General Chat

I wonder what you think of Marlon Brando?


Apocalypse Now is without doubt my favourite film of all time, and the brief appearance of Brando was what made it

But then he was responsible for Desiree. Not exactly his finest moment. Does that make him a "working actor?"

Sue x

Of course Rose -- it was absolutely made with your name on it! I think you know a young person who knows how to download bootlegs. ;)

Hm, Suzian. Validation of my feelings about Ashes to Ashes from a respected authority. But Life on Mars -- that was okay, no?

Donald Sutherland has so many -- he's like Michael Caine, a "working actor". I actually don't think I've seen Don't Look Now. Speaking of Moriarty, what's the Ripper movie ... him and fellow Canuck Chris Plummer ... well there's a turn-up -- googling disrupted by the fact that the real detective was called Donald Sutherland Swanson! Anyhow: Murder By Decree. Terrific flick. Then there was Eye of the Needle, one of the worst movies I've ever seen, which for some reason gets rave reviews. Maybe I should try it again ...

You and I both, Rose

Sue x

That sounds right up my street Janey, i will look out for it :)

Hi Janey

I haven't watched 24 yet, though I'm told by the "voice of wisdom" that I need to.

Donald Sutherland always did it for me - do you remember him in Don't Look Now with Julie Christie? Or in Kelly's Heroes - "always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves"

Ah, memories ......

Btw, Ashes to Ashes should, in my view, be conscribed to just there

Luther, on the other hand......
Sue x

Just read the first post and I must admit I am scared...... you have something of the Hayleys about you. I presume you've heard of Hayley, "pigeon killer"?

Ooh - just another recommendation if you like, um, comedy about Shakespearean theatre. ;) (Should I say you strike me as the type?)

That other fabulous Canadian Paul Gross (if you've run into Due South ever): Slings & Arrows. It was the darling of the literary set in New York City, I gather.


http://www.amazon.com/Slings-Arrows-Season-Paul-Gross/dp/B000FBFYKU

Showered with awards and critical acclaim, this darkly comic Canadian series follows the fortunes of a dysfunctional Shakespearean theatre troupe, exposing the high drama, scorching battles, and artistic miracles that happen behind the scenes.

Paul Gross (Due South) stars as washed-up actor Geoffrey Tennant, who returns to the New Burbage Theatre—the site of his acting triumph and his career-ending meltdown—to assume the artistic directorship after the sudden death of his mentor, Oliver Welles. Believing that theatre is meant to provoke not anesthetize, Geoffrey takes on the suits who want to turn the festival into a theme park, a director who runs amuck with Hamlet, and his own demons, including Oliver—who returns to haunt him. Also starring Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers, The Notebook), Stephen Ouimette (Mentors), and Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall).


The customer reviews include words like jaw-dropping, hilarious, compelling, absolutely brilliant ... ;)

PASS THE SALT, CHLOE!!!

Jack Bauer joke. ;)

We stuck with it dutifully (after all, Kiefer Sutherland is the son of the fabulous Canadian Donald, and grandson of Tommy Douglas, the Greatest Canadian(TM), father of our medicare system) through it all, right up to the final 2-hour episode last year ... which we taped, and never watched. Watched the first episode of this year, and kind of silently agreed that enough was enough.

We're still watching Luther!

And last night we watched the first episode of Ashes to Ashes. Had seen several episodes before, but missed the first. I couldn't take any more of her clothing hanging off her body in every shot (really, in the 80s, women were able for the most part to find workwear that actually stayed on), but I'm gathering (I refuse to read the spoiler threads!) it may be worth the investment, so we'll give it another go.

Hi Janey

I've just spent best part of half an hour replying to you and then I inadvertently pressed the delete button. I'll not try to say it all again.

the gist of it was - we don't enjoy the same stuff, House of Cards is worth a go, Rachel is looking out for Intelligence. When she can tear herself away from Jack Bauer.

Sue x

I wasn't ignoring you! I was off out of town for my mum's 80th birthday! Horrible long bus rides ...

So we watched the 4th Luther last night. It seems kind of a run-of-the-mill detective tale. I'm afraid the giraffe-necked wife and platypus-billed stalker are both really annoying. As is the obtrusive camera gimmick, which I had heretofore seen only in commercials: positioning the shot so the person speaking is in the lower corner facing away from the centre of the shot. It's disconcerting because traditionally, when a conversation between two people is filmed, the person on the left is in the left part of the frame, speaking to the right, and the person on the right is in the right part of the frame in the next shot, speaking to the left. It just seems really heavy-handed here, like the handheld camera was in NYPD Blue in its early years. I feel like saying: Yes, I get it, this is kewl and edgy stuff, enough!

Re downloading: you download, convert to the format your DVD player plays if necessary, then burn a DVD and watch it on your television. ;)

Re The Sopranos: I still don't find scum interesting. ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards

I seem to recall it vaguely but I don't think I've seen it. Something else to tell No.1 to fetch.

This is the wiki on Intelligence, which you do *not* want to read, beyond the overview and cast list, if you want to watch the series. ;) (Apparently it aired on the Hallmark Channel in the UK and a whole lot of other countries.) More fun are articles with the director's take on why it was cancelled:

http://thetyee.ca/Entertainment/2007/12/03/NoIntelligence/

One of the many story lines in Intelligence focuses on efforts by powerful interests to bring about "deep integration" of the U.S and Canadian political and economic systems. Part of that plotline is the infiltration of Canadian institutions by U.S. intelligence agents. ...

While Intelligence has fiercely loyal fans and has received rave reviews from critics (and eleven Gemini nominations; with one win) its relatively low audience numbers, at about 250,000, provide CBC management with the excuse to dump the show. And plans are afoot to do just that, if Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle, and others with access to the insiders at CBC, are reading things correctly.

But Haddock suspects that the low numbers are in part a useful problem deliberately created by those who have their own reasons to change how drama is done at the network. "Somewhere in the CBC someone is saying 'do not promote this show.'"

... "The question is why would they be so hostile to the show? Who is feeling threatened by it? Is it the fact that I'm talking about dope, the narco-economy? Well, there are lots of people who would be offended by that. Or is that I'm talking about money-laundering? Well, there are lots of people who don't want it talked about because they're practising it. Is it the deep integration theme? Is that too politically sensitive for Harper's Ottawa? Is it personal? Who knows? ...

HI again Janey

The beauty of the Sopranos isn't that the characters wouldn't pass the "spitting at in the street" test, more that they "work" - by which I mean that they're interesting as characters. Maybe not likeable, but definitely interesting.

I'll mention "Intelligence" to Rachel (my daughter). She's long past teenage, but she does have the advantage of having a computer with a working sound card! I can only download Marcel Marceau without being at a disadvantage.

Did you ever get a chance to see "House of Cards" over there? I'm not sure if you'd class it as plot- or character-driven (probably a bit of both) but, if you follow English politics, and like a bit of intrigue, you'll really enjoy it.

Sue x

The Sopranos, yeeeaaach. Two things he watched that I refused to: The Sopranos and The Shield. I just have no interest in watching character-driven shows about characters I wouldn't spit on if I passed them lying in the street!

UK dramas are also very plot-driven, no mistake. They are generally much denser than US dramas on every level, at least the ones we get here, which are the cream of the crop I expect. One big thing is they don't go on for decades as the US ones do (except for the classics). And the US ones that do go on and on are either plot-driven (the L&Os) or ensemble casts that change constantly. Or crap like the CSIs. ;)

There's one recent truly excellent Cdn crime drama that you should get if you can download or have a teenager who does. Intelligence. It has CSIS (our MI5/CIA equivalent), the RCMP (our Special Branch/FBI equivalent), plus, from the US, the CIA and FBI and DEA (drug enforcement), and Hell's Angels and free trade machinations -- it is quite similar to your Inside the Line (which had a different name in the UK -- Between the Lines, that's it). It resembled a Brit series in that it was very character-driven but also plot-dense. And it was cancelled because it made the Conservative government very unhappy, before it was able to get to the really good political stuff ...

I've had about enough of loud firecrackers being exploded on my block ... going to go have a look. Blast Queen Victoria and her birthday.

Hi all

Did any of you see "The Corner"?

Ref all the CSI's - it amazes me how Grisham, Horatio et al could possibly be forensic detectives, given that the female of the species always waves long blonde hair over the "crime scene" and Horatio views the whole thing through his dark glasses!

Dr Who is just daft enough to make it compulsive viewing!


Interesting thought that UK dramas are character-driven. Probably the case.

But then, The Sopranos??????

Sue x

We have already, TW! Is it coming back? We liked it because it had Danny Baldwin in it. ;)

The problem was, the scripts were lifted straight from the original, so it was too much like watching reruns. I have a parlour trick: within the first 5 seconds of an episode of L&O (at least for the first decade of), I can identify the plot. We watch reruns at midnight constantly, you see, and No.1 hadn't seen (or didn't remember) a lot of the early ones. I hadn't watched it myself for the first 5 seasons or so, and then watched them all when they came on late-night, every night, on a specialty channel. So when the one comes on that starts with the kid rappelling up a building at night, I say "boom", which gets me credit for knowing the entire plot (without giving it away). ;)

Anyhow, the one for which my code ID is "blue and red" came on the UK version, so I said "blue and red". Only it turned out they'd altered it somewhat and it wasn't the adult daughter's memory of the blue sweater with the red blood that triggered her recall. ;)

It was very interesting to see how they adapted everything to the UK context though -- one thing about the original is the absolutely accurate legal aspects of it, which are of course different outside the US.

NCIS and Criminal minds ... and the whole CSI cult -- that's "B" list stuff. ;)


BC -- We never managed to catch The Wire regularly -- it's been on a couple of stations here, local ones as well as BBC Canada I think. But now that No.1 has become a downloading fool, I think I'll get him to go for that for the summer.

We're still catching up on Doctor Who! For some reason he wasn't taken by it when it started airing here 2 or 3 years ago, so I used to watch it sometimes after he went to bed. Now he's hooked.

Janey, wait till you see the UK version of Law & Order. I didn't like it at all. Mind, I prefer NCIS and Criminal Minds myself. I did like Luther though.

I didn't like the first episode of Luther but I think that is because I liked The Wire so much that his accent didn't sound right! lol BC X

He has found some worthless soccer game to watch on a Saturday afternoon ... withdrawal symptoms, I suppose.

So we watched Luther. Not bad, we'll get the other 2 available now and follow along.

I like my police procedurals plot-driven. Law & Order is the classic model: just enough characters to move the plot along, not too much of them. Except for Elliot in SUV, who should jump off a cliff and end his angst. Brit ones tend to be very character-driven. By the time Cracker was over, I would have happily murdered both him and his martyred wife. There looks to be a lot of angst coming in Luther. ;)

You have to remember -- for us here, EastEnders and Coronation Street and Heartbeat and loads of other stuff that you might consider passé are exotic fare!

Hope you enjoy

Eastenders hasn't been worth watching since Den finally met his end in the canal

And as for MUFC, be aware you're writing to a Geordie lass. We only do the Toon around here!

Sue x

Nah, late Hitchcock (like The Birds) is crap -- I was just thinking about seagulls. ;)

Early Hitchcock -- The 39 Steps, I can't remember the names of anything else ... Secret Agent? ... one with Gary Cooper ... they're excellent.

We may watch it tonight, since Heartbeat, our usual Friday 9 pm fare for the last 11 years (since he moved in, and for me before that) is now gone away.

And now I get to watch my week of EastEnders episodes on Saturday morning in peace, with no Manchester United to disturb it!

Let me know what you think when you've watched it.


It's nothing like Hitchcock but scarey and thought-provoking in its own way

Sue x