helen Cox
- Preferred HF: Plantagenets, Victorian, crime, dual time-frame
- Location: Essex/London
Watched TWQ last night and quite enjoyed it - very floaty and pretty (and that's just the men) but entertaining enough. Some of the dialogue was a bit cringeworthy, and I thought the female lead was a bit wet, but Janet McTeer is great as Jacquetta - and Melusine was only mentioned once!
Currently reading "Murder on the Moorland" by Helen Cox
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Mythica
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[quote=""Madeleine""]Watched TWQ last night and quite enjoyed it - very floaty and pretty (and that's just the men) but entertaining enough. Some of the dialogue was a bit cringeworthy, and I thought the female lead was a bit wet, but Janet McTeer is great as Jacquetta - and Melusine was only mentioned once![/quote]
Yeah, I thought the dialogue was a little ridiculous in places... I felt like people were saying things they never realistically would have said out loud - like Cecily Neville saying she'd disown Edward. She basically just admitted to adultry to people she considered enemies. I'm not sure if that was PG's dialogue from the book or whether the show just felt like they had to do stuff like that to make certain things the viewer might not know about clear.
Yeah, I thought the dialogue was a little ridiculous in places... I felt like people were saying things they never realistically would have said out loud - like Cecily Neville saying she'd disown Edward. She basically just admitted to adultry to people she considered enemies. I'm not sure if that was PG's dialogue from the book or whether the show just felt like they had to do stuff like that to make certain things the viewer might not know about clear.
It looks like it has made it to YouTube, at least for now. I can't do YT at work, but will check the links I have when I get home and then post them here.
Edit: removed the link to the now removed YouTube video.
Edit: removed the link to the now removed YouTube video.
Last edited by Misfit on Thu June 20th, 2013, 11:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
...is the only place I want to be
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sweetpotatoboy
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- Location: London, UK
It was pleasant and watchable enough, wasn't it? I haven't read the PG books they're based on and am unlikely to, so I have no idea how faithful an adaptation it is.
I think the exposition was pretty good, though I'd have to know nothing about the characters and period to judge on that. But my hunch was that, if you didn't know, it did a decent job at introducing you quite subtly to who was who and the rough context.
I'm not sold on either of the lead actors. They both seemed pretty enough, but not stunning or charismatic enough to be convincing. Apart from it being mentioned in the dialogue, I wouldn't have guessed she was quite some years older than him.
The main issue was that, as at least one reviewer has mentioned, the makers of the drama didn't seem to have any view on what Elizabeth's motivations, at least, were. Was she genuinely an innocent falling in love by chance with a king and getting swept along with it all? Or was there at least an element of ambition and scheming, not just on her mother's part but on her own? A biography does't have to decide, but a drama does - or at least indicate that she knows, even if the audience doesn't find out yet.
Nor did I buy Edward falling in love with her. If it was just frustrated lust that led him to marry her, then they needed to convey a much stronger undeniable sexual impulse than we actually saw. If he actually fell for her beyond lust, then that wasn't convincingly portrayed either. And clearly it wasn't a sham marriage (in this version), as her brother Anthony suggests at one point; otherwise he wouldn't have needed to own up to it publicly.
And as hard as Rebecca Ferguson tried to sound English, there was just a hint of foreignness about her accent. I'm not sure I'd have guessed her Swedish background if I hadn't known, but something wasn't quite spot on.
Motivations etc aside, it was beautifully (albeit unrealistically cleanly) shot throughout.
The main appeal was the quality of the supporting cast. Four words will suffice:
Janet McTeer
James Frain
I think the exposition was pretty good, though I'd have to know nothing about the characters and period to judge on that. But my hunch was that, if you didn't know, it did a decent job at introducing you quite subtly to who was who and the rough context.
I'm not sold on either of the lead actors. They both seemed pretty enough, but not stunning or charismatic enough to be convincing. Apart from it being mentioned in the dialogue, I wouldn't have guessed she was quite some years older than him.
The main issue was that, as at least one reviewer has mentioned, the makers of the drama didn't seem to have any view on what Elizabeth's motivations, at least, were. Was she genuinely an innocent falling in love by chance with a king and getting swept along with it all? Or was there at least an element of ambition and scheming, not just on her mother's part but on her own? A biography does't have to decide, but a drama does - or at least indicate that she knows, even if the audience doesn't find out yet.
Nor did I buy Edward falling in love with her. If it was just frustrated lust that led him to marry her, then they needed to convey a much stronger undeniable sexual impulse than we actually saw. If he actually fell for her beyond lust, then that wasn't convincingly portrayed either. And clearly it wasn't a sham marriage (in this version), as her brother Anthony suggests at one point; otherwise he wouldn't have needed to own up to it publicly.
And as hard as Rebecca Ferguson tried to sound English, there was just a hint of foreignness about her accent. I'm not sure I'd have guessed her Swedish background if I hadn't known, but something wasn't quite spot on.
Motivations etc aside, it was beautifully (albeit unrealistically cleanly) shot throughout.
The main appeal was the quality of the supporting cast. Four words will suffice:
Janet McTeer
James Frain