@JimtheFish

No No NO!! She only has a thing for robotic yetis. She told me so, said I was special. She’s mine I tell you, mine!!!

@JimTheFish  — “Artistic license” is only a good excuse *when it works*.  When people just fall about hooting with scornful laughter, I think maybe that’s a good indication that “artistic license” just isn’t going to fly this time.

On the other hand, for some viewers it clearly *did* work as artistic license.  So . . . ?  Ah, the critic’s dil…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

Must admit I found Tennant’s Hamlet a bit underwhelming when I saw the televised version but I’m sure it had real power on the stage.

It had huge power on the stage; having seen both I entirely agree about the televised version. It lost a lot in the translation from stage to screen. I think everyone was so busy dialling down per…[Read more]

@purofilion @JimTheFish  I generally get an odd impression off Tennant.  I think he’s just wound way too tight for my taste, feels like there’s no place to go from there but screaming meemies, just on the verge of alla time — exhausting to watch (I do love a talent for stillness and composure in an actor — that breathes *confidence* to me, and a…[Read more]

@JimTheFish  Well, you gotta take the soap box for a ranty run every now and then or it’ll curl up and die, won’t it.  Rather not say more about  BC, myself, since I only saw the first season, and not all of that since I didn’t take to it.  Curious to see how the viewership is holding up for this new round.  I should also get it out there, I gues…[Read more]

@JimTheFish and @Ichabod

I’d like to add another point to the ‘lazy’ debate. Which is that, very often, the TV writer is neither lazy nor impatient – they just couldn’t get the story perfect in the time they had.

I can only speak to this from the acting side: the motto of the performing arts is very often ‘I don’t want it brilliant, I want it…[Read more]

@JimTheFish and @ScaryB. I am really looking forward to Banished and I expect it to be very political indeed. It is not surprising however that McGovern would choose to dip into history in order to be able to express political ideas. History like Sci fi and fantasy can present controversial ideas by default. As for gritty the first fleet and early…[Read more]

Apologies for the long post above!  Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read it!

@Ichabod I agree with you. I’d put “lazy” along with “sloppy” and “deus ex machina” (*waves cheerily to @Bluesqueakpip*) as terms of criticism that have been so overused (not to say lazily used 😉 ) as to be meaningless and best avoided.

I also liked your…[Read more]

Wow! I do seem to have touched a nerve with my original post about Broadchurch 2 🙂 Thanks for all the contributions to the debate everyone. But yes, please let’s keep it civil (but still robust!). It’s why this Forum is so special.

@pedant

But in B2 he didn’t seem to know and just threw a load of plot at the wall – in fact it pretty much ree…

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@JimTheFish  As someone who has from time to time erred in a similar fashion, let me put another name to the problem: Impatience.  The rush to get *through*, escape, move on.  Mind you, that’s *my version of this problem*; doesn’t mean it’s Chibnail’s, so “laziness” sure isn’t subject to a veto by me.*  That’s what vocabulary is for — drawing dis…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

But then again IMDB is not exactly the most reliable source.

To put it mildly. I’m pretty sure Chris Chibnall has mentioned working with Sam Hoyle when they were storyboarding S2 – but IMDB only has him down as 2013. So it might be that they simply didn’t update the returning crew.

You’ve got a point about going to the US…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

Old school script editors of the Bob Holmes variety would have made sure something like this would have been addressed, I suspect.

That’s a very interesting point. Did BC2 have the same editorial team as the original?

Iain M Banks’s later SF became borderline unreadable because he changed editors to one without the balls to say “Er,…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

But if he’d been flying a, say, Sopwith Camel then we’d quite rightly have to take issue with it.

Yes. True. If he’d been flying a Sopwith Camel, we’d definitely have to have taken issue. If, however, he’d been a fighter pilot with a Gloucester Gladiator, there wouldn’t have been a problem. Or an RN pilot with a Fairey Swo…[Read more]

@Purofilion Glad the finale blew your socks off. Great analysis

@Pedant – Great to see you back; hope RL’s improving and you get settled to regular computer again soon

@Cathannabel

<span style=”font-style: italic; color: #222222;”>that beautiful sequence of young women taking that power on, without understanding it but knowing that its theirs,…

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@purofilion @JimTheFish @pedant et al.  S7 would never be my favourite season.  I think 5 holds that place.  Though even just saying that makes me want to argue vigorously for 3, or even 6.  But there are things in 7 that are marvellous.  The whole premise of the show – at least as flagged in the title – is challenged, both by the Scoo…[Read more]

Right, so, anyway, where was I?

Oh that’s right @purofilion was in a right old grump ;). On the @JimTheFish – @Bluesqueakpip axis I lie somewhat more towards bluey because, while nothing surpasses the sheer perfection of S5, S7 does an amazing job, under tricky circumstances (not least, not knowing until the show was on air whether this would be…[Read more]

@jimthefish Thanks

@JimtheFish

Completely agree with that. It was Forsyth’s first film as a director  (he wrote and produced it a well) and most of the actors were from Glasgow Youth Theatre (except Ricky Demarco, but he was playing himself! 😉 ). So you can forgive him for being on a learning curve with it! But it has a freshness about it that shines through,…[Read more]