My Mother And Other Strangers - General Discussion

[mojito]

Quote

John Nash was born and raised in Bluefield, West Virginia.  I lived there for awhile and that's pretty much how we sounded no matter where we went later.  My cousin went from there to Yale and he still has that hillbilly twang. So  Russell didn't do too bad and he looked so good in that white t-shirt, too. ;)

Main or West Virginia or anywhere in the US, the accent wasn't at all convincing. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, but I do remember wondering where he was supposed to be from. I finally guessed Maine. Or at least, that's what I think I finally settled on.

Edited July 18, 2017 by mojito

[Constant Viewer]

I would have preferred another season of Home Fires over this.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Constant Viewer

[Souris]

Pretty sure this is my least favorite thing I've ever watched on Masterpiece. Are we supposed to be rooting for Rose and Lt. Rochester with the mad wife? Because I just want to slap them repeatedly. God, I hate them. I hate them. There's nothing romantic or rootable or appealing about them. Rose finds out her family's livelihood is going to be sold out from under them and she immediately runs out in the rain to go find her stupid lieutenant? Ugh, horrible! I hate her.

Honestly, I didn't like ANY character the entire season, except for Rose's sister. I kept watching because I kept thinking, "It's gonna get better, right? Right?" It didn't. If it comes back, I'm out. I should have been out earlier. 

What an unpleasant, annoying show. And there's not even an actual source book to explain the awful into voiceovers??? It's the first time I've ever felt that Masterpiece did me wrong. I liked stupid freaking Indian Summers about 10,000 times more.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Souris

[elle]

17 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I think Tillie was doing her rendition of the Andrews Sisters/ Bing Crosby arrangement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlPNPl3p8Y4.  Those deliberately off key notes were considered a cool thing back then.  They make my teeth grind.

I caught the show again.  I know crazy, right, but I did learn one or two things.  In the opening narration, Francis mentions seeing something about Bing Crosby which mentioned his rendition of "Jingle Bells" with the Andrews Sisters which in turn brought back all the memories of this Christmas.

The reason the licenses were in the cousin' name was a confusing tale of how Michael's mom Emma wanted to be a teacher but the one in charge of such things, the vicar, I think, was against women teachers and a secret drinker so in order to keep her from being tainted by association Michael's dad asked his brother to obtain the license who then put it his 22 year old son's name (Vincent).  

This was the 5th episode, the last of the season.  It just ended as we saw it, with Rose and Dreyfuss, no closing narration.

[JudyObscure]

Looking around for evidence of whether there might be another season, I learned several astonishing things:

1. This was originally shown in 2015 and they still haven't decided whether to write a second season.

2.  It was invented by writer Barry Devlin.  I had thought it was based on the memories of the little Coyne boy like the "Durrells in Corfu."

3.  He wrote it with Hattie Morahan in mind, having seen her in a version of "The Doll's House."  There's no accounting for taste.  I find her acting laughable and her face very hard to look at most of the time. It's as though she has swollen sinuses and is gasping for air.

4. Devlin says he wrote it with the ocean bathing scenes from "Poldark," in mind so there were lots of nude scenes.

Quote

 “Everyone had their kit off pretty much all the time. Half the dialogue was while the characters were swimming around in the lake. 

“Then the BBC gave us the money to shoot it in January, so the drama started to look like Novosibirsk in Siberia!”

 

Edited July 18, 2017 by JudyObscure

[Jolie]

This show was like a really bad soap opera. That last scene was just ludicrous. 

If Home Fires, which I thought was a much better show, couldn't get renewed, I don't see how this one would.

[HoodlumSheep]

7 hours ago, Souris said:

Pretty sure this is my least favorite thing I've ever watched on Masterpiece. Are we supposed to be rooting for Rose and Lt. Rochester with the mad wife? Because I just want to slap them repeatedly. God, I hate them. I hate them. There's nothing romantic or rootable or appealing about them. Rose finds out her family's livelihood is going to be sold out from under them and she immediately runs out in the rain to go find her stupid lieutenant? Ugh, horrible! I hate her.

Honestly, I didn't like ANY character the entire season, except for Rose's sister. I kept watching because I kept thinking, "It's gonna get better, right? Right?" It didn't. If it comes back, I'm out. I should have been out earlier. 

What an unpleasant, annoying show. And there's no even an actual source book to explain the awful into voiceovers??? It's the first time I've ever felt that Masterpiece did me wrong. I liked stupid freaking Indian Summers about 10,000 times more.

This. All of this. I just feel so...offended by Masterpiece? This was just an awful show and definitely one of the worst things they've ever aired. Heck, as much as I'm not currently happy with a lot of the main characters in the other shows (poldark, grantchester...the main men have turned into such awful people you can't even root for them anymore), at least they still have lovable side characters you can root for. This on the other hand??? Not a single likable character. 

[attica]

On 7/9/2017 at 9:30 PM, elle said:

I have never understood "Heathcliff" as a romantic ideal. 

For some reason, my middle-and-high school teachers didn't make me read either Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre (although my sister had to, so maybe they were among a syllabus of choices...), and university just assumed we all had, so they didn't assign it either. I never read either until I was in my thirties. And hoo-boy, that made a ton of difference in how I viewed Heathcliff and Rochester both. Heathcliff ticks all the boxes of the psychopath test (starting with the torture of animals!), and Rochester is just a manipulative, gaslighting fuck! You root for Jane because she's awesome, so you're happy when you get to 'Reader, I married him', but deep down, you know she could have done better in a wider social circle. And I didn't even much root for Cathy. Whom do you root for in that story? I mean, I appreciated the book, but I was un-fond of every single character. In short, the Brontes should have gotten out more, to surround themselves with a less dour and dire populace. :)

So yeah, Rose's wishing for a Heathcliff got a giant 'gurl, pleeeeeze' from me.

Aaron Staton has a lock on playing dudes from Connecticut, doesn't he?  

I thought Michael would return the ring to pay for the license, but I don't know the relative value of either of those things, and god bless the Irish for not discussing money out loud so as to fill us all in.

[SusanSunflower]

far too much adultery/infidelity in the Sunday Night LineUP for far too long, it never being a very "sympathetic" or, in fact, interesting plotline since it's usually about people ruining their lives and/or the lives of others -- even the various ways that a "struggle" is depicted becomes yeah/nay, get on with it already.  

I was relieved that Granchester stopped with the "fence straddling" only to then move to a different fence to straddle (leaving the vocation) ... it all feels remarkably adolescent and unattractively immature and also strangely "exceptional" and "entitled" particularly for those of us single, alone.  Yes, you don't know what you've got til it gone and you won't know what you have until you've moved forward.  As they say about marrying the person you cheated with -- you know you've married a cheater ... feh.   Other, better, more interesting story lines ... but that would take some writing and some character development beyond "hormones" or "lust" 

Edited July 18, 2017 by SusanSunflower

[Souris]

4 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Looking around for evidence of whether there might be another season, I learned several astonishing things:

Good Lord. Those are astonishing.

[cinsays]

Just yuck.  Not anything redeeming about this show at all.  What was this supposed to really be about? When things fall apart in your marriage run away with the first guy who looks your way?  And what was the attraction?  All somber characters.  I would think Dreyfus would want someone with some fun about them if his wife was such a drag.

[meowmommy]

Couldn't get used to the glacial pace.  Couldn't get used to Rose sounding exactly like Emma Thompson.  Didn't see the attraction on either side.  Didn't understand the point, if there was one, to the entire story arc.  And didn't see the adult voiceovers as anything but pretentious, high-brow John-Boy.

They already did the mad wife/Jane Eyre story on Masterpiece--Downton Abbey.

Very quibbly quibble--what teacher would ask a class of little kids, "who still believes in Santa Claus?"  Thereby imparting doubt in those who do.

[HoodlumSheep]

12 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Very quibbly quibble--what teacher would ask a class of little kids, "who still believes in Santa Claus?"  Thereby imparting doubt in those who do.

This bugged me so much. You'd think rose couldn't get more atrocious but then she does this. :/ i hope santa gave her coal all throughout her childhood.

Edited July 19, 2017 by HoodlumSheep

[attica]

My memory has the question "Who believes in Santa?", rather than 'who still believes' which, to my mind, makes a difference. Some households don't do Santa-stuff, after all, even among Christians. Granted, I may be parsing too fine or misremembering, but that's how I took the scene.

[Brattinella]

I would have loved it had she said that, attica, but she DID say "who STILL believes in Santa?".  PIssed me off royally.

[SusanSunflower]

For me, finding out that this was utter fiction rather than an adaptation of some (real, if personal) history ---- changes everything in a bad way --- it makes the mundane story much worse because there was no necessary fidelity to "what really happened" and the cowardice of such a "cliffhanger" for everyone else in that family, particularly those whose mother was shown just about to "never go back" unforgivable.  No they don't "deserve" another season.  Plodding episodes can be excused as necessary to establish character and provide context for events ... not to leave the audience not only "in a lurch" but also afaict ambivalent about the "righteousness" and plausibility of the ending 

[JudyObscure]

• 3 hours ago, SusanSunflower said:

For me, finding out that this was utter fiction rather than an adaptation of some (real, if personal) history ---- changes everything in a bad way ---

Me too.  I particularly didn't like realizing that the writer used that tired and cruel old cliche of, "He's married, but his wife is mentally ill."  Jullian Fellowes just used that on "Downton Abbey," and I didn't like it then either. What about, "In sickness and in health?"  It encourages us to picture every mentally ill person as Mr. Rochester's wife, screaming in the attic, attacking  him with knives and flames every chance she gets.  Maybe Mrs. Dreyfuss has seasonal depression, anorexia,  or OCD?  Even  schizophrenia is perfectly possible to live with when well medicated. 

 Anyway,  I can't imagine his wife ever being more frightening than Rose when she's soaking wet with her mouth wide open and her eyes bugged out.  I understand all the comparisons with Emma Thompson she does look and sound like her, but Emma is a wonderful dramatic actress, while to me Hattie  Morahan  belongs on a vaudeville stage.  Yes you, Hattie.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Observer/Columnist/Columnists/2015/1/23/1422033167616/hattie-morahan-the-change-012.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=d7b75ca22c7664707cdb5c51ed844085 

[skyways]

Lol you guys are funny. I hope it comes back for a second season! 's been done afore! 

I mean I am still waiting for Happy Valley which hasn't even begun shooting. So could happen!

[SusanSunflower]

from the title, I half expected a naïve child's eye view of events ... in which a mother running off (or not) would be a near-total surprise (to a child) even if adults (and the audience) could see the building storm leading to such an upheaval ... but then the story would have to deal with the day-after.   Such an abrupt "cliffhanger" as we got, "might" have worked with voice-over (particularly in a child's voice), saying essentially and nothing was ever the same again.  

But I guess I'm trying to figure out what the creators thought they were doing because this love-affair seems to have not resonated strongly with anyone commenting ... even less than the Home Fire's central conflict (the battered housewife and her younger foreigner lover). 

Children do wake up to a missing parent and all that entails, less often the mother but it does happen and seems to provoke a near-lifetime of how-could-she-have soul-seaching and worse ... we got none of the aftermath (seemingly for no good reason) 

[lidarose9]

I bailed after the third episode, and am glad to find your comments here. So it wasn't just me. They completely forgot to make any of the characters likable. And everything was cliche or some predictable trope we've seen a million times, done better elsewhere. Cardboard cutout characters. It could have been a really interesting show, like Foyle's War or Home Fires but with the added twist of the setting in Northern Ireland, which really was in a very unusual situation at the time. Was there anything to distinguish the experience as being particularly Northern Irish? No.  

I found the accents horrific. A regional accent in an area like that would have been VERY broad, nearly incomprehensible to an American. The little boy was a placeholder, nothing more, zero character development. And since the show was named for her, I expected Rose to be something deeper, more complex. She wasn't. And OK, I realize the actress is British so this should not have been a problem, but I found her accent really annoying. She sounded like an American trying to fake an upper-class British accent. Anyhow, after reading the comments here I am glad I decided to quit. 

Edited July 20, 2017 by lidarose9

[nx74defiant]

When Rose was cold to Dreyfuss, I was so happy. She was finally acting smart, but oh no - her feelings were just hurt because she heard from him.

Than her husband gives her the ring, tells her the bad news about the pub and what does she do runs off.

[Renee in CA]

This was a strange show - and a poor finale. Way to go, add a bunch of new plot lines and no time to really explore them. Tillie becomes the bad guy for not being the go between. Lt has a mentally ill wife (not seen), MIchael's cousin wants him to buy the pub license (who could make a drapery business go during a war -also not seen). It was a mess.

Is there another season planned?

Edited July 24, 2017 by Renee in CA

[skyways]

Please the show 'Remember me', now that was nonsensical.

[walnutqueen]

I guess there's a reason this has been sitting on my DVR unwatched.  I guess I can free up another 5 hours of recording space.

[MarthaBea]

Gosh, I so liked this show, as I do all CPTV shows... but...perhaps could the Mrs. Coyne character in "My Mother and Other Strangers" make fewer facial expressions, cut back on the crazy eyes? It all distracted from her otherwise stellar acting.

M

 

[lightninggirl]

On 10/7/2018 at 10:30 PM, MarthaBea said:

perhaps could the Mrs. Coyne character in "My Mother and Other Strangers" make fewer facial expressions, cut back on the crazy eyes? It all distracted from her otherwise stellar acting.

I came here to write this exact thing. SO distracting. Every time she was onscreen I was wondering if her eyeballs were going to fall out because they'd dried up in her head. Unbelievable.

[bybrandy]

I just saw this show.  Is there some reason at all we're supposed to believe Rose is so in love with the American and vice-versa?  Rose's issue with her husband he doesn't show her enough romane except, you know, he kind of does.  And even if she doesn't care about him because he isn't all handsome in the fog and reciting a couple of lines of poetry she runs off when he's at his lowest?   I just hate both her and Dreyfuss.   And the teenage girl  is so insipid.