Pistol - General Discussion

[QQQQ]

Based on the memoir of Steve Jones, the legendary Sex Pistols guitarist who helped usher in a punk revolution in Britain.

Premiered May 31 on Hulu

Vanity Fair interview with director Danny Boyle

IMDB link

Edited June 1, 2022 by QQQQ

[Cinnabon]

Looking forward to watching this! I looked for a forum for this show today and couldn’t find one,  but some shows seem to get hidden and don’t show up in title searches. Then I thought that it might be filed under “genre tv,” lol. Anyway, on to viewing!

[QQQQ]

I also find the search function to be hit and miss.

I'm two episodes in, and so far feel the most interesting parts involve Chrissie Hynde and Vivienne Westwood. It also reminds me of Never Tear Us Apart (another miniseries that Toby Wallace was in).

[Cinnabon]

5 minutes ago, QQQQ said:

I also find the search function to be hit and miss.

I'm two episodes in, and so far feel the most interesting parts involve Chrissie Hynde and Vivienne Westwood. It also reminds me of Never Tear Us Apart (another miniseries that Toby Wallace was in).

The INXS series? I enjoyed that one. Did you read Steve Jones’s autobiography (on which this is based)? If not, I highly recommend it. Lots of dirt on Chrissie, lol. All the dirt that was missing from her own autobiography! 🤣

[CrystalBlue]

In this case, I'm ditching the movie about Ted Bundy I was planning to watch and dive right into this limited series!

[QQQQ]

6 hours ago, Cinnabon said:

The INXS series? I enjoyed that one. Did you read Steve Jones’s autobiography (on which this is based)? If not, I highly recommend it. Lots of dirt on Chrissie, lol. All the dirt that was missing from her own autobiography! 🤣

I have not read his book, but am going to now! And I totally agree about Hynde's autobiography - it felt like she left out most of the juicy parts (and it ended rather abruptly, perhaps to leave space for a second book...?).

[hatchetgirl]

I don't hate it, but the film technique is so "oh we are so punk with this!!!!!" It's a bit tiresome. I'm hoping that gets better. 

[libgirl2]

I wish I could see this! I need to dig up his autobiography and at least read it since i can't. 

[Welshman in Ca]

Having been around at the time & being an original punk there is a lot left out or changed even though it's from Steve's point of view. Was sad to see that Jordan had passed away, there could be a whole movie made about her life.

Haven't read his book but I may once I've watched to the whole thing, depends how this goes.

[Cinnabon]

On 6/1/2022 at 7:08 AM, QQQQ said:

I have not read his book, but am going to now! And I totally agree about Hynde's autobiography - it felt like she left out most of the juicy parts (and it ended rather abruptly, perhaps to leave space for a second book...?).

Nothing juicy about Ray Davies! Damn it.

[CrystalBlue]

15 hours ago, Cinnabon said:

Nothing juicy about Ray Davies! Damn it.

I know, right?  I wasn't expecting anything but I'm curious to know how long Chrissie was in England before she met Ray Davies, which must have come after her Sex Pistols days.  According to this mini series, she put the Pretenders together toward the end of the Sex Pistols being a band.

I wonder how true Steve Jones' involvement with Chrissie as depicted in this show really was.

[qtpye]

Why does Johnny Rotten look like a tweaked out weasel?

It seems like all the Sex Pistol movies (Sid & Nancy) never get Johnny Rotten right.

[QQQQ]

18 minutes ago, CrystalBlue said:

I know, right?  I wasn't expecting anything but I'm curious to know how long Chrissie was in England before she met Ray Davies, which must have come after her Sex Pistols days.  According to this mini series, she put the Pretenders together toward the end of the Sex Pistols being a band.

I wonder how true Steve Jones' involvement with Chrissie as depicted in this show really was.

From the Vanity Fair article linked above:

According to Boyle, the Pretenders’ star was also one of many principals who consulted on the project. “Chrissie came in a couple of times,” says Boyle. “As everybody says about her, she’s quite untethered by convention, in a glorious way. She came in and she said, ‘I only fucked him once, you know.’… It was very refreshing for the actors, because if they were picking up any veneration of these people, she demolished it right away and said, ‘Deal with us as human beings,’ which helped the actors, I think, a lot.”

[gesundheit]

I'm enjoying this series a lot and I wish Chrissie could get her own biopic miniseries, but I do have to say -- although I like the actress a lot, she needs a dialect coach. Her American accent is barely there.

[luna1122]

On 6/12/2022 at 12:00 AM, gesundheit said:

I'm enjoying this series a lot and I wish Chrissie could get her own biopic miniseries, but I do have to say -- although I like the actress a lot, she needs a dialect coach. Her American accent is barely there.

But she is American. Am I missing something? 

I have loved this series and wish more people were talking about it. Just watched Nancy and Sid. Poor terrible Nancy. Probably because I read And I Don't Want to Live this Life long ago, and was kind of haunted by it, I've always felt such sympathy for her, tho I've no doubt I probably would have disliked her in real life as much as everyone did. She was such a mess. Chrissie being  kind to her definitely feels like fiction. She was none too kind in writing about her in her memoir. 

I know a lot of liberties have been taken with the facts here, but more appears to be accurate than not, and I think the cast is fantastic. 

Edited June 15, 2022 by luna1122

[gesundheit]

27 minutes ago, luna1122 said:

But she is American. Am I missing something? 

That's why she needs a coach! I feel like she's one of those actresses who unconsciously take on the speech patterns of the people around her or something, it's very jarring.

I wish more people were talking about this series, too. I've tried to start conversations so many places about it and nobody bites. (Or else they launch in with pretentious nonsense about how they should've made a biopic series about Crass or The Damned or something. Not the point! Also how are people still getting into "punker than thou" battles this many decades later??)

[qtpye]

On 6/15/2022 at 10:16 AM, gesundheit said:

That's why she needs a coach! I feel like she's one of those actresses who unconsciously take on the speech patterns of the people around her or something, it's very jarring.

I wish more people were talking about this series, too. I've tried to start conversations so many places about it and nobody bites. (Or else they launch in with pretentious nonsense about how they should've made a biopic series about Crass or The Damned or something. Not the point! Also how are people still getting into "punker than thou" battles this many decades later??)

Yeah, for a series about one of the most outrageous bands of all time, this has been a bit of a nothing burger.

It could be because no one really cares about Jones and his demons.

Edited June 17, 2022 by qtpye

[Welshman in Ca]

8 minutes ago, qtpye said:

Yeah, for a series about one of the most outrageous bands of all times, this series has been a bit of a nothing burger.

It could be because no one really cares about Jones and his demons.

It wasn't about the band but about Steve's part in it and from his point of view with a few bits of history thrown in. He was never anything more than a background player in the band even though this made it seem like he was more important than he was. I watched it all but sort of switched off a bit after the LWT interview with Bill Grundy which was only on tv in London and the surrounding area even though this made it seem like it was national tv, although it was national news afterwards it was not shown again until years later.

Steve was always loud & the time I met him after the Sham 69 concert at the Glasgow Apollo in 1979 he was still trying to be the center of attention but he was quite a funny guy. Long story short, Paul & Steve were lost, bumped into my friend & I and asked us for directions to the hotel so we walked with them and ended up in one of the rooms in the middle of a radio interview.

There were a lot of interesting people around at that time & he really was a non entity in the larger scheme of things before the Sex Pistols and after they broke up. I was surprised that more emphasis wasn't put on his relationship with Paul Cook as they were very close before the band & afterwards. Overall I would give it 6/10 as it is just one mans' view and not exactly an exciting view.

[Jordan Baker]

I enjoyed this series, although I thought the last episode was a bit rushed. I knew very little about the band (other than the names Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten) before watching, and so I had few expectations going in.

I thought Anson Boon was particularly good as Johnny Rotten, but Toby Wallace also did a good job of carrying the lead role. I was distracted,  though, by thinking how much Steve/Toby Wallace looked like a young Jim Morrison.

I'm not sure about Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren. He's clearly the villain of the piece, but all I could see when I looked at him was the boy from "Love, Actually." He still has a remarkably young-looking face.

Overall, a good show.

[libgirl2]

49 minutes ago, Jordan Baker said:

I'm not sure about Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren. He's clearly the villain of the piece, but all I could see when I looked at him was the boy from "Love, Actually." He still has a remarkably young-looking face.

He is 32 but I know what you mean. He just looks so young. He will be like Leonardo DiCaprio who I think finally is looking his age. 

[qtpye]

21 hours ago, Jordan Baker said:

I enjoyed this series, although I thought the last episode was a bit rushed. I knew very little about the band (other than the names Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten) before watching, and so I had few expectations going in.

I thought Anson Boon was particularly good as Johnny Rotten, but Toby Wallace also did a good job of carrying the lead role. I was distracted,  though, by thinking how much Steve/Toby Wallace looked like a young Jim Morrison.

I'm not sure about Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren. He's clearly the villain of the piece, but all I could see when I looked at him was the boy from "Love, Actually." He still has a remarkably young-looking face.

Overall, a good show.

Yes, he looks so young that it felt absolutely bizarre that Steve looked at him as a father figure.

[gesundheit]

I agree that the final episode was rushed, they definitely needed to spend more time on the whole Malcolm arc for it to matter as much as they asked us to think it mattered. He was presented as more of an irritant than a threat, especially since in the back half he was barely there. I would've liked to see Steve talking to Paul about what was going on, at all, even once. And poor Cookie, just never fleshed out no matter which version of the story is being told. 

Edited to add: And I meant to say I did really like the ending, because when they kept talking about this great show they had I kept thinking they had yet to depict a single good conversation these people had together, so it was a nice little coda to end it by going back in time for their One Good Day.

Edited June 17, 2022 by gesundheit

[libgirl2]

On 6/15/2022 at 8:46 AM, luna1122 said:

But she is American. Am I missing something? 

I have loved this series and wish more people were talking about it. Just watched Nancy and Sid. Poor terrible Nancy. Probably because I read And I Don't Want to Live this Life long ago, and was kind of haunted by it, I've always felt such sympathy for her, tho I've no doubt I probably would have disliked her in real life as much as everyone did. She was such a mess. Chrissie being  kind to her definitely feels like fiction. She was none too kind in writing about her in her memoir. 

I know a lot of liberties have been taken with the facts here, but more appears to be accurate than not, and I think the cast is fantastic. 

I read it and several people I  know read it. I never forgot it. Like you, I feel bad for her but I would have disliked her. I always thought if only she would have gotten the right help, from what I remember from the book, she was quite intelligent. Though, I don't know if that help existed at the time she needed it most. Drugged from infancy, people didn't know any better. 

Edited June 17, 2022 by libgirl2

[revbfc]

-I loved the coda of the Christmas Day concert, but it was one of those things that a non-fan would be thrown by (like my partner who is not a Pistols fan).  A little more set up might have been useful for those viewers.

-Sid sounding like Lennie from Of Mice And Men was a little on the nose, but appropriate.

-One more thing that might have been useful: mentioning that the surviving Pistols sued the shit out of Malcolm on more than one occasion, and won.

Edited July 23, 2022 by revbfc

[Tachi Rocinante]

On 6/15/2022 at 11:28 AM, qtpye said:

Yeah, for a series about one of the most outrageous bands of all time, this has been a bit of a nothing burger.

It could be because no one really cares about Jones and his demons.

And the simple fact that they flat-out sucked, period. One of the most overrated "bands" of all time. 

That being said, it's a decent series so far, I'm halfway through.  I think Brodie-Sangster is excellent as McLaren, even if he looks a bit young and Talulah Riley steals most every scene she's in.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Finished it.  I think they rushed the ending a bit, but maybe they didn't want to drag out the murder/OD stuff too much.

Gonna go to the library and pick up the two movies (The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury) to get "the rest of the story" from both sides.  They still won't change my mind about how much they sucked. 🤣