Question for the Brits- Page 2

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/6/14 at 5:14pm

Horse, it's a must. The second season made one cast change (due to contracts) that initially I disliked but grew on me, but overall is even better than the first (I'll say no more.) Apparently since ratings were so high (the first season didn't catch on until reruns,) but the main writer and cast wanted to move on, the goal for a third season was to feature new characters and they hired controversial gay playwright Mark Ravenhill (who wrote Shopping and F*CKing, and Mother Clap's Molly House) but at last minute they decided not to risk it. Too bad as it *could* have been interesting.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 4:08pm

So I've been watching "This Life." It holds my attention but it has a "thirtysomething" feel to it. The Anna character is Mel Harris Polly Draper all over again.

I like Amita Dhiri's performance, interesting character and well acted.

The guys are a bit too stereotypical.

Updated On: 3/6/14 at 04:08 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 5:15pm

How far into it are you? Like thirtysomething, I think it is something that now seems more dated, but at the time was pretty fresh and new (granted some people never liked either show.) Of course it also has drugs and sex and nudity and no useless kids in the background But I can see the similarities to an extent, though I think the guys particularly get more complex. Regardless, I'm glad you're giving it a shot!

Oh but hang on. Self destructive Anna is the same as Hope? That I don't get (again which is why I asked how far in you were...)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 5:21pm

Keep in mind, I love thirtysomething--at least once it found its tone after a truly annoying set of early episodes-- and all the other Herskovitz/Zwick navel-gazing shows (My So-Called Life, Once and AGain etc.)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 5:52pm

I've just watched episode 1 of Series 2.

I'm trying to think of it in 90s sensibilities, but I still think it's a bit stereotypical. For example, the gay guy cruises the park for sex and goes to a therapist because he wants a committed relationship after one shag? He comes out to the brother only to have the brother turn away from him? There's nothing new in that storyline. In the 90s, Rent was handling gay characters with more depth than that.

I would have liked for Andrew Lincoln's character to build a bit more before he quit his job. The slacker bit gets boring very quickly. And Jack Davenport's character doesn't really gel in Series 1. I'm hoping for a bit more character in Series 2.

I also like the actress that plays Kira. She's great for a secondary character.

Yes, it's miles ahead of US television in the language and nudity areas. I just wish the characters were better developed. I'll watch as much of Series 2 as I can find on Youtube.

ETA: I wish the characters had different class backgrounds. That's what I liked about Cold Feet, the characters were not all from the same background. I think that's why I compare This Life to thirtysomething, because they are all yuppies in the same mold.

Updated On: 3/6/14 at 05:52 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 8:44pm

Oops, sorry. In my post above, I meant Polly Draper character, not Mel Harris.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 9:09pm

I guess the initial law background sets that up--the similar class background though they do try to shake it up.

Love Kira. And your Polly comparison makes so much more sense :P

To be fair, for 1997 it was seen as quite "gay forward" in the UK. Of course this was just before Queer as Folk there changed all that. The horrible US version I linked above-at least in the episodes that aired--made the gay character utterly sex-less of course, including no park cruising and a mother instead of brother who didn't approve. I suppose that was to be expected. (they also tried to make the law parts all Ally McBealish quirky.)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/6/14 at 10:12pm

American tv messes up all the great British shows.

Man About The House turned into John Ritter doing pratfalls and Suzanne Somers being the dumbest blonde ever put on screen
Coupling US was a bore
Shameless is better in its British incarnation

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 1:48am

Speaking of Cold Feet--did you see the remake? Sadly it doesn't seem to be online, but oh boy, do I remember it.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 1:50am

Goth - unfortunately, that's nearly always true. It's the reason I'm so glad that the Friday Night Dinner US remake with Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn never got picked up.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 3:42am

I only knew a few of these UK remakes of US shows--I knew the Who's the Boss remake which apprently ran a while...

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30050/10-british-sitcoms-inspired-american-shows

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 8:16am

The two British transfers that were successful were All In The Family (Til Death Us Do Part) and Sanford and Son (Steptoe and Son).

I think the early episodes of Sanford and Son still hold up well. You can tell later in the run that they just got tired and sloppy, but early on it was a great show.

All In The Family became iconic and gave birth to several spinoffs. But I don't think it has held up as well. I recently watched some episodes and the Mike character is very tiresome. Always screaming at the top of his lungs. In the first episode, you can see the Edith character as more of a sarcastic New York City housewife. Unfortunately they blew the character up into a cartoon and made her a dingbat, which I guess is why she became an iconic character. And they used elements of farce for the Edith character, always having her run from the kitchen to the living room with Archie's beer.

It's interesting to compare British and American shows. I always thought that Audra Lindley played a great Mrs. Roper, and then watching Man About The House, Yootha Joyce was different but she is equally good playing Mrs. Roper. Two fine actresses with different energy types for the character.

Updated On: 3/7/14 at 08:16 AM

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 9:53am

Gothampc - another great show you should have a look at is "Line of Duty".

I am currently loving the second series on BBC2 in the UK.

You can watch all of the first series (6 x 1hr episodes) on Dailymotion.

It's a drama about police corruption - but it twists and turns. The writer, Jed Mercurio, previously wrote Bodies and Cardiac Arrest - both good dark dramas too.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 12:36am

I enjoyed the original This Life, but This Life +10 is crap. The writer lost all the great characterizations she had created and everyone is so bitter. Egg who was so happy go lucky is just angry. Milly has no character. The Miles character has lost his pompous upper class snobbery. Warren has lost not only his accent but his mischievousness. And with everyone else being bitter, Anna is just a redundant character. They should have remained in London. Setting it out in the country is too isolating. Plus framing it with shooting a documentary is just stupid. Really poor writing. I wish she had spent more time recreating the original characterizations.

Updated On: 3/14/14 at 12:36 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 1:00pm

I warned you to not watch This Life +10. Everyone warned me, too, and I still wathed though : I completely agree.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 1:32pm

This Life +10 is one of those shows where you wonder what they were thinking. She had great situations for the characters and she should have just enhanced what she had.

Egg could have owned a modestly successful restaurant (but a writer? A third career change in 10 years?). Milly could have been working as a lawyer on a per diem basis while raising the baby. Anna was the only person I actually believed in this story. I always thought Warren would end up owning some type of shop. And Miles I thought would be in the Legal Department of a huge international conglomerate.

I'm wondering if the budget for the show was very low and that is why they just filmed at that country house. Still what a sad reprise for some interesting characters.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 9:29pm

This Life was originally meant to continue with new characters (hence the ending of the second season.) 80's bad boy gay playwright Mark Ravenhill (of Mother Clapp's Molly House fame) apparently wrote up an outline for the second season but the producers found his stuff too outlandish and decided they should end on an audience and critical high.

I actually wish I had not seen the +10. But how did you feel about the show in general--you were kinda on the fence, Gotham, it seemed before. As a whole, I personally think it's a really strong show.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 10:55pm

I think it was a little too Thirtysomething for my taste. You know, that perfect world where everyone has a great job, plenty of sex and everything is just so neatly packaged. I think Anna was the most realistic character and I noticed in Season 2 that the show seemed to revolve around her in that in several episodes her face closed the episode.

I liked the original cast. I never really took to Ferdi as a character, just too sullen and a bit creepy. It's too bad the actor who played Warren had to leave the show because he added a nice balance that was lost. Warren's flamboyant and slightly camp personality played well against Miles' uptight personality.

I think Milly's character had the most lost potential for storyline. I liked her character but the affair with the boss seemed weird. I just didn't see her falling for that specific actor.

Miles was also a lost character. The early storyline with Delilah I thought was really stupid. It's too bad they didn't make him more of a womanizer, they were always trying to tie him down, first Delilah, then the older woman.

I thought Egg, Warren and Anna all had good characters and their storylines were interesting. And I really enjoyed the secondary characters: Kira & Jo storyline was a good touch and I loved the back and forth between Kira and the Receptionist.

I was glad when they took Egg into the restaurant and had Warren stayed I would hope they would put him in another profession. It really started out as too much "lawyering & living together." I think it would be a better show with Warren and Egg in different professions.

But being the Anglophile that I am, I did enjoy getting a glimpse into the lives of Londoners.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/17/14 at 6:21pm

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My Fair Lady in Thatcher's Britain Updated On: 3/17/14 at 06:21 PM

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/17/14 at 6:27pm

Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/17/14 at 6:29pm

Calvin Klein in Manchester

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/17/14 at 6:47pm

"I've enjoyed the early David Jason one where he plays the shop boy"

Two other classics from the 1970s...

Porridge:
Sitcom set in a men's prison. Ronnie Barker in the lead, unrecognisable from his role in Open All Hours (or at least to me as child - I really couldn't get my head around the fact that the two roles were played by the same person) and a young David Jason playing a very old con.

Rising Damp:
Leonard Rossiter as the landlord of a sleazy lodging house. Frances De La Tour in her breakout role as a frigid spinster (she still refuses to be interviewed about the role 35 years later) renting a room alongside students and ne'er-do-wells.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/17/14 at 8:38pm

Oh yes, Scripps. Rising Damp! Why does Frances de la Tour refuse to be interviewed about it? She was great in that show. Also a young Don Warrington who shows up several years later in Manchild and recently in Death In Paradise.

And of course Leonard Rossiter led me to Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin which I found a bit strange. I thought the character was a bit hard to just leave his family like that.

And that led to the Reginald Perrin reboot with Martin "Doc Martin" Clunes and one of my favorites Fay Ripley. When I watched this, I kept wishing that someone would pair Martin Clunes and Fay Ripley in a production of Neil Simon's "The Prisoner of Second Avenue."

Updated On: 3/17/14 at 08:38 PM

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 6:09pm

I assume it's the same attitude as Maggie Smith's character in California Suite ("All that great work at the National and I get this for a comedy"). Or maybe she didn't get along with Leonard Rossiter.

How did you like the model in the Calvin Klein ad? I understand she's considered to be in the same league as Martine McCutcheon and Catherine Zeta Jones in terms of attractiveness.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 7:40pm

I can understand Frances De La Tour not wanting to be completely identified with a sitcom, I mean tv is so lower middle class, right? But her performance in that does bring a lot of laughs even though she's playing the stereotypical man hungry spinster. I think Yootha Joyce had the same problem with Man About The House, but she does such a great job in the show.

The model in the ad is just okay. I've always thought that Martine was okay in a girl next door type of way. Same thing for Kate Middleton. Nice looking as a girl, but would just be average looking by middle age. Catherine Zeta Jones is in a whole other class. Even in her younger days on Darling Buds Of May she was headed for the "Goddess" class of woman. CZJ has that eternal beauty that Audrey Hepburn, Vivien Leigh and Sophia Loren had, even as old ladies they are radiant.