![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fanfic recs and show review
Dec. 1st, 2012 09:53 amFirstly, two Skyfall recs:
Until My Dying Day: great missing scene fic in which Bond and M make a stop on their way to Scotland. It's one of those stories in which outwardly, nothing much happens - conversation and a cup of tea - and emotionally, so much does. The snarky weariness and implicit understanding in the voices feels so right for these two.
Before The Taking Of A Toast And Tea: the one where M takes in and trains an orphaned Eve. Very well carried out premise, and it contains a hint of my favourite speculation about Eve's future.
Secondly, last week when I was in Berlin for a day I got my hands on the Call the Midwife, season 1 dvd, about which I'd heard good things, and have now finished watching the six episodes it consists of. Set in the fifties and a lovely ensemble story about, duh, midwives in the London East End, which means most of our regulars are female, and so are most of the people they interact with on a week to week basis. The point of view character is Jenny (the series being based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, which I haven't read), but as I said, it's an ensemble series; for example, the season's traditional "go from insecure to strong, also fall in love, overcome obstacle" tale isn't Jenny's storyline but the one of Camilla aka Chumney, who in a most untraditional twist is that rarity on tv: a female character big in every since (she's large, she's heavy) who gets narrative space and emphasis instead of being relegated to a sidekick role or not existing at all. As I said, her - really endearing - romance with Peter the policeman is the big love affair of the season, but it's not treated as her only reason of existence; initial clumsiness aside, she's a dedicated midwife and really good at her job, which is treated as the most important thing.
The show is also a good antidote if Downton Abbey left you a bit exasparated for class reasons; as mentioned, it's set int the East End, everyone is working for a living, wanting more from your life without the approval of the upper classes isn't treated as a sinister scheme. The comraderie between the midwives/nurses is delightful, and a lot of the cases of the week are memorable characters. I was also impressed by the non-sensational way topics that would come up and in other shows would be dealt with very differently are treated; one of the more harrowing stories deals with a teenage prostitute, but there is no "zomg, you mean teenagers have sex! And end up as prostitutes!" moment, the focus is on what happens to the pregnant girl and her baby next. Or: late in the season we encounter a brother and sister who live in incest. Who are old, have spent their entire lives together, and are presented as sympathetic and devoted to each other. Conversely, there is an old pensioner whom Jenny befriends and cares for, but their friendship can't change the fact he's getting evicted of the house his flat is in and ends up in a nursing home. Cliché also avoided so far, which going in I was dead sure would happen in the pilot, even: young women gruesomely dying in childbirth. Not yet. Oh, and the various babies look more like newborns than they usually do on tv - when they're born (and presumably puppets), afterwards they're replaced by the usual larger babies, due to rules for children on tv.
Casting: I like the lot, especially that the show went to the trouble of getting actresses of various age groups. Also, we never see her, but the voice of old Jenny who is telling the story, looking back, is unmistakably that of Vanessa Redgrave.
Lastly: a constant feature - and in episode two, a plot point - is the fact the midwives's primary mode of transportation are their bicycles. Which made the Beatles fan in yours truly think, aha, that explains that, because I was familiar with a quote from Paul McCartney about one of his earliest memories of his mother, who was a midwife/nurse like the heroines of this show and at the same time, saying: I have a crystal-clear memory of one snow-laden night when I was young at 72 Western Avenue. The streets were thick with snow, it was about three in the morning, and she got up and went out on her bike with the little brown wicker basket on the front, into the dark, just with her little light, in her navy-blue uniform and hat, cycling off down the estate to deliver a baby somewhere.
Until My Dying Day: great missing scene fic in which Bond and M make a stop on their way to Scotland. It's one of those stories in which outwardly, nothing much happens - conversation and a cup of tea - and emotionally, so much does. The snarky weariness and implicit understanding in the voices feels so right for these two.
Before The Taking Of A Toast And Tea: the one where M takes in and trains an orphaned Eve. Very well carried out premise, and it contains a hint of my favourite speculation about Eve's future.
Secondly, last week when I was in Berlin for a day I got my hands on the Call the Midwife, season 1 dvd, about which I'd heard good things, and have now finished watching the six episodes it consists of. Set in the fifties and a lovely ensemble story about, duh, midwives in the London East End, which means most of our regulars are female, and so are most of the people they interact with on a week to week basis. The point of view character is Jenny (the series being based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, which I haven't read), but as I said, it's an ensemble series; for example, the season's traditional "go from insecure to strong, also fall in love, overcome obstacle" tale isn't Jenny's storyline but the one of Camilla aka Chumney, who in a most untraditional twist is that rarity on tv: a female character big in every since (she's large, she's heavy) who gets narrative space and emphasis instead of being relegated to a sidekick role or not existing at all. As I said, her - really endearing - romance with Peter the policeman is the big love affair of the season, but it's not treated as her only reason of existence; initial clumsiness aside, she's a dedicated midwife and really good at her job, which is treated as the most important thing.
The show is also a good antidote if Downton Abbey left you a bit exasparated for class reasons; as mentioned, it's set int the East End, everyone is working for a living, wanting more from your life without the approval of the upper classes isn't treated as a sinister scheme. The comraderie between the midwives/nurses is delightful, and a lot of the cases of the week are memorable characters. I was also impressed by the non-sensational way topics that would come up and in other shows would be dealt with very differently are treated; one of the more harrowing stories deals with a teenage prostitute, but there is no "zomg, you mean teenagers have sex! And end up as prostitutes!" moment, the focus is on what happens to the pregnant girl and her baby next. Or: late in the season we encounter a brother and sister who live in incest. Who are old, have spent their entire lives together, and are presented as sympathetic and devoted to each other. Conversely, there is an old pensioner whom Jenny befriends and cares for, but their friendship can't change the fact he's getting evicted of the house his flat is in and ends up in a nursing home. Cliché also avoided so far, which going in I was dead sure would happen in the pilot, even: young women gruesomely dying in childbirth. Not yet. Oh, and the various babies look more like newborns than they usually do on tv - when they're born (and presumably puppets), afterwards they're replaced by the usual larger babies, due to rules for children on tv.
Casting: I like the lot, especially that the show went to the trouble of getting actresses of various age groups. Also, we never see her, but the voice of old Jenny who is telling the story, looking back, is unmistakably that of Vanessa Redgrave.
Lastly: a constant feature - and in episode two, a plot point - is the fact the midwives's primary mode of transportation are their bicycles. Which made the Beatles fan in yours truly think, aha, that explains that, because I was familiar with a quote from Paul McCartney about one of his earliest memories of his mother, who was a midwife/nurse like the heroines of this show and at the same time, saying: I have a crystal-clear memory of one snow-laden night when I was young at 72 Western Avenue. The streets were thick with snow, it was about three in the morning, and she got up and went out on her bike with the little brown wicker basket on the front, into the dark, just with her little light, in her navy-blue uniform and hat, cycling off down the estate to deliver a baby somewhere.
