A tale of two writers (and some accents)

[selenak]

Two writers/producers, two completely different takes on tv today: Doris Egan, aka tightropegirl (most famous these days for her House episodes), on why government officials are like the television industry . (Or: a depressing summary of how originality gets edited out in the grinding process of tv being made.)

And then there is a lengthy interview with Vince Gilligan, these days of course most famous as the creator and headwriter of Breaking Bad, and an X-Files scriptwriter veteran of old, in which he proudly declares:

Q: In this issue, our TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz argues that TV has become a director’s medium.
A: I disagree. There’s a perfectly good medium for directors, and it’s called film. TV is a writer’s medium. I am chauvinistic toward writing because that’s where I came from.

The interview, btw, isn't spoilery about Breaking Bad, though he adresses several times how he feels about the ending, but there is a big spoiler for the comics version of The Walking Dead (not by Gilligan, by the interviewer, who promptly apologizes when Gilligan reacts as one does when being spoiled). Oh, and a spoiler for a certain British cult show from the 1960s in the form of a joke.

Some of my favourite quotes from the interview:

Right now, I am very proud of the final eight episodes. But we could put them on the air in a few months and people could say, “Oh my God. That was the worst ending of a TV series ever.” So then you’re left with that horrible incongruity for the rest of your life. You either think everyone was right, or you start to think, “I’m like the Omega Man. I’m the only one who sees it the correct way and everybody else missed the point.”

And when the interviewer does the usual thing, going on about how bad characters are so much more interesting than good characters:

Q: Are there any honest-to-God nice characters on TV that you still find interesting?
A: SpongeBob SquarePants is a great show, and it centers on a character that is courageously nice. Why is SpongeBob interesting? It’s because he has passion. He has a passion for chasing jellyfish. I’m very glad people love Breaking Bad, but the harder character to write is the good character that’s as interesting and as engaging as the bad guy. My hat is off to the SpongeBob showrunners. It’s like how Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backward and in high heels. That’s kind of the struggle you face when you’re writing the good guy now instead of a bad guy.

On Walter White:

We always say in the writers’ room, if Walter White has a true superpower, it’s not his knowledge of chemistry or his intellect, it’s his ability to lie to himself. He is the world’s greatest liar. He could lie to the pope. He could lie to Mother Teresa. He certainly could lie to his family, and he can lie to himself, and he can make these lies stick. He can make himself believe, in the face of all contrary evidence, that he is still a good man.

On Skyler White:

Q: One of the criticisms of Breaking Bad that keeps coming up is over the female characters. Skyler White is seen by some as this henpecking woman who stands in the way of all of Walt’s fun.
A: Man, I don’t see it that way at all. We’ve been at events and had all our actors up onstage, and people ask Anna Gunn, “Why is your character such a bitch?” And with the risk of painting with too broad a brush, I think the people who have these issues with the wives being too bitchy on Breaking Bad are misogynists, plain and simple. (...) She’s got a tough job being married to this asshole. And this, by the way, is why I should avoid the Internet at all costs. People are griping about Skyler White being too much of a killjoy to her meth-cooking, murdering husband? She’s telling him not to be a murderer and a guy who cooks drugs for kids. How could you have a problem with that?

***

From the serious to the silly: a hilarious article about all the accents from Game Of Thrones. Or: pondering the mystery of Ned Stark's kids all having different accents, ditto the Baratheons, ditto the Lannisters. Winner of the best accent award, otoh: Rose Leslie, who plays the redhead wildling Ygritte, is a super-posh Scot (two castles, her family owns. Two. Her real name is "Rose Eleanor Arbuthnot-Leslie." Arbuthnot.) who pulls off an incredibly convincing northern accent.

Comments

[kalypso]

Your last reminds me of the Northern Broadsides production of Richard III, in which we concluded that the real reason for Richard's behaviour was his resentment of the fact that his elder brothers had clearly been to a public school where they'd acquired posh accents, but evidently when it came to his turn the money had run out, or they'd been too busy fighting a civil war, so he'd missed out.

[selenak]

You know, now that I think of it, I've never seen a Shakespearean Richard played with a Northern accent. But then, I've never seen Richard IIIon stage, only seen the Olivier and the McKellen film versions and heard a few radio productions.

[kalypso]

I've forgotten, though I've seen the film as well as the stage version that preceded it - what accent did McKellen use? His own would have been fine, but he may have wanted to blend in with Edward and George.

[selenak]

Here is the opening monologue, hear for yourself. (She says, avoiding to embarass herself by possibly naming a wrong accent.)

[kalypso]

Oh, I'm not good on accents. That one's posher than his own, but probably not quite as posh as a genuine 1930s duke; there's a convention by which upper-class accents have to be slightly demoticised, because the real thing would be so alienating. (Even the Queen doesn't sound as posh as she did sixty years ago.) He certainly wasn't going for a northerner, anyway.

[likeadeuce]

Rose Leslie, who plays the redhead wildling Ygritte, is a super-posh Scot (two castles, her family owns. Two. Her real name is "Rose Eleanor Arbuthnot-Leslie." Arbuthnot.) who pulls off an incredibly convincing northern accent.

Oh my God, this makes me really want her to be cast in a film version of Code Name Verity (where one of the main characters has a similar background).

[selenak]

Having read the novel: what a splendid idea!

[quarter_to_five]

All I know Doris Egan for is the quite neato science-fantasy trilogy she wrote in the 80's. It is interesting to be able to hear more from tv writers, I feel like that's a fairly recent trend. Whereas once they were like this faceless mass, now I notice - and I see the internet noticing - individual names and episodes and there being more interest in hearing what they have to say.

[selenak]

Yes, I think it is recent. Attention really used to go most to the directors and actors, and then to the producers.

[rembrandtswife]

Thanks for the link to the Vince Gilligan interview--I never thought anything could make me want to watch Breaking Bad, but now he has. I knew he was a smart guy, but he's even smarter than I thought.

And on the subject of accents, have you ever seen a British drama called Ballykissangel? It's about a Catholic priest from England who comes to serve as the assistant in a little Irish village (after which the show is named). Irish accents have even more regional variation than English ones, and every person on the show sounds like they came from a different part of the country, because they did.

[selenak]

No, I haven't seen it. NOw I'm intrigued!