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selenak: (Toby and Andy by Amorfati)
In which this miniseries ends and I wonder whether Adrian Pasdar's roles have something of a flying jinx.

People are never as awful as we expect them to be, oh really? )
selenak: (Rocking the vote by Noodlebidsnest)
In which Grandma is the best again, and Blair Brown is subjected to a horrible wig.

Read more... )
selenak: (Rocking the vote by Noodlebidsnest)
Continues to be a highly enjoyable political soap, now with bonus Vanessa Redgrave!
Read more... )
selenak: (Toby and Andy by Amorfati)
Real life continues to be very busy, hence in brevity:

Not really spoilery, but cut just in case )
selenak: (Elizabeth - shadows in shadows by Poison)
I found the pilot of Political Animals very entertaining and worth watching, with a few nitpicks. Sigourney Weaver is fabulous (and the whole story is very much a love letter to Hillary Clinton, with arguably a "did you make a mistake, voters, in the primaries or what?" subtext/agenda), and I'm thrilled that the dynamic between Elaine the Secretary of Defense/former First Lady and Susan the journalist is indeed the central one and just the kind of "my best enemy" trope which female characters rarely, if ever, get. Where it ventures outside the Clinton precedents and adds characters it brings in the pure soap: as I suspected, Sebastian Stan as the gay son gets to practice his angry teary eyed stare, perfected from Kings, a lot, though with the twist that his family is actually supportive of his sexuality. (Frivolous sidenote: someone should cast Stan and Hiddleston in roles where they can stare teary eyed and angrily at each other. Fandom would then combust, not just for finding it hot but because of the dilemma of whom to woobifiy more.) And of course the grandmother is the Tough Old Broad trope personified, etc. But the acting is good enough that all these archetypes come across as believable, and there are a lot of neat additions to keep from feeling stale, such as the two bodyguards, i.e. Elaine's and her ex husband Bud's, who have the most hilarious non-verbal eye contact conversations throghout. (And remind me of Vir and Lennier in their commiserating meetings on B5.) I totally s hip Elaine's Bodyguard/Bud's Bodyguard, I tell you.

Where I'm somewhat torn is on Ciaran Hinds as the former president Bill Bud. At first I thought, come on, if he's presented as that much of an ass you make it unbelievable that she stuck it out with him for 30 years before divorcing him, show. Around the middle of the episode, however, Bud, until then a crass ole' boy philanderer cliché, got to show his political smarts and deliver an acute and as it turned out correct analysis of What Was Going On (plus he turned also out correct in his assessment of why his ex wanted him to come to the family meeting), and from that point onwards writing wise you could see why Elaine had stuck it out as long as she did, and why these two were still drawn to each other. Writing wise. But I'm still not sold on Hinds' performance, which surprises me because he's an excellent actor usually, and I loved his Captain Wentworth and his Caesar (talk about morally ambiguous leaders). I think the problem is that in this role he doesn't have the glib charm or the type of charisma that makes it believable this man made it to the top and despite scandals kept being reelected. It's an elusive quality, political charisma, and I'm speaking party-neutral here, similar but not identical to actor charisma, which is why sometimes you believe actors playing politicians and sometimes you don't. Incidentally, Adrian Pasdar in his so far brief appearances as Obama President Garcetti does have the right type of charisma to sell me on the idea he'd get voted into office. I'm not saying all politicians, fictional or real, have it. (Personal aside: I've heard a lot of political speeches and met a lot of politicians, mostly German but also some Americans. A lot of them were rather dull, independent on whether or not I agreed with their agendas; one was far nicer and interesting in person than he ever came acrross in the media, but it wasn't the type of quality than can come across in speeches because it depended on lengthy conversations; and precisely three had that weird type of charisma that compells you to listen to them talking, no matter what they talk about, laugh at their jokes and gets you to like them at least while they're around. A guy who was campaigning for DA in a parish in rural Lousiana when I was visiting a friend there, a German provincial politician whose party I'd never ever vote for, and, yes, Bill Clinton when he was in Munich years after his presidency and talked to German students with a free Q & A afterwards. If nothing else, his ability to quote Max Weber complete with mentioning the year and place of the book he was quoting from - Leipzig 1921 - in a debate would have impressed me, but it was really more than that, and dependent on a live speech and ensuing conversation, because on tv I had never been interested.) But Ciaran Hinds' character needs to have that quality, and so far, he doesn't, resembling if anyone Richard Nixon instead.

Still: whom you mainly have to believe in in order to enjoy the show is Sigourney Weaver's Elaine, and she exudes intelligence and charisma to spare. And really sparks off with Carla Guigino as her frenemy. So, more, please!


***

From thinly veiled RPF to respectable because it's Shakespeare RPF: transcript of a Q & A Richard Eyre, Sam Mendes and Simon Russell Beale did about The Hollow Crown, here. Key passage, re: what got the reviewers upset: Eyre said it was important in portraying Falstaff that he did not represent the heart of Merry England, as some literary critics liked to argue. Beale said that you don’t make moral judgements on your characters, but that nevertheless Falstaff was – ironically – a little man, a pub bore, a shit. Eyre added that Hal and Poins are also shits.


The blog I found this on also has some fascinating transcriptions of actual historical document, such as a letter about Anne Boleyn's trial and execution written to her daughter Elizabeth I. after her accession in 1559 by a Protestant Scottish theologican who used to work for Cromwell for a while and fled when Henry VIII swung back to the Catholic (minus the Pope) side of the force. As the blogger notes, it's impossible to know what Elizabeth thought/felt about the fact her father killed her mother; she never spoke of Anne and often of Henry, but she favoured her Boleyn relations and had a ring which turned out to have a miniature portrait of Anne on the other side of a portrait of Elizabeth herself, which she wore all her life. If it's hard to guess - yet impossible to resist speculating - what she felt regarding Anne and Henry in general, it's even harder yet compelling to imagine what she felt when reading this letter, which includes the letter writer mentioning conversations he heard in his lodgings about Anne's trial, whether or not they thought she was guilty of adultery, and the question of Henry's behaviour, such as this passage about the immediate aftermath of Anne's execution: While the guests were thus talking at table in my hearing it so happened that a servant of Cromwell’s came from the court and sitting down at the table, asked the landlord to let him have something to eat, for he was exceedingly hungry.

In the meantime, while the food was being got ready, the other guests asked him what were his news? Where was the king? What was he doing? Was he sorry for the queen? He answered by asking why should he be sorry for her? As she had already betrayed him in secrecy, so now was he openly insulting her. For just as she, while the king was oppressed with the heavy cares of state, was enjoying herself with others, so he, when the queen was being beheaded, was enjoying himself with another woman.

While all were astonished and ordered him to hold his tongue, for he was saying what no one would believe, and that he would bring himself into peril if others heard him talking thus, he answered, “You yourselves will speedily learn from other persons the truth of what I have been saying.”



You can read the whole (well, nearly) letter here

Oh?

Jun. 21st, 2012 07:53 am
selenak: (Brothers by mf_luder_xf)
It seems there will be a six hour tv drama called Political Animals, with an increasingly stellar cast. The official description: it centres around "Elaine Barrish (Sigourney Weaver), a divorced former first lady, who is struggling to keep her family together while simultaneously dealing with the crises of the State Department. She finds an unlikely ally in a famous D.C. journalist (Carla Gugino) who has spent her career tearing Elaine down". Co-starring Adrian Pasdar as "President Paul Garcetti, who defeated Elaine in the presidential primary and appointed her Secretary of State. Described as a "smart man," Garcetti uses every resource at his disposal to his advantage and deftly uses Elaine's popularity to deflect unwanted attention", and Ciaran Hinds as Elaine's ex: ""A gifted politician who was once loved by the American public, Bud has struggled since his divorce from Elaine, and his out-of-office antics have caused a tumble in his popularity. President Bud Hammond is still as much in love with his ex-wife as the office he once held and is eager to take on the role of elder statesman if Elaine calls on him."

....now who could possibly have inspired these characters?

The rest of the characters already cast has less obvious precedents. There's the VP, played by Dylan Baker apparantly between being creepy yet interesting on The Good Wife: "Vice President Fred Collier, supporting President Paul Garcetti (Adrian Pasdar). Described as a seemingly sweet man, Collier is a fierce combatant of Elaine's with secrets that will ultimately be revealed. And Sebastian Stan, he with the practise in the teary eyed sullen stare from Kings, as "Thomas "T.J." Hammond, the son of Barrish and her philandering ex-husband, former President Bud Hammond. A lost soul who struggles with addiction, T.J. is the polar opposite of his brother, Douglas (Lone Star's James Wolk), who serves as their mother's chief of staff."

(A pretty white male who feels overshadowed by his brother, is "troubled" and played by an actor good at the angry teary eyed stare. Mmm, three guesses who'll be the fannish woobie of the show.)

Anyway, I must admit I get a kick out of the idea of Sigourney Weaver playing a Hillary Clinton avatar, Adrian Pasdar as a Machiavellian version of Obama (who perhaps could use some Machiavellian skills?) and Ciaran Hinds as a Bill Clinton If Hillary Had Divorced Him. The enemy-turned-ally relationship with the female journalist could be playing to one of my favourite tropes (if done right), and while I frivolously wonder whether this means the series' creators ship Hillary Clinton/Maureen Dowd, I do like that it's described as central. I've heard good things about Carla Gugino, too. And whoever had the idea to put Sigourney Weaver in the same room together with a) Adrian Pasdar and b) Ciaran Hinds deserves my gratitude for this alone, because yes, I wants it, precious. Err, just the acting. Naturally. Being fond of all these actors as I am.

I do hope the writing is good because political drama with interesting characters and convoluted relationships with each other = one deliriously happy viewer. But even if it isn't, I won't be able to hate the show for giving me these actors together alone.

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