Because any combination of Catherine Tate and David Tennant is bound to make me smile with happiness which I want to share, and this includes her having to guess his character's name in the Harry Potter films:





The L.A. Times informes me that the last but one Elementary episode was indeed, as I had guessed, inspired by Philipp Seymour Hoffmann; the article is about than that, though, about how Elementary handles the drug recovery theme in general,


But long-term, consistent recovery is rare (...) because TV prefers the high drama of the addicted life. Sobriety, though personally challenging, is a cinematic bore. It's tough to win an Emmy by embodying serenity for an entire season. Even when dealing with recovery, writers go more for the big pivotal moments: The addict passing on sobriety's Splendid Life Lesson, the recovering alcoholic staring down a brimming shot glass.

"Elementary" has its share of pivotal moments, but they are invariably underplayed, woven into crime-solving story lines that allow the larger narrative to emerge with surprising power. It may be the best portrait of recovery on television.

(You can read the rest here.)

Currently I'm definitely in Geek heaven. Arrived on Friday afternoon only to be greeted by London in sunshine, which is always nice though rarely the case, and proceeded to acquire mym coveted Much Ado ticket(s) for Saturday, about which later. I also went and watched Pygmalion on Friday evening, with Rupert Everett as Higgins, Kara Tointon as Eliza and Diana Rigg as Mrs. Higgins. It's always a pleasure to hear Shaw's words spoken out loud, and this was the first production I've seen which took him at his word in another sense, to wit. Now, the final scene of the play Pygmalion as written can be played ambigously and with the implication that Eliza despite her declaration will return to Higgins, which is of course also what the musical version, My Fair Lady does. But in the afterword (and in many letters during the original production to the actress who played the first Eliza in 1913, Stella Patrick Campbell), Shaw is crystal clear that she won't, that she'll stick to her declaration of independence, and that this is a good thing. As I said, this is the first on stage production which really takes him up on it and makes the Eliza-Higgins confrontation at the end as the heart of the piece, making it as a coming of age tale for Eliza rather than emphasizing the romance. Which is not to say that there is an absence of emotion. When Higgins says "I shall miss you, Eliza", there's no doubt he means it and that he does feel affection. But there is also no doubt that this is one jerk hero (tm) belonging to the school that eventually produced House and current Sherlock whom the heroine is far better without after having learned from him what he had to offer, because he won't chance, that that makes him stuck. Everett starts waspish (also it occured to me, not for the first time, that the first scene of Pygmalion where Higgins performs his naming everyone's place of origin by accent trick is Shaw taking a leaf from contemporary ACD's Sherlock Holmes and that in many ways, Higgins and Pickering are a reply to Holmes and Watson, with the difference that neither of them in the end are the heroes of their story) and ends very vulnerable and aware of his loss but also, finally, of the whys; Kara Tointon gives you a really strong sense of Eliza's personality and makes you actually believe her when she ways in the final confrontation that what she wanted from Higgins was never romance and that if they ended in bed together they'd hate each other five days later.

(A mother and her two daughters were next to and in front of me respectively, and the daughters hadn't realized until the play started that this was the version without the songs. And they were much insulted that "it didn't work out". Ah, teenagers. And also, Loewe & Lerner.)

Saturday started by me meeting kangeiko for breakfast, proceeded to meeting rozk for lunch, and then saw us spend a geekfest of an afternoon and evening by watching X-Men: First Class and Much Ado About Nothing. Reviews under the cut, thoroughly enjoying both.

( X-Men: First Class )

After a break at the rooftop of my hotel, we then went on to watch Tate 'n Tennant tackle Much Ado. It's modern dress production going in the Italian farce direction (or Mamma Mia the film - that kind of atmosphere), but glorious fun. Based on other people's reviews I was a bit afraid they'd play Beatrice's "Kill Claudio" moment for laughs, too, but they didn't. Justly so, this is the moment when things get serious in so many ways between them, and the contrast to the relieved giggles just before when they finally admitted they loved each other is all the more efficient. There is no farce there in that moment and no doubt Beatrice means it, and on Benedick's part DT plays it with complete awareness of the enormity as well; ditto in the subsequent scene where Benedick delivers his challenge.

There is a lot of slapstick in the scenes where first Benedick and then Beatrice are tricked by their friends, but then I haven't seen a production where there isn't, including the Branagh film; it just begs for it. Something I hadn't seen before and which our T & T duo carried off with aplomb was that the masked dance scene, CT is dressed as a man in suit (looks good on her!) and DT as a woman in a miniskirt. (He has great legs.) It's not just a visual gag, it also emphasizes the fluid gender dynamics between them, as opposed to the conventional couple of Hero and Claudio. I was amused that Leonato's brother Antonio is made into his wife in this production and renamed, no, not Antonia, but, wait for it, Imogen. As a reminder of how later Shakespeare would deal with this whole jealousy, fake death and restoration plot, it was neat.

Chemistry and comic timing: as excellent as ever. As with Hamlet a couple of years ago I was surprised of how much younger DT looks in person. As opposed to the other Shakespeare I saw him in, here he uses his Scottish accent, which works for Benedick. CT seems to have lost a bit of weight but still proudly owns her curves. The only times when I could not quite suspend my role disbelief was when she said "nooooo" because that drawn out "no" is a Donna mannerism (she didn't do it when I saw her in Under the Blue Sky).

Hero is in many ways a thankless role but I thought Sarah Macrae made the most of it, especially strong in scene after Claudio and Don Pedro have stomped off and her father attacks her. (One thing I always liked about Benedick in any production and during reading is that he's the only man at the aborted wedding who reacts rationally. Even her father is ready to believe the worst of Hero.) She's not tearful in her denials but quietly strong as she assures her father that she's innocent, and my attention at that moment was on her and not on B & B, which deserved kudos.

Finally: the funky disco rendering of Sigh No More at the end just about summed up the brash vitality of this production.

Postscript to yesterday's entry: crossoverman linked artwork for the Lord of the Rings film starring the Beatles that never was, which ranks from funny to amazingly creative, and started my day with a smile. Which was good, considering.

Like everyone else who heard the good news, I am delighted that Catherine Tate and David Tennant will play Beatrice and Benedick. It's the ideal Shakespeare play for them, given their wonderful comic timing and chemistry. (Also I can't help having flashbacks to the Chain Reaction interview where Catherine was teasing David about the lack of logic in Shakespeare.*g*) Whether not I'll be able to afford going to London to see them is yet in the stars, but hooray for the theatre-going world anyway nonetheless!

Good news is needed since both the fannish and the real world can be incredibly depressing. A particularly obnoxious brand of Snapefen are at it again, complaining women of colour have no business identifiying with Lily because, being pretty and academically successful, she's not representative of a discriminated against minority, and how dare anyone accuse young Severus of racism anyway, etc., etc.
....

(And the repeat lesson from this, other than priveleged ignorance: the only thing more unforgivable in a female character than to come between a popular slash pairing is for a female character to turn the fandom woobie down.) (Female characters who come between a slash pairing and turn the fandom woobie down: prepare to be virtually lynched on a regular basis.)

Yet all of this seems minor when compared to such real life horrors like the shooting of an Arizona congresswoman and six others. As virtually every article I've read about the shooting mentions: Giffords was named as a political campaign target for conservatives in last November's mid-term elections by the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Palin had published a "target map" on her website using images of gunsights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Giffords, backing the new healthcare law. Gifford won by a narrow margin, seeing off opposition from a Tea Party-backed Republican candidate. In an interview after the office vandalism, Giffords referred to the animosity against her. "We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list," she said, "but the thing is, the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. "When people do that, they have to realise that there are consequences to that action."

I can hear the cries of "unfair" already. And of course moderate (I always hesitate to use the term "liberal" because it really doesn't mean to the rest of the world what it means to the US) papers are as eager to point out this connection as conservative papers are to declare that no one called for anyone's literal death and that at any rate the targeted Ms. Gifford was against gun laws, too. From my transatlantic personal perspective I can only say that one of the things that struck me was that I was shocked but not really surprised. Because both violent political rethoric and in tandem euphemisms have become so the the rule during the last decade. When torture isn't really torture but "stuff happens" (tm Rumsfeld), when health care is described in terms of "death panels", with the constant use of apocalyptic language to describe one's political opponent, news like this really aren't that surprising. Just awful. And without any prospect of staying unique.

As my friend kathyh pointed out, the BBC, in its laudable effort to dedicate this year's Christmas to Doctor Who in general and David Tennant to particular, did not stop at on screen events, oh no, there is lots of radio as well. Which is good news for us non-Brits because they tend to make these shows legitmately available online afterwards. Here's a list of all the events thoughtfully provided by kathyh. The one I absolutely must listen to is David Tennant and Catherine Tate stand in for Jonathan Ross again, with one Peter Davison who I hear shared a past job with Mr. Tennant as their guest. Seriously now, how is a DT/CT/PD combo not squeeworthy in the extreme?!? (bimo, I'm looking at you.)

Fannish speculation makes me wonder wheter Our David will make Catherine watch at least one Five adventure before letting her loose on Peter Davison, and if so, which one. Methinks Black Orchid would be best suited to an Old Who newbie with no Sci Fi knowledge, but if anyone has other ideas, bring them on!

This week's fannish5 is a repeat which I've done already - Which five dead characters would you resurrect if you could? . Just as well, because I'm totally worn out from writing Christmas mail and other Christmas-related signatures.To paraphrase Yoda, if you writing your name you must seven hundred times, not so well you will look!

However, thanks to kalypso_v, I know how to brighten up my day. Radio Four put up a repeat of my absolutely favourite radio conversation of my favourite New Who Doctor/Companion team, which means us foreigners can listen to it again for a week: Catherine Tate interviews David Tennant in February 2008. As this was between seasons 3 and 4, it has absolutely no DW-related spoilers whatsoever, and if you managed to miss it the first time around, you really should listen to it now. I promise it will brighten up your day as well. These two are as funny together offscreen as they're on screen, and embarrassingly, I can quote part of that conversation by now. ("Would David like to meet Richard Schiff? David would like to be Richard Schiff!")

Alas, the hotel’s system doesn’t appear to like my laptop, so I have to use the business center computer, battling with an English type board. (The ys and zs are positioned differently, for starters.) However, I am happy to report that I’m in London, doing a variety of useful things and enjoying myself. In the later category was definitely meeting londonkds and rozk yesterday… and going to the theatre in the evening, where I saw Catherine Tate and Francesca Annis in Under the blue sky. The play itself was about six teachers, paired up into couples each and loosely connected, and while not particularly deep (despite occasionally wanting to be) engaging and at times oddly touching. It was also a demonstration of what acting can do. In the first section, you just want to slap the male teacher and wonder what on earth two of the play’s women see in him. In the second section, Catherine Tate’s character shows up who as written is probably meant to be worse than the guy from act one, but her presence is such that she makes you amused at her being awful and feeling for her when she’s maudlin (as opposed to act one guy who when he got to be self-pitying just invoked “slap him, NOW” feeling). Francesca Annis, who showed up in act III, was radiant and paired up with the most sympathetic of the male characters, so we were all left feeling pleased.

Afterwards, I waited with a couple of other people (not DW fans from what I could hear, they knew Catherine Tate via her show) and got an autograph and some photos.

( Behold! )