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Recent watching
Sep. 18th, 2024 05:22 pmAs you know, I am very relevant and always keep up to date on new media released this year, and so I've just finished watching the new series of Doctor Who and We Are Lady Parts. Spoilers ahead!
I loved Doctor Who during Russell T. Davies's first run, the Nine and Ten years, when I was still at the hiding-behind-the-sofa age; drifted away after Steven Moffat, whose writing I have never got on with, took over; returned for part of the Chibnall-Thirteen period and enjoyed it but felt it wasn't really what it used to be and lost interest towards the end; and now hearing that Davies was returning as showrunner, thought I'd give it another try again. I started with the Christmas special and could just about have cried at the end of it. There it is: this is the Doctor Who I loved—all the joy, weirdness, adventure, warm-heartedness—just how it would be and look and feel now instead of nineteen years ago. (Time is a funny thing: it occurs to me that Ruby was born just a few months before Nine met Rose, how weird is that???) Ncuti Gatwa is so completely the Doctor—that's really the only way you can put it for any actor who's right for the Doctor—I love his energy and enthusiasm, his smile, his accent—and Ruby is a great companion, and they work so well together. Aww, I am glad. :)
Anyway, the series continued really good! '73 Yards' may have been both my favourite and least favourite episode, I think, in that I loved the concept and development but was really frustrated by the non-explanation of an ending. (Yes, it's weird fantasy and won't necessarily have clear rules or logical explanation; but weird fantasy still needs some kind of internal logic and consistency—see below about The Owl Service—and I felt that was lacking.) I am conflicted about Fifteen changing costume every episode; I miss having one or two iconic Doctor outfits, but OTOH all his costumes are so good. :D I did feel that the series was too short and suffered from going too quickly for the 'unconventional structure' episodes—not that '73 Yards' and 'Dot and Bubble' weren't both excellent, but I think we needed to see a bit more of normal travelling life and adventures with Fifteen and Ruby first. I LOVED 'Rogue' and Rogue himself, and I trust that we'll see more of him.
Part of what I like about RTD's writing has always been the warmth and meaning and significance he finds in ordinary human lives, and so I was a bit dismayed by the building up of the mystery around Ruby's origins and the apparent implication that she was going to turn out to be Special in some way. So I really rather liked the reveal that actually it was all totally mundane! But apart from that I think the finale, while loads of fun in many ways, really didn't make enough sense... and I was dismayed to see that Ruby is apparently leaving after so little time! Really too short a series, unfortunately. Maybe they'll go back to 13 episodes in future?
(And in the meantime I could go back and watch the pre-series specials—I gather there's some good Donna stuff in them??)
Aww, We Are Lady Parts is so much fun and so lovely, and I think I liked the second series even better than the first. The relative lack of Amina/Saira material was a bit disappointing... OTOH, there is a canon f/f ship, and Ayesha and Laura are very cute and I wish them every happiness now they've overcome some challenges together. I like the character development all the leads got, perhaps especially Bisma and Momtaz both getting to strike out a bit and find themselves personally and professionally, and I like that even Noor gets a bit of a redemption arc. I love Amina's villain era and am cheering her on. In general I really liked how this series, in both the Amina/Billy and the record label plots, showed how... sometimes you have to make the wrong choice, so you can realise it's wrong, go back on it and return to the right choice more deliberately and with greater knowledge, knowing it really is what's right for you. ('Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving...', perhaps?)
Also I've only belatedly realised that the soundtrack is available to listen to, including all the songs written and performed by the band in the show. Speaking of which the songs are great! I love 'Villain Era' (of course) and 'Glass Ceiling Feeling' in particular (the music as well as the lyrics of the latter—those harmonies in the chorus are gorgeous).
And in among those two new shows I've also been watching the 1969-70 Granada TV adaptation of Alan Garner's The Owl Service, which I happened to find on Youtube and eagerly plunged into. It's reignited my love for the book, which I must re-read soon.
It is very good, and it's exactly what you'd expect a very good screen adaptation of an Alan Garner novel to be like, if that's imaginable. The theme tune is a mashup of traditional Welsh harp music, motorcycle revving noises and what is apparently water flushing through a cistern, which gives a fairly accurate summary of what the viewer is getting themselves into. (The motorcycle is plot-relevant and very solemnly meaningful, actually.) Garner wrote the script himself, and it is a pretty faithful adaptation—there are some cuts (I missed Gwyn's CH4 marsh gas! but perhaps that would have been too much of a special effects challenge) and some things are rejigged a bit but there are no huge changes, and many of the lines are verbatim from the book. According to the series's Wikipedia page the little 'the story so far' summaries at the beginning of each episode were added due to concern that viewers would struggle to follow the story, which amuses me; yep, you might just struggle to follow the story... (Why do I mind that so little about Garner's writing, even see it as a strength, when similar non-explaining-things has bothered me so much about some other books? Perhaps Garner is just brilliant enough to make it work; perhaps it's that it never feels like he should be explaining more, or thinks he is.)
It's interesting to see how the dialogue is interpreted, given the original very minimal description of tone and manner, and the series uses some interestingly weird camera techniques that fit the feel of the book beautifully. I loved the final scene between Alison and Gwyn before Gwyn runs off, the 'Stop looking at me like that!' bit especially; OTOH I thought Huw's final dramatic revelation was a bit over-dramatic (though Huw was otherwise very good). I liked Clive's accent, crisp RP with bits of northern poking through—really illustrates Nancy's 'doesn't know how to eat a pear' thing, and hearing it like that makes it more obvious that this is the same thing Gwyn is trying to do... The Alison/Gwyn relationship was rather more overt than in the book, which wasn't really to my taste (though again, the book is so minimal with details that you can't really say they weren't kissing in an ellipsis, Renault-style). Somehow the significant absence of Margaret felt more noticeable and deliberate than it did in the book—perhaps never seeing a character, even in the background, does stand out more than words on the page referring to them but never showing them actually there in a scene? It's an interesting choice, anyway. I still ship Gwyn/Roger just a little bit. I have made some icons from the series, as you can see!
Doctor Who
I loved Doctor Who during Russell T. Davies's first run, the Nine and Ten years, when I was still at the hiding-behind-the-sofa age; drifted away after Steven Moffat, whose writing I have never got on with, took over; returned for part of the Chibnall-Thirteen period and enjoyed it but felt it wasn't really what it used to be and lost interest towards the end; and now hearing that Davies was returning as showrunner, thought I'd give it another try again. I started with the Christmas special and could just about have cried at the end of it. There it is: this is the Doctor Who I loved—all the joy, weirdness, adventure, warm-heartedness—just how it would be and look and feel now instead of nineteen years ago. (Time is a funny thing: it occurs to me that Ruby was born just a few months before Nine met Rose, how weird is that???) Ncuti Gatwa is so completely the Doctor—that's really the only way you can put it for any actor who's right for the Doctor—I love his energy and enthusiasm, his smile, his accent—and Ruby is a great companion, and they work so well together. Aww, I am glad. :)
Anyway, the series continued really good! '73 Yards' may have been both my favourite and least favourite episode, I think, in that I loved the concept and development but was really frustrated by the non-explanation of an ending. (Yes, it's weird fantasy and won't necessarily have clear rules or logical explanation; but weird fantasy still needs some kind of internal logic and consistency—see below about The Owl Service—and I felt that was lacking.) I am conflicted about Fifteen changing costume every episode; I miss having one or two iconic Doctor outfits, but OTOH all his costumes are so good. :D I did feel that the series was too short and suffered from going too quickly for the 'unconventional structure' episodes—not that '73 Yards' and 'Dot and Bubble' weren't both excellent, but I think we needed to see a bit more of normal travelling life and adventures with Fifteen and Ruby first. I LOVED 'Rogue' and Rogue himself, and I trust that we'll see more of him.
Part of what I like about RTD's writing has always been the warmth and meaning and significance he finds in ordinary human lives, and so I was a bit dismayed by the building up of the mystery around Ruby's origins and the apparent implication that she was going to turn out to be Special in some way. So I really rather liked the reveal that actually it was all totally mundane! But apart from that I think the finale, while loads of fun in many ways, really didn't make enough sense... and I was dismayed to see that Ruby is apparently leaving after so little time! Really too short a series, unfortunately. Maybe they'll go back to 13 episodes in future?
(And in the meantime I could go back and watch the pre-series specials—I gather there's some good Donna stuff in them??)
We Are Lady Parts
Aww, We Are Lady Parts is so much fun and so lovely, and I think I liked the second series even better than the first. The relative lack of Amina/Saira material was a bit disappointing... OTOH, there is a canon f/f ship, and Ayesha and Laura are very cute and I wish them every happiness now they've overcome some challenges together. I like the character development all the leads got, perhaps especially Bisma and Momtaz both getting to strike out a bit and find themselves personally and professionally, and I like that even Noor gets a bit of a redemption arc. I love Amina's villain era and am cheering her on. In general I really liked how this series, in both the Amina/Billy and the record label plots, showed how... sometimes you have to make the wrong choice, so you can realise it's wrong, go back on it and return to the right choice more deliberately and with greater knowledge, knowing it really is what's right for you. ('Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving...', perhaps?)
Also I've only belatedly realised that the soundtrack is available to listen to, including all the songs written and performed by the band in the show. Speaking of which the songs are great! I love 'Villain Era' (of course) and 'Glass Ceiling Feeling' in particular (the music as well as the lyrics of the latter—those harmonies in the chorus are gorgeous).
And in among those two new shows I've also been watching the 1969-70 Granada TV adaptation of Alan Garner's The Owl Service, which I happened to find on Youtube and eagerly plunged into. It's reignited my love for the book, which I must re-read soon.
The Owl Service
It is very good, and it's exactly what you'd expect a very good screen adaptation of an Alan Garner novel to be like, if that's imaginable. The theme tune is a mashup of traditional Welsh harp music, motorcycle revving noises and what is apparently water flushing through a cistern, which gives a fairly accurate summary of what the viewer is getting themselves into. (The motorcycle is plot-relevant and very solemnly meaningful, actually.) Garner wrote the script himself, and it is a pretty faithful adaptation—there are some cuts (I missed Gwyn's CH4 marsh gas! but perhaps that would have been too much of a special effects challenge) and some things are rejigged a bit but there are no huge changes, and many of the lines are verbatim from the book. According to the series's Wikipedia page the little 'the story so far' summaries at the beginning of each episode were added due to concern that viewers would struggle to follow the story, which amuses me; yep, you might just struggle to follow the story... (Why do I mind that so little about Garner's writing, even see it as a strength, when similar non-explaining-things has bothered me so much about some other books? Perhaps Garner is just brilliant enough to make it work; perhaps it's that it never feels like he should be explaining more, or thinks he is.)
It's interesting to see how the dialogue is interpreted, given the original very minimal description of tone and manner, and the series uses some interestingly weird camera techniques that fit the feel of the book beautifully. I loved the final scene between Alison and Gwyn before Gwyn runs off, the 'Stop looking at me like that!' bit especially; OTOH I thought Huw's final dramatic revelation was a bit over-dramatic (though Huw was otherwise very good). I liked Clive's accent, crisp RP with bits of northern poking through—really illustrates Nancy's 'doesn't know how to eat a pear' thing, and hearing it like that makes it more obvious that this is the same thing Gwyn is trying to do... The Alison/Gwyn relationship was rather more overt than in the book, which wasn't really to my taste (though again, the book is so minimal with details that you can't really say they weren't kissing in an ellipsis, Renault-style). Somehow the significant absence of Margaret felt more noticeable and deliberate than it did in the book—perhaps never seeing a character, even in the background, does stand out more than words on the page referring to them but never showing them actually there in a scene? It's an interesting choice, anyway. I still ship Gwyn/Roger just a little bit. I have made some icons from the series, as you can see!
