Behind Her Eyes
I'm that person who picks apart a show as I'm watching it. What is happening, who is to blame. I don't just want to get to the bottom of it all before the reveal, I need to. So while I actually got the ending of Behind Her Eyes wrong I was technically right. Confusing no? But that's what Behind Her Eyes is all about. It's about gobbling up each and every clue you're given and trying to piece together the puzzle until at the end you didn't quite see it coming because it changed the rules while you weren't fully aware that it did. The show starts out with the classic comedy trope, what if you met a handsome stranger at a bar and you find out the next day he's your new boss? That's exactly what happens to Louise. The problem is her connection to David is electric. It doesn't matter that David is married, that Louise even ends up befriending his wife Adele behind his back, they are drawn to each other like magnets. Though Louise suspects that David doesn't understand his wife, but, for me, I knew from day one that Adele was the problem and David was right. Why else would she be so closely monitored and medicated by her husband? It didn't feel like control to me, it felt like barely maintained equilibrium. But while a three-hander show about infidelity isn't that original, this show has something else going for it, lucid dreaming. Yes, it might seem odd that the other aspect of a show about a torrid affair would be about lucid dreaming, but that's what sets this show apart. I have known about lucid dreaming as a cure for night terrors for years. But I'm actually able to exert some control in my dreams anyway and I'm not full into night terrors, but the possibility of complete control over your sleeping mind has always been interesting to me. So while Louise's dreams are kind of cartoonishly bad and then cartoonishly good, I mean, they're happy and Disney and she's in the land of the Teletubbies where there are no shadows... this is all leading somewhere deeper. It's not about the first door, it's about the second door. And it's all about Adele's past and her friend Rob who she met in rehab. Rob is the key. He's also an amazing actor. In a show with such a strong cast that boasts Tom Bateman and Eve Hewson, well, it's impressive that Robert Aramayo stands out. And yes, his real name is Rob too!
Madame Bovary isn't exactly a show to watch for some light fare unless you like watching someone die from eating arsenic. Emma Bovary literally has a "breakdown" in each of the four episodes. And by breakdown, I mean she throws a shit fit and takes to her bed because she didn't get what she wanted and "collapsed." Such causes for shit fits range from abandonment by lovers to not liking the shitty town her husband has stuck her in because he lacks ambition to financial ruin. Literally the only one worthy of a breakdown was the financial ruin she brought on herself. Because losing it over a young admirer whom you gave a rug to, seriously!?! You have got to admit that in older literature it's sometimes hilarious what causes women to suffer. Especially when they blame her second breakdown on plums. Yes. A doctor and a pharmacist blame her "illness" on plums! The absurdity of plums aside, this is worth watching for two reasons, the first is Tom Conti. I believe I first some him in an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's The Inheritance, where I first saw his patented air of benign absentmindedness. He is, in my mind, Mr Bennet in the flesh. Just sitting there in a room with a smile plastered on his face, exuding goodwill, and being baffled at the tumult around him. That is what he brings to Madame Bovary as her husband Charles. This wonderful vulnerable bafflement that makes you just want to protect him from his scheming wife. Out Emma! Let Charles just stick to what he does best and stop trying to make something of him. Ugh, if I had a husband as good as him I wouldn't treat him like filth. But, then again, by now you should have guessed I hated Emma. Though she did have a redeeming aspect, AKA, the second reason to watch this show, and that is that Emma was played by the always wonderful Francesca Annis! But the real reason is that this miniseries "reunites" her with Dennis Lill. Dennis Lill played Bertie, the Prince of Wales, in Francesca's career defining turn as Lillie Langtry in the miniseries Lillie. And while technically this was made first, I saw Lillie first, so I view this as them reuniting to have another affair. There should be some weird French or German word when you're someone's lover in different incarnations shouldn't there? Well, it sure tickled me to see them up to their adulterous ways once again. And it really tickled me when he dumped her ass. Oh, the blithe acting in that scene was perfection.
Upstairs, Downstairs is like the brick and mortar of Masterpiece. This show took America by storm when it originally aired in the seventies so anyone who considers themselves an Anglophile was excited when a reboot was announced. Instead of retelling the tales of the Bellamys which ended with the stock market crash of 1929 we jumped forward several years with the Holland family taking up residence at 165 Eaton Place in 1936. The wonderful holdover from the original series is that they were able to convince Jean Marsh to return as Rose Buck. Joining her was her co-creator of the original series, Eileen Atkins, finally taking a roll in front of the camera as Sir Hallam Holland's mother. The first season consisted of three magnificent episodes that felt like coming home. The new series had that perfect balance of aristocracy, government intrigue, human rights, and scandal that made the original series so addictive. Yet for me I fell irrevocably in love with the show during the second season because of Hallam's affair with his sister-in-law Lady Persephone, played by future monarch Claire Foy. It all started on the eve of World War II, rescuing Lady Persie from the clutches of the Germans while strains of music drifted through the streets. Almost a decade ago I found this doomed romance beyond thrilling, especially with it's tragic ending. Last year I rewatched all of Upstairs, Downstairs and was surprised that I no longer found this affair romantic. I was firmly on the side of Hallam's wife, Lady Agnes, played by the extraordinary Keeley Hawes. How could I have changed so much in a decade!?! How could I be wishing Persie's demise to arrive sooner!?! It just goes to show that the indication of a great television series is that with each watching you find something new about it and yourself. Which made it all the more painful when the success of Downton Abbey led to Upstairs, Downstairs being cancelled too soon. I'm sorry, but I watched and loved BOTH shows so they can coexist! After all Downton Abbey is just a reinterpretation of Upstairs, Downstairs! 
