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Peace 47

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Everything posted by Peace 47

  1. I’m not sure if some sophisticated critics might say that the heavy overlay of relentless theme music during moments of crisis is a bit much for this show on the whole, but damned if I don’t get completely drawn into the mood conveyed when they do it. Like at the end when Elizabeth was returning to the castle to listen to the increasingly grim news reports of JFK’s condition, and that music just built and built, it really added to the drama of the situation. The way Claire Foy’s face fell when she heard the report that JFK had been administered last rites was also a moving bit of acting.
  2. Capped off with wedding scenes filmed like everyone (save Margaret) was heading to a funeral, complete with grim expressions and blaring choir music.
  3. When Tommy said that they don’t give a flying fig about the Parkers (in his veddy dry inimitable way), and then Adeane promptly agreed, I thought Tommy, in pausing to share a slightly contemplative look with Adeane, might have felt a twinge of guilt for being so cold about his statement. It was a passing flicker, though, and maybe I read too much into it, because it didn’t amount to anything. There was a lot of emphasis on the symbolism of facial hair in this episode. The beards of Mike and Philip on the royal tour were an implicit rejection of their London society life (Margaret calls them “shifty” when she sees them). Eden trims his moustache before going off the plane to reconnect himself with the establishment. The Queen gets Adeane to shave to try to show Philip that things around the palace can change.
  4. Holy cow, how did I miss that this was Michael C. Hall?! He’s such a talented actor, and in a couple of the definitive TV dramas of the past 20 years to boot, I’m surprised that his characterization missed the mark so much here.
  5. Yes! You said exactly what I couldn’t put into words about that. I also was thinking the somewhat snarky comment as I was having to watch that it’s a strange universe of a sketch where people want to give the working class person of color a break over the powerful white guy.
  6. I’m in so deep on the binge watching. This is terrible: I’m going to spend 10 hours this weekend watching this thing! This show is so enthralling, though. This was another hour that just flew by. Funniest moment award for me was when they were on the plane from Ghana, Elizabeth asked if the stories were positive or negative, and when told they were positive, she “acquiesced” and said that she would take a quick look. As an American, I’ve grown up with Jackie Kennedy on a bit of a pedestal and heard the story of the raving success of the France trip many times, so I was a little taken aback by the somewhat uncouth presentation of both Kennedys in London at first. I get not curtsying because the American establishment to this day ties themselves in knots if an American leader is perceived to show any subservience to others, even if it is the customary sign of greeting or respect (like bowing in Japan). But the incorrect title usage seemed odd. I wanted to say to fictional Jackie that she was one to criticize the Queen for being incurious and dull when fictional Jackie was kind of a dud on their private tour: she seemed bored by the throne room and steered the conversation to how shy she is when Elizabeth was keeping it respectfully professional and noting interesting things about the palace. If I were imagining a conversation between them, I might have thought that the famous White House restoration that Jackie undertook would have come up. I felt bad for Jackie with the foot in mouth at the Radizwell dinner, though. That was a kind explanation that the writer imagined for why Jackie may have crapped on the royal family like that. A past episode mentioned how Elizabeth was a little cold with Charles (which I haven’t really seen on the show to this point). I actually thought that the end of this episode was a good follow-up demonstrator of how perhaps Elizabeth’s perceived coldness comes to pass. She is not outwardly emotional, and she feels bad for not revealing more of herself during the apology, but Philip, like everyone else in her life, reinforces that she’s right not to express herself personally like that (something she’s been told since the moment she became queen). So it’s not hard to imagine that she would have been a bit remote with her family, as well. Thoroughly enjoyable episode, although I agree that JFK was badly miscast and not convincingly written.
  7. Oh man, I was just typing up a post truly eviscerating this episode (even though I’m generally a pretty strong fan of the show), but everyone loves it! So now I feel bad. Maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy the show tonight (it happens). But I have to say: what was with that “office sexual harassment resignation” sketch? I generally don’t think women find old men who say inappropriate things to be endearing (but I know that they could have just been turning that fact on its head for the additional humor beyond the outrageousness of the things that Keenan said). The twist at the end that Keenan’s firing had nothing to do with sexual harassment was not great, though.
  8. Amazing pacing of this episode. So many scene cuts, but it just flowed like water. I’m so glad that they explored Edward’s Nazi collusion. They really have done a great job with this character in the show. He is so slick and smooth that you can see why he is popular amongst his society clique, continually saying anything to put himself in the best light (or in a victim light). His letters to his wife/ those who knew him best (like Tommy) reveal his true character (or lack thereof), though. When the rest of his family made real wartime sacrifice (not to mention the horrible, devastating toll of the war on his people at large), for him to have thrown in his hat with the Nazis is beyond the pale. Those real pictures of him at the end playing nice with Hitler made me well up a bit. It’s so horrible. I don’t know Billy Graham from that era very well, but I thought the look and sound of him was spot on from what I do know. Loved Tommy’s eyeroll when the Queen moved his battle figurine and he had to move it back. Like others, I am distraught we didn’t get the Tommy/Queen Mother/ Philip drinking scene. I’d be idly curious to know if the American soldier at the very beginning of the episode was a British actor doing an American accent. It was SO AMERICAN that it made me laugh. Great episode.
  9. Yes, I think the Queen did ask him to shave. I thought that it was because Philip had earlier called all the castle/royalty minders, “Moustaches” as a term to denote how stuffy and old-fashioned that they were, and so the Queen, in her continuing efforts to make Philip more comfortable, asked her own secretary to shave as a subtle symbol that her closest bureaucrat was willing to modernize. I obviously have no idea what the real Prince Philip is like, but Matt Smith and the writer sure make good work of presenting Philip as an utterly contemptible jackass. I know that they have alluded to Philip’s sad childhood as a potential motivator, but the way he treats the Queen is horrid. He didn’t even apologize to her for the publicity mess, just promptly continued to complain right where he left off. As written, he is so resentful of his wife’s position and trappings that it makes him actually hate her. Good moment when he fired Mike, though. When the Queen was talking to Macmillan and said that “One has to accept one’s own part in any mess,” I guess that she was referring to her marriage (as she the went off to see Mrs. Parker), and I felt bad for her that she apparently feels at fault in her marriage. Super happy that Mrs. Parker didn’t get bullied into staying with her piece of crap husband, even if I thought that her bitterness towards the Queen was misplaced: her husband was a slimeball no matter what job he would have taken. The conversation between the Queen and Eileen didn’t really ring true to me overall: even in this fantasy world, I cannot imagine the Queen ever going to visit Eileen at her house and talk so openly about the adultry.
  10. I’ve never paid attention to him before other than to know that he was on Downton Abbey (which I’ve never seen), but he sure looked striking in this episode. Blonde-ish hair really suits him. Great chemistry with the actress who plays Margaret, too. I was actually captivated by the photo session scene and aftermath: how it was juxtaposed with Cecil’s stuffy session at the beginning, how it exposed Margaret’s sense of feeling lost and off-balance. And how she got that sense of freedom riding on the motorcycle with complete abandon while Elizabeth and Philip were bogged down in stuffy, unsexy governmental duties and a strained marriage.
  11. Simpsons did it. I thought the description “splatty tomato” for the rotten tomato logo was really cute. I loved the kids’ tragic 80s playlists. (That was relatable because it happens to me when I turn on Sirius sometimes.) And this was a good burn: “Remember that they can do to you what they did to Kathy Griffin.” ”Make her not funny for 30 years?” Some points off for all the vomiting. I HATE when shows do that because I’m hypersensitive, and it makes me sick.
  12. That’s Dr. Strange’s address from the comics going back to the 1960s, and the actual street address of the writer who wrote the address into the comics. I haven’t seen this particular film to hear the background music you mention, though.
  13. I both agree with you and could also play devil’s advocate that I could theoretically see them being happy together, at least based on their personalities in the first years of the show (which are the seasons I’ve been rewatching on Netflix and really enjoying, hence my posting about this show for the first time today). Daphne liked sophisticated, artsy things, too, even if she came from humble beginnings. She had mad dancing skillz suitable for ballrooms (very cute when she was teaching Niles), and enjoyed fancy meals (like when they went to eat at Niles and Frasier’s restaurant). I also found it endearing that she could serve as Niles’s “cultural translator” in that episode where she was explaining to him what type of symphony or opera seats were analogous to courtside basketball seats. So I think that she could move in Niles’ world well enough that they could find things to do together that they would both like. And Hester and Martin were relatively different but had an okay marriage (with caveats). But Daphne was so clueless on any feelings that Niles was projecting that I found it hard to believe that after so many years of viewing him as just a friend, that she would suddenly become attracted to him in a light switch moment solely because she knew that he was to her. They had almost no sexual tension at all in the buildup to their relationship—it was just so one-sided on Niles’ part—without those charged moments you’ll see TV couples have that make you root for them: lingering glances, mutual flirting, etc. Here’s a weird one: sometimes I could have seen Niles and Roz together, except that they wrote so many deeply offensive (especially in this current environment) jibes by Niles and Frasier towards Roz’s sexual history that I would never have wanted Niles and Roz together under those circumstances on the show. But the actors had a really good chemistry, and when the characters were getting along, they were cute and funny together, like when Niles filled in for Frasier at work a couple of times.
  14. Yeah, I had just edited my post when you posted, but it was such lazy writing to make her so vindictive after the fact.
  15. I’m with those who liked Faye best for Frasier. Amy Brenneman has a likeable screen presence, and they wrote her some good lines. Her onscreen energy was different from Kelsey Grammer’s, but I thought that it was nicely complementary. I actually really hated the conclusion of Frasier’s arc, not just because his relationship with Charlotte was rushed (and there was zero chemistry with Laura Linney) but also because that I didn’t think that his moving away from his family in search of another love (or even another career) was the right ending for his character. The show was about how he rebuilt a relatively happy life in Seattle by reconnecting with his family (after things probably couldn’t have been worse, with Martin especially), and built a career as a notable member of Seattle society. And he walks away cold from all of that. I know that he did have an ongoing search for love in the show, but I don’t think that the moral should have been to abandon everything else good in his life to chase that, and if the show ever drove home any points, it was that you need to be present to maintain strong relationships with friends and family (e.g., closing of Duke’s, how Frasier couldn’t connect with Woody anymore, etc.) I just rewatched the episode where Niles takes Daphne to the Snow Ball, and if I were going to buy them as a plausible couple, I think that was the episode where they should have started to get together instead of waiting. I hated the way Daphne treated Donny and Niles treated Mel in the initial getting together so much that it just soured me on Niles/Daphne as endgame. And then they turned Donny and Mel into one-dimensional villains to make sure that we were on the side of Daphne/Niles.
  16. I thought that this episode was a good finale to a major theme of the season: the process of death and dying and how it’s ugly and sometimes scary and ultimately something that must be acknowledged in a meaningful way. And maybe how it’s necessary to keep moving forward in the face of it. The King wasn’t told of the seriousness of his illness until quite late, but still put on the stiff upper lip and chose to face his death with peaceful moments with his family at the end because that is what was most important to him. Queen Mary dealt with her illness with sharp wit and clarity. She reached a final detente with Edward, even if she never forgave him because the end is scary and lonely. Winston was aged and betrayed by his body all season, and in bitter denial of that fact until this episode when he had to confront it (much like Anthony Eden). The episode also brought to light why Churchill took to Venetia Scott (reminded him of his dead daughter) and why he was so anguished by her death at the time (but ultimately it was a sudden death that he used as a political opportunity because one must always fight until the last).
  17. Wow, I just (finally) binge-watched the whole series. Late to the party, I know. I probably can’t say much more than what was covered in the various episode threads (the budget, costumes, backdrops and acting are all amazing, etc.), but I did have one thought. As an American, I never had much investment in the debate over retaining the British royal family other than to think that the tradition and history were rich and maybe good for tourism dollars, but one thing this series has done is push me firmly over into the (British) republican camp. The personal drama of all these episodes is completely riveting, but anything royal-related is without historical consequence. I know that the royal family had tremendous symbolism during WWII, but it seems clear to me that by the 1950s, they had outlived their usefulness as an institution. Every “crisis” that Elizabeth had to face was of no real import except to the tremendous detriment of her own family and relationships. Her job is to be a cipher and keep her family in check, but to what end? She’s symbolic head of the church, but she has no power at all to sway the clergy and government, even if the public and press wanted it. All she could do was hurt her sister and follow the orders of her old, white male advisors in every single respect. And she gets to scold (if it happened) Churchill and the other guy about keeping Churchill’s strokes a secret, but other than that dressing down, it had no impact: Churchill did not have a come to Jesus moment about his health as a result of her actions, it’s not like she got subsequent updates on his health thereafter, and everything continued on status quo until Churchill reached his own retirement decision later on. Same with the smog crisis—she wanted to do something but nothing she did or didn’t do ever really mattered or could matter. She certainly had to work hard on the foreign tours, but promoting imperialism was going out of vogue by that point, and it was a somewhat large personal cost (relationship with husband and children) for her to be scheduled within an inch of her life for so many weeks. She was ill-educated (not her fault and admirable for her to try to rectify it, if she did in real life), but getting tutoring didn’t really have impact on the nation that we’ve seen—Eisenhower didn’t even come for her crash course in Dwight to have paid off.
  18. I do agree that everything that you pointed out in your post is or can be problematic to varying degrees, but I wouldn’t want SNL to stop making the commentary that they are currently making, either. I mean, they didn’t necessarily have to have known to blacklist Louis C.K. before his story broke to have the right to comment on the current environment (and if in the past Franken engaged in sexual harassment while working on the show (not sure if he did), they’re at least calling Franken out now for unacceptable behavior, which is needed). I wouldn’t want them to stop making skits like “Welcome to Hell” just because we can still point out how they can do better on avoiding hypocrisy (like taking on Matt Lauer in Weekend Update while also doing the Leslie/Mikey couple bit on Update).
  19. I’ve been kind of obsessed with purses recently (not $1300 purses, but still—just trying to fill gaping emotional chasms with pretty things), so I was actually wondering if Abbi’s bag was a real designer purse or just something made up for the show. I liked how architectural it looked. I felt awful that she was robbed of her last dollars and her beautiful purse, then got stuck working security to top it all off. Nice to see Steve Buscemi pop up there, though, I guess. Also felt awful for Ilana that after all her generosity, her remaining money had to be burned and she lost her job. Kind of a depressing episode, actually. Bedbugs are a major fear and concern for me every single time I stay in a hotel, so this ep was also nice nightmare fuel.
  20. I agree that the Theresa May bit was a bright spot. I had been thinking that the Merkel bits were getting really, really tired, and so this was a nice way to freshen up the formula. I especially liked when May said “Flame emoji! I’m practically a troll!” I like the concept of using “Chad” in different types of sketches (where he’s the clueless object of affection, or the chosen one, live, pretaped, etc.), but I didn’t care for McEnroe very much. She did do a great job with that Weekend Update character without a trace of evidence of the flubs that have followed her in live sketches this season (and in pretaped she’s continued to shine), but with all the news about victims of sexual misconduct, I have to say that I felt that this whole bit was slightly tone-deaf. I know it’s different because they were willing spouses engaging in some kinky stuff, but Mikey was basically playing a physically abused spouse uncomfortable with how far things went, and I’m just over this stuff being played for straight laughs without any critical examination of the underlying situation. From the perspective of that mindset, I thought Welcome to Hell was brilliant and great social satire. Sketch of the night.
  21. Oh man, I was just reading that the Lois and Clark cornfield scene from the trailer (which I had assumed was Lois’s dream)—“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ ” / “What?” / “The ring”—was actually real but cut from the final film? Blergh. What an adorable proposal. And we’ll never get Lois’s response. Super disappointing. Separately, I was reading that the scene where Diana saves those people from the suitcase bomber might have been different in the Snyder version because the trailer showed that building exploding from the outside? If so, that may have been a wise reshoot—that Capitol explosion scene in BvS was so disheartening.
  22. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Grampa: I’d just used [my washtub] to wash my turkey, which in those days was called a walking bird. We’d always have walking bird on Thanksgiving, with ALL the trimmings. And this all-time top-10 quote (at least it is for me): Homer: It was the best Thanksgiving ever! I mean, emotionally, it was terrible. But the turkey was so moist.
  23. Ohhhhh, okay. I withdraw my previous comment then. Go after him, SNL!
  24. I thought that Pete’s bit was the highlight of the show. That was so funny how the Staten Island newspaper is all heart eyes emoji for Colin and still pissed at Pete for his diss. To me, it seemed like the audience was really not feeling the cold open, but I thought it had some good lines and was better than last week’s. Particularly Eric calling Wikileaks “Ricki Lakes.” I thought Chance’s best sketch was the hockey one. I liked when he said, “reporting from hell” or something like that. It’s not really cold at hockey games, though, right? That emphasis on how cold it was seemed a little weird. But I liked when he turned the guy around, saw “Skj” on the jersey and promptly gave up. Good acting. Edited to delete my Family Feud sketch comment! Didn’t realize Steve Harvey was that slimy in real life, too.
  25. It’s funny Tiffany mentioned Kevin Hart in her monologue because I thought that the style of her joke delivery reminded me a little bit of Kevin. That Alexander McQueen joke was hilarious. Weekend Update has 2 especially cutting lines that I thought were sharp and brutal satire: (1) When Colin said that it was a good weekend to stay inside because it’s 20 degrees out and “everyone you’ve ever heard of is a sex monster” and (2) Claire from HR asking when it was okay to have a sexual relationship with a 14 year old and all those answers based on sickening current events, including “they’re 14 but you’re gay now so hooray, how brave!” and “they’re 14 but it’s Alabama.” I thought the video game sketch was pretty funny. Character strengths: “my relationship with my mom. She’s my best friend.” Hehe. I enjoyed it but fell asleep after Update, so I still have a couple of sketches to watch.
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