S01.E06: Episode 6

[AnimeMania]

Over a decade since their great romance started, Jack and Alice face their greatest obstacle. Their relationship has survived everything thrown their way but with the greatest battle ahead, is it possible that love can overcome anything?

Premiere Date: April 21, 2024      Masterpiece   PBS   10pm              

[christie]

I saw the first episode, thought it was ok and watched the remaining episodes so as to see what would happen and because I hate dropping tv series. Jack seemed nice (albeit a bit of a doormat), Alice was extremely unlikeable and I never got his fascination and attachment to her.

Spoiler

And then she gets cancer and dies and he dies a few hours later - such a boring and cliched development.

The only good thing about this series was Jack's friend, who seemed to be the only person with a brain in his head. On the whole this series was boring, the two leads had no chemistry. A waste of six hours (or however long it was).

[12catcrazy]

On 3/19/2024 at 2:45 PM, christie said:

I saw the first episode, thought it was ok and watched the remaining episodes so as to see what would happen and because I hate dropping tv series. Jack seemed nice (albeit a bit of a doormat), Alice was extremely unlikeable and I never got his fascination and attachment to her.

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The only good thing about this series was Jack's friend, who seemed to be the only person with a brain in his head. On the whole this series was boring, the two leads had no chemistry. A waste of six hours (or however long it was).

Well Christie, I peaked at your spoiler and I can say Thank You for saving my companion and me from wasting 5 more hours of our lives.   We sat through episode 1 and neither of us could see the appeal of these people.  It was like really badly done Somerset Maugham (and at least his writing had a sense of humor).   I actually laughed when I read your spoiler.   I just hope that the poor woman we saw him married to in Episode 1 got a happy ending.  

[christie]

54 minutes ago, 12catcrazy said:

Well Christie, I peaked at your spoiler and I can say Thank You for saving my companion and me from wasting 5 more hours of our lives.   We sat through episode 1 and neither of us could see the appeal of these people.  It was like really badly done Somerset Maugham (and at least his writing had a sense of humor).   I actually laughed when I read your spoiler.   I just hope that the poor woman we saw him married to in Episode 1 got a happy ending.  

You're welcome 😀

I'd say that, yes, she did get a happy ending - she married a guy who loved her and the daughter and, at least as far as we saw, treated her well. The only thing I didn't like was that the wife badmouthed Jack to the daughter but it's understandable that she'd be bitter and wouldn't be his biggest fan.

[CarpeFelis]

I cannot believe the official description of this episode mentions their “great romance”. This was no great romance, it was more like a great emotional torture story.

Jack was a damn fool and should have listened to Paul all along. Why he was so obsessed with Alice is completely beyond me. As far as I could tell, she was a self-absorbed emotional terrorist and acted like she had BPD. Her thought process seemed to go something like: “I’m boooooored so I guess I’ll pop in on Jack again out of the blue”… Jack gets hurt again… “Oops, this isn’t going so great, guess I’ll go disappear again”. Lather, rinse, repeat. For your average guy to be willing to tolerate this level of crazy she should have been drop dead gorgeous, but Alice was portrayed as very plain. Either of the Gemmas (Chan or Arterton) would have made a far more convincing Alice.

The things she did that pissed me off the most: first, when Jack told her he was married, she should have decided not to contact him again. Yet she immediately turns around and asks him to go with her to her mother’s funeral, completely disregarding the existence of his wife and daughter. If she really intended to be friends only, she should have asked him to bring his wife.

Second, when she tells him that if she were capable of being with anyone it would be him… and then she disappears for a few more years and the next thing he hears from her is her wedding invitation. If he had any sense he’d have tossed it in the trash. At the very least, if he just had to have that conversation with her, it should have started with “WHAT THE BLOODY HELL, ALICE?!”

Third, she runs out on her wedding because she’s apparently decided it’s really Jack she wants… but does she stick around and tell him that? No, she disappears again!

Edited March 27 by CarpeFelis

[rklanza]

Don’t you just find yourself fascinated by their lives, and how they do love each other. I find myself wanting them to work out, knowing full well that this wouldn’t be a show if it did. Two weeks of happy endings mean something disastrous is going to happen next week. I’m here for it. 

[nachomama]

Oh good lord, this just makes me depressed. Nothing about this should be the way it is. I want to slap them all. The only satisfaction may be that you get so angry with them that by the end you do wish upon them what happens. I have to go jump off a cliff now so that I can stop thinking about how angry this made me.

[NeenerNeener]

I only watched the first episode and "Nope"d out. I came over here this morning to see if it got any better in the subsequent episodes. Apparently it didn't, so no FOMO. I don't find Riseborough that interesting or compelling as an actress, and I've only ever liked Gleeson in a series he did with Merritt Wever as the love interest, Run.

So, I'm glad I didn't waste anymore time on this one.

[nachomama]

On 4/21/2024 at 7:53 AM, NeenerNeener said:

I only watched the first episode and "Nope"d out. I came over here this morning to see if it got any better in the subsequent episodes. Apparently it didn't, so no FOMO. I don't find Riseborough that interesting or compelling as an actress, and I've only ever liked Gleeson in a series he did with Merritt Wever as the love interest, Run.

So, I'm glad I didn't waste anymore time on this one.

Now, I love Gleeson (maybe the accent) and I watched this specifically for him and Aisling Bea, the rage and fury at what they did to her. I ADORED, ADORED! RUN. And I'm sad we'll never see another season of that. And by comparison those were two messed up "soul mates" that didn't piss me off this bad. You couldn't really defend a whole lot of their actions but they didn't send me over the edge the way this one did. Her husband was a dick, anywho, I love Merritt Wever in virtually everything.

[NeenerNeener]

On 4/22/2024 at 8:16 AM, nachomama said:

I love Gleeson (

Never watch The Patient with Gleeson and Steve Carell. Gleeson is entirely too believable as a serial killer.

[Corvino]

"Great emotional torture story" is sooooo right. The only reason I watched it all was that I have a standing date to go over to my friends' house every Sunday, play Scrabble and then watch whatever is on Masterpiece, unless it's a rerun or we all three agree we don't want to. In this case, one of my friends found it moving, so his husband and I went along with it. But this last episode: GEENG CRINE!!! She dies at the 18-minute mark, and then the rest of the 45 minutes is milking and milking and MILKING the depressingness? Every detail of his watch by her body? Every replay of their happy moments? It was a relief when they showed his daughter sitting at the two graves; they get to be together in death, anyway. I hope she knows her mind better in the afterlife.

But such a weird enterprise! Four and a half hours (given six 45-minute episodes) of nothing but the love story of people with a severe approach-avoidance conflict? And that's ALL it is, no intertwining with a heroic quest to get the talisman to save the world or survive a great war or solve a mystery? We watched the stuff after the 45 minutes and saw that the participants were very happy about this and thought that these two deserved this very close attention to their story. Ooooooh-kay. As I hinted above, it made one of my friends cry, and usually I love to cry at sad stories, but I actively resisted doing so at this episode because I had such a feeling of being POUNDED into doing so.

And yes, never watch "The Patient". Oh, that enraging bummer of an ending!

[nachomama]

I'm glad i listened to my inner voice not to watch the patient.

[Beezella]

On 3/19/2024 at 2:45 PM, christie said:

Spoiler

And then she gets cancer and dies and he dies a few hours later - such a boring and cliched development.

 

I was going to write and ask if this was a joke, or did I miss something. Went back and re-watched, and yes, I certainly did miss something! Reasons? I'm stupid? I was falling asleep. I said to myself out loud, "I just want this to be over," so not watching attentively. There was a lot of going back and forth in time. Also the critical scene was brief and I thought he was having a panic attack. BTW does that comment still need to be in a spoiler?

I guess I found enough about the (mercifully short) show to watch the whole thing. I liked Jack's work friend, and I liked Alice's assistant. I kind of liked Jack, but not his wimpy acceptance of Alice yanking him around. Alice? mostly not.

 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/23/2024 at 12:02 PM, Corvino said:

As I hinted above, it made one of my friends cry, and usually I love to cry at sad stories, but I actively resisted doing so at this episode because I had such a feeling of being POUNDED into doing so.

I admit that I teared up at the end.  And laughed, when Jack said he was going to kiss her one more time, because two kisses would be deviant.

I liked it a lot more than most of y'all, and I'm not sure why.  Alice (I hadn't noticed that Celia is an anagram of Alice!) was not likable at all, and I was distracted by how emaciated she was, but she obviously was a damaged person so I cut her some slack.  No clue why Jack put up with it, except people do some crazy, inexplicable shit when it comes to relationships.  I find him generally appealing, but does anybody else think he looks exactly like Cate Blanchett?  It's unnerving.  By the end, I really did feel their connection.  Or maybe I just willed myself to feel it. 

I read the comments here before watching, and decided to see what I thought after the first episode.  It hadn't really grabbed me, but I fired up the second episode, and then watched the whole thing.  I don't regret the 5 hours I spent watching their messed up lives.

[nachomama]

On 4/27/2024 at 9:04 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

 but does anybody else think he looks exactly like Cate Blanchett?  It's unnerving. 

There's a whole segment on the Graham Norton show where he talks about how everyone comments that he looks like Cate Blanchett. It's hilarious.

[StatisticalOutlier]

2 hours ago, nachomama said:

There's a whole segment on the Graham Norton show where he talks about how everyone comments that he looks like Cate Blanchett. It's hilarious.

OMG.  I saw that, and had forgotten it! 

And actually, that appearance is the only reason I watched this show at all--I'm usually just a Call the Midwife gal.  But for some reason I went nuts and watched this, and Nolly, and Mr. Bates vs The Post Office.

[nachomama]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

And actually, that appearance is the only reason I watched this show at all--I'm usually just a Call the Midwife gal.  But for some reason I went nuts and watched this, and Nolly, and Mr. Bates vs The Post Office.

I'm watching all of those, very hard for me to get into Nolly. I don't know the real Nolly or her belovedness. But the first episode she reminded me of a british Joan Crawford where she was on  a soap opera-ish show and she went around changing things and rewriting and not letting anyone have any rehearsal time etc, it reminded me of mommy dearest when joan crawford stood in for her daughter (60's playing a 25 year old) it was a huge ratings grabber but not for the reasons she thought. And I adore Mr. Bates (Toby Jones) and I do think the Brits know how to make something like the post office seem interesting.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 5/1/2024 at 1:10 PM, nachomama said:

And I adore Mr. Bates (Toby Jones) and I do think the Brits know how to make something like the post office seem interesting.

They're kind of cheating by having a post office that has its subpostmasters financially ruined, jailed, and driven to suicide even though they did absolutely nothing wrong and it was the new computer system that made it look like they were stealing.