Dancing on the Edge
Mar. 3rd, 2013 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessFinal episode.
So, in an emergency, you’d want Pamela Luscombe – she was the BEST. Of course, it became even clearer that all her life she’d been trying to manage her unbalanced brother. And despite doing it for Stanley, more than out of doing the right thing disinterestedness, she was helping Louis because she was afraid he was being hunted for what her brother had done.
You’d also want Eric (I’m imagining he had an excellent career as a reporter doing a bit of spying for the Allies in the second world war). I was amused that Stanley was low-level annoyed with him for the editorial joshing, but had other things on his mind.
At a push, you’d want Stanley too, although this was mainly down to it being Louis in such dire straits. (I was very amused by his exasperation in the car. I hope that he has kids one day to infuriate him in car journeys. I am reasonably sure he’d find a way to get around petrol rationing. I do not know if I want them to be Pamela’s kids. All I wanted when she heard the news about Julian was for Stanley to be kind to her. I wasn’t sure if her really loved her or recognised her awesome. I just knew that the writer’s self-insert was going to get the girl.)
And Carla if all she has to do is acting the star, but I have hearted her all series, and I was glad she could sing us out.
I did find myself bellowing at Sarah to see the bigger picture in her final scene – even though I knew she’d always get written as the weak reed. But it was basically her trying to hash out her feelings and Louis’s feelings when the pressing point was getting him safely away, and her feelings were endangering that. Again and again since the last episode.
As the centre of the crisis, Louis was allowed one moment of comparative freak out, well, he did sweat more than normal. And he was still prickly and paranoid.
I am...disappointed in how it all turned out, although given that all the interesting possibilities of theories had been dangled before us, had been parked rather than developed (celebrity, the Masons). I was pretty sure of how it would go from the scene with Carla. We saw how Julian’s bigoted mummy had always abandoned him, how Pamela was abandoning him, how he didn’t want to be managed by Masterson any more. A point was made about privilege, wealth and power and the abuse thereof, but it could have been more, well, pointy. Tom Hughes had fun showing Julian unravelling; his encounters with the creepy nieces were unsettling, but why have him hearing voices/see hallucinations at the end? That was lame and detracted from a powerful scene. It didn’t entirely make sense – so many mysterious hints were being dropped that never got explained.
Still, the music and the look were sumptuous. It certainly captured mood at times, even if the story could have been a lot tighter, dropping some aspects and making more of others. There were moments that were great on character – Pamela and Stanley acknowledging the complications of their motivations. Then there was every time Lady Cremone reminded us of her dead sons. I would have preferred it if it hadn’t been so squarely about Stanley and Louis’s epic bromance. For instance, nothing was made of the band as individuals. I’ve never seen anything by Poliakoff before (I think), I do intend to try to see The Glorious 39 at some point soon, because of The Romola Garai and the similarity in period.
So, in an emergency, you’d want Pamela Luscombe – she was the BEST. Of course, it became even clearer that all her life she’d been trying to manage her unbalanced brother. And despite doing it for Stanley, more than out of doing the right thing disinterestedness, she was helping Louis because she was afraid he was being hunted for what her brother had done.
You’d also want Eric (I’m imagining he had an excellent career as a reporter doing a bit of spying for the Allies in the second world war). I was amused that Stanley was low-level annoyed with him for the editorial joshing, but had other things on his mind.
At a push, you’d want Stanley too, although this was mainly down to it being Louis in such dire straits. (I was very amused by his exasperation in the car. I hope that he has kids one day to infuriate him in car journeys. I am reasonably sure he’d find a way to get around petrol rationing. I do not know if I want them to be Pamela’s kids. All I wanted when she heard the news about Julian was for Stanley to be kind to her. I wasn’t sure if her really loved her or recognised her awesome. I just knew that the writer’s self-insert was going to get the girl.)
And Carla if all she has to do is acting the star, but I have hearted her all series, and I was glad she could sing us out.
I did find myself bellowing at Sarah to see the bigger picture in her final scene – even though I knew she’d always get written as the weak reed. But it was basically her trying to hash out her feelings and Louis’s feelings when the pressing point was getting him safely away, and her feelings were endangering that. Again and again since the last episode.
As the centre of the crisis, Louis was allowed one moment of comparative freak out, well, he did sweat more than normal. And he was still prickly and paranoid.
I am...disappointed in how it all turned out, although given that all the interesting possibilities of theories had been dangled before us, had been parked rather than developed (celebrity, the Masons). I was pretty sure of how it would go from the scene with Carla. We saw how Julian’s bigoted mummy had always abandoned him, how Pamela was abandoning him, how he didn’t want to be managed by Masterson any more. A point was made about privilege, wealth and power and the abuse thereof, but it could have been more, well, pointy. Tom Hughes had fun showing Julian unravelling; his encounters with the creepy nieces were unsettling, but why have him hearing voices/see hallucinations at the end? That was lame and detracted from a powerful scene. It didn’t entirely make sense – so many mysterious hints were being dropped that never got explained.
Still, the music and the look were sumptuous. It certainly captured mood at times, even if the story could have been a lot tighter, dropping some aspects and making more of others. There were moments that were great on character – Pamela and Stanley acknowledging the complications of their motivations. Then there was every time Lady Cremone reminded us of her dead sons. I would have preferred it if it hadn’t been so squarely about Stanley and Louis’s epic bromance. For instance, nothing was made of the band as individuals. I’ve never seen anything by Poliakoff before (I think), I do intend to try to see The Glorious 39 at some point soon, because of The Romola Garai and the similarity in period.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 10:29 pm (UTC)You've covered everything I didn't get to in my ranting, hahaha (and oh yes, there should have been much more of the band, apart from Louis and the girls they barely got lines). I just wanted to comment to say that Glorious 39 is good because a) it is a lot shorter and b) Romola Garai. It does have some similar themes though, which you'll pick up on as you go through - I saw Glorious 39 ages ago so I was doing it the other way around!
no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 09:17 pm (UTC)I meant to see The Glorious 39 when it came out, but seeing similar themes treated as in DotE has given me the push to get it as soon as I can.