strange and random happenstance

I fully admit that the one and only reason I watched this miniseries was to see a young Giles. I might have a thing for Anthony Stewart Head, especially as Watcher and librarian on Buffy the Vampire Slayer... Therefore, over the years, I've tried to make sure I watch everything he's currently in and in my spare time watch his back catalog. Back in that catalog was this wonderful adaptation of Love in a Cold Climate, where just two years after appearing on Lillie he's back on the small screen as Tony Kroesig, the very minimally fictionalized Bryan Guinness. He's just simply adorable with his blonde hair rescuing a rabbit for his future wife who will bolt on him. He's just so perfectly cast and that's what makes this adaptation stand out for me. The cast was so fully rounded and actually felt like a family. Well, when Judi Dench signs on, even in the eighties she had pull, and well, everyone else just fell into place, even her real life husband Michael Williams joined as Davey Warbeck! See, a family! And as Tony's wife Linda is the wonderful Lucy Gutteridge, whom I adore as the love interest opposite Val Kilmer in Top Secret! and in Till We Meet Again, the miniseries I always call "the one where Hugh Grant's a Nazis!" And in an entirely random roll we have Anthony Higgins, Rathe from Young Sherlock Holmes, playing an over-the-top chef who doesn't speak English! I could go on and on, but just take my word for it, perfect casting. Also, seeing as until now, all adaptations named Love in a Cold Climate are actually adaptations of two of Nancy Mitford's books, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, crammed under the more memorably named book, we have a lot of ground to cover in one series. Unlike the one at the turn of the century which was only two episodes jammed together as one movie stateside, here we have eight episodes to luxuriate in the story. To get all the details right. And why is that important now? Because we have another adaptation on the way! So it's time to bring out the books, sit down and watch these two adaptations, and then see if this new version with Lily James is up to snuff or if she should have stayed away, like with Rebecca.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthony Stewart Head, Bryan Guinness, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Judi Dench, Lily James, Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford, Rebecca, Rupert Giles, The Pursuit of Love, Val Kilmer

I'll be honest, The Stranger almost slipped right under my radar. I saw it on the front page of Netflix and was like, is that Dutch from Killjoys? And once I figured out that yes, it was Hannah John-Kamen, my interest disappeared until an episode of The Graham Norton Show. I literally watch every episode of Graham's show even if I hate the guests because he somehow makes everyone come alive, though the one big exception was Laura Linney's recent appearance. Laura was working her ass off and the other guests, Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, and Stephen Mangan, fell painfully flat. Shame on you three! Yet it gave me a new respect for Laura, so good on her. Anyway, Jennifer Saunders was on with Patrick Stewart, Jamie Foxx, and Michael B. Jordan, so a typical Graham couch, tons of A-listers and a comedian at the end of the couch. Only Jennifer was there to promote her first dramatic outing, The Stranger. I was all, what!?! Huh!?! Tell me more about walking across this car park!?! So I looked into the show more and saw it stared Richard Armitage!?! Be still my heart! So yes, thanks to Graham I didn't miss this show about a stranger played by Hannah John-Kamen arriving in a small yet tony British town and upsetting everyone's lives with a little helping of the truth and a whole lot of blackmail. There's a LOT of Broadchurch thrown in when they decided to move Harlan Coben's story from America to the British Isles, but that's part of the charm. It's nothing too original and many of the plot twists I saw coming from a long way off, but the acting and the cast made it enjoyable. Could I always have Antony Stewart Head play Richard Armitage's father? Because that would be a joy I would love to repeat. Seriously, when Rupert Giles appeared in the credits I squeed. This is very much a mystery I would have been sad to have missed.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, Anthony Stewart Head, Broadchurch, Graham Norton, Hannah John-Kamen, Harlan Coben, Jennifer Saunders, Killjoys, Mystery, Richard Armitage, Rupert Giles, The Graham Norton Show, The Stranger

Persuasion
Based on the book by Jane Austen
Release Date: April 1st, 2007
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Alice Krige, Anthony Head, Julia Davis, Michael Fenton Stevens, Mary Stockley, Peter Wight, Marion Bailey, Amanda Hale, Sam Hazeldine, Jennifer Higham, Rosamund Stephen, Stella Gonet, Nicholas Farrell, Louis Shergold, Rupert Penry-Jones, Joseph Mawle, Finlay Robertson, Tobias Menzies, Maisie Dimbleby, Sarah Buckland, and Tilly Tremayne
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

All is chaos at Kellynch Hall. Anne Elliot, the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot and the younger sister of Elizabeth Elliot has tried all she could to get her family to retrench but the time has come to face reality. As her father and sister stuff their faces with delicacies the decision has been made to lease the house and move the family to Bath. The father of Elizabeth's dear friend Mrs. Clay has found a naval man without children to take the house. A perfect fit, as his wife has nothing to do but make sure the house is preserved. Though upon hearing that their name is Croft Anne is beset by emotions she thought long gone. Eight years previously she was engaged to Mrs. Croft's brother, Fredrick Wentworth. The engagement was broken as it was viewed he didn't have any prospects. He is now a wealthy captain and is coming back into Anne's life looking for a wife. Anne has no hope that she might regain his heart, instead tucked away with her younger sister Mary at Uppercross she sees Fredrick set his cap at Mary's sisters-in-law, Louise and Henrietta Musgrove. Anne is aflutter and constantly aware of his presence. He is kind, but he is no longer hers and it aches so painfully. When the party from Uppercross takes a trip to Lyme Regis the expected course of all their lives is upended. Louisa has a fall and Captain Wentworth's friends must nurse her back to health while Anne is sent off to Bath to rejoin her family. Soon Captain Wentworth comes to Bath and Anne can't help hoping that perhaps things have changed. Perhaps she can hope again. She has somehow attracted the attention of her cousin and her father's heir, Mr. Elliot, and could this jealousy spark Captain Wentworth into making his feelings known? Or will Fredrick lose the love of his life because he embraced the opposite of all that he initially regretted in Anne's behavior all those years earlier?

ITV's Jane Austen season of 2007 did a lot to rectify issues I had in previous Austen adaptations. Consisting of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion, while Northanger Abbey easily won the day, Persuasion wasn't that far behind. What this adaptation did while not being 100% faithful to the book was to give us an intimate, introspective, and artistic adaptation that emotionally connects you to Anne Elliot. This adaptation favored music that pulled on your heartstrings instead of attempting to jam all the book's dialogue into a ninety minute movie. This allows the quiet to fill the space, to let you dwell as Anne has dwelled on the loss of Wentworth all those years ago. You can actually feel a void opening up inside you as Anne's pain becomes your own. In this adaptation Anne is always the touchstone for the audience. She is front and center, it is her POV that we take as our own. The camera work reinforces this with her always on screen while other characters are off screen, their dialogue sometimes buried in the background, not fully heard, because as Anne is our conduit we only observe what she does and a human can only see and hear so much, they're not omniscient. Yet it takes awhile for the viewer to get at what the director is trying to do. For the first few minutes all you can think of is how jittery the handheld camera work is and how close the closeups are. But then you start to realize that the agitation in the camera work reflects Anne's state of mind, and while yes, it's jittery, you realize that it also makes what would be a static image on a television screen alive. The camera and Anne have a symbiotic relationship, with the modern technology being there to reflect Anne's emotions. This can be seen when Anne looks directly into the camera. It's not gimmicky like in Mansfield Park with a wry and arched brow that makes you want to slap Frances O'Conner or just too much like in The House of Mirth where you're counting Eric Stoltz's pores, here it lays bare Anne's soul thanks to Sally Hawkins's portrayal. Sally Hawkins is such an amazing actress that the smallest facial gesture, the intimation of a tear conveys so much. So while this adaptation doesn't go for strict accuracy the feeling is correct and that can cover a plethora of sins.

Yet sometimes the lack of faithfulness results in absurdities. The main absurdity of this adaptation is Anne and the running of Bath. As in, she seriously runs all over Bath after Captain Wentworth. First she runs after him when he suddenly leaves a concert and accosts him in the entryway. Secondly she runs after him when he leaves the Elliot's residence after he was inquiring after Kellynch Hall for his sister. This then starts the main running sequence that rivals Frank Potente's race through Berlin in Run Lola Run. She runs outside and is directed to the Croft's residence where she runs into Captain Harville who gives her Wentworth's letter and sends her to the Pump Room, where the Croft's say she's just missed him, and at this point when she starts running again, you might be laughing a little, because seriously, all the running! Yes, a panting Anne finally runs into Wentworth and all is well. But seriously, ALL THAT RUNNING THOUGH! Even Anne's poor friend Mrs. Smith had to run to tell Anne the truth about Mr. Elliot and his schemes. Yes, Mrs. Smith, who in the book can't even walk due to her horrid health joins Anne on a leg of her epic race. From the Elliot residence to the Croft residence running along the Royal Crescent actually away from the main part of town and everyone's residences for those who know Bath and who know where everyone in the book lives, poor Mrs. Smith is panting out her story. She's trying to break through to a distracted Anne about Mr. Elliot and yet, all I could think of was, seriously, stop running for five seconds and hear her out! But what bothered me more than just the absurdity of this situation was that this shows a total lack of propriety. A woman in this time period would NEVER have done this. And yes, I know that by showing Anne breaking with convention it shows how her love for Captain Wentworth overrides all other concerns. But still! This is Anne Elliot! It's a total break in her character. If I wasn't so emotionally invested by this point I would have totally written off the adaptation for this need for speed. But as it is, I was there for every single second of her run panting with fervent hope that she wouldn't be too late.

Of course the observant reader will notice that this running was all necessitated by the moving of some important dialogue to an earlier part of the book. Anne's speech about women loving longest after all hope is gone is originally said to Captain Harville and overhead by Captain Wentworth, leading to him writing his soul piercing confession which reunites them near the end of the book. Instead Anne's speech is entrusted to Benwick when they are all seated at the Harville's home in Lyme Regis. In between talking about poetry and prose she decides to drop her big speech as a confidence to Benwick while Wentworth is way on the other side of the room being quite boisterous and therefore he doesn't hear it. This of course then forces the narrative to find some other contrivance for Wentworth to hope and write that letter to Anne. Here it's Wentworth coming to the Elliot's residence in Bath and asking if his sister and brother-in-law should give up the lease on Kellynch because news has reached them that Mr. Elliot and Anne are to live there once they are married. Anne of course refutes this instantly and then is interrupted by Lady Russell and the running begins. This asking after Kellynch is just too forced. Too direct. Anne and Wentworth are both stumbling in the dark unable to realize that the other is still in love with them and this just seems too active. The way Austen wrote it is sweet. It dawns on Wentworth how wrong he was and thus lays his heart bare in the only way he has at his disposal, a letter. How else is he to hope unless he overhears Anne's speech? Asking after a lease on a house, that's not romantic, it's pragmatic. Plus he goes home, then writes the letter, then has to be hunted down. It's just too much work. There's also the fact that we know how they both feel so this seems to be done just to draw out the suspense a little longer. You can't have perfect happiness without a little hurdle, and apparently the previous eight years wasn't enough for this adaptation.

But any faults can be forgiven, even the odd detail of Captain Wentworth apparently buying Kellynch Hall, by the superb cast. You couldn't hope for a better cast. Of course the casting that made me giddy was that of Anthony Stewart Head as Sir Walter Elliot. Buffy fan that I am seeing "Giles" relish playing this vain and pompous man was a dream come true. Seriously, just cast him in almost anything and I'll watch. I say almost because there's no way anyone's getting me to watch that Shondaland show Still Star-Crossed. As for the rest of the cast, yes, it's a little weird seeing The Borg as Lady Russell, but she's a far less domineering Lady Russell than other versions, and I appreciate that. But I'm not going to sit here and just list why I love every actor, and seriously, I love every single actor in this all the way down to Cully's husband from Midsomer Murders, when there are two that need to be talked of, Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones. Sally Hawkins has been the darling of independent British cinema for years, especially working with Mike Leigh, even winning a plethora of awards for their collaboration Happy-Go-Lucky. But it's her more miniseries roots that brought her to my attention first in Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, and later in The Young Visiters, Byron, and the Sarah Waters adaptations of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. Yet it's in Persuasion that you can see how she can inhabit a role so completely that dialogue isn't even needed to convey what she is feeling. As for Rupert Penry-Jones, well I might have written him off as a pretty boy with The Prince of Hearts, Cambridge Spies, Casanova, and his basically replacing Matthew Macfadyen on Spooks, but then I watched Whitechapel. Holy hell, that show is amazing and his portrayal of a driven yet completely OCD DI makes it one of my favorite shows ever. Persuasion mined the best of British drama and has a stellar cast that makes you shake your head in amazement that all these people are in one place at one time.

Though I feel that this review would be incomplete without me taking a shot at PBS. Oh PBS, I have so many issues with you. Seriously, SO MANY. Substandard releases could be brought up here, but instead I'm going to take you to task for your editing. Seriously!?! Stop it! Thankfully you've basically stopped editing the DVD releases because of the fan outcry for which I really have to thank Downton Abbey. But I'm still waiting for my Sally Lockhart mysteries with the sex scene back in... Instead I'm going to bitch about your broadcast editing. I watched this adaptation of Persuasion when it first aired in England, then when it finally aired the following January on PBS I was excited to watch it again but found it lacking. As in lacking all scenes with Captain Wentworth and Captain Harville talking to each other in and around Lyme Regis. I actually had to turn it off I was so enraged. Here's the thing about movies, television shows, any kind of visual broadcast: it's the vision of a person or group of persons that go to the trouble to make this beautiful show. That vision should NEVER been lessened, censored, or randomly changed not for "objectionable" reasons but to make more time for your sponsors! PBS made a pledge to bring quality television to America and more and more it's about the appearance of doing so without actually doing it. Even since Exxon left Masterpiece no longer theater has been in a steep decline and it's come to the point where I no longer even watch the channel. I can't abide editing, and as for speeding up the frame rate, which you totally did during season one of Poldark, it actually makes me physically sick. Also, why can't you air shows at the same time as England? I mean, you've fixed it with Sherlock so what gives!?! Yes, I know, I shouldn't end a review that is glowingly in favor of a production with a negative, but do you ever get the feeling that PBS isn't really involved in these shows at all and is just taking credit for what the BBC and ITV are doing?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Anthony Stewart Head, Bicentenary Ball, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ITV, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Midsomer Murders, PBS, Persuasion, Run Lola Run, Rupert Penry-Jones, Sally Hawkins, Whitechapel

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Downton Abbey don't really seem the least connected, and they're not. Well, I'm sure I could find some justification to connect the two other than my love for both, but that isn't what this post is about. This isn't about Downton Denial, this is about something that's been going on now for almost six months which I've been meaning to talk about. If you follow me on twitter or look over at my twitter feed in the right sidebar you've probably noticed my daily use of the hashtag #ExerciseWithBuffy. This is a thing I've created to motivate myself. Being a graphic designer and reviewer kind of chain me to my computer. Seeing as my "hobby" (really it's more of a calling) is reading, well, there's not much get up and go. There's a lot of the sedentary about my lifestyle.

Sedentary can be good in moderation, anything is good in moderation, but the fact is, I needed to get up and go. I like to walk. In fact it's the only form of exercise I like. I've tried to integrate it into my life a little at a time, but it's never stuck, and once winter sets in, I don't want to leave the house. I even joined a health club once only to get so sick on two separate occasions due to the filth of the facility that I had to stop going. So this past fall I decided enough was enough. I want a long time to live on this planet to read books and have a good life. I don't care about weight loss, I care about fitness and my health. I don't want to get diabetes and die young. So I got a treadmill and I told myself it's all or nothing, so I haven't skipped a single day, though there is the rare occurrence of exercise taken not on my treadmill.

But how did I motivate myself to get onto that treadmill everyday? The answer was simple, TV. I love TV and there are some shows I love more than others. There are some shows that are a part of my DNA. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of them. I remember the first time I saw it. I remember sitting up in my friend Jess's bedroom watching season six, with her room rearranged for the best possible viewing experience on a very tiny TV. I remember that by season seven we had her whole co-op watching so we moved into the TV room in the basement that was always cold and a little dungeon like. I remember the first Buffy convention I went to and all the ones after that. Buffy has been a part of my life for so long it helped form it. I've meet about fifteen actors from the show, more if I counted Angel, and been impressed that the people Joss Whedon surrounds himself with are so nice. I've met Joss Whedon. Seriously, I HAVE MET JOSS WHEDON! (Photographic proof provided because I'm that geeky.)

This show changed my life so I thought, maybe it could change it again. And it totally has. When I started I couldn't walk half a mile without feeling like I was going to die, I can now walk 1.70 miles for 43 minutes every day without dropping down dead; I would say without breaking a sweat, but that would be a lie, and seriously, it's good to sweat. I have lost five pounds and though it's not about that, the serious toning that has happened as well as the weight loss, well, it gives me visible proof of my hard work. But why am I telling you about this now? Because yesterday I watched the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and now it's time to move on. To Angel. So please join me for #AngelAerobics! I'm starting today! And if there's one takeaway from rewatching Buffy? It's that the show needed Anthony Stewart Head desperately. The decline started as soon as he boarded that plane back to England and Manchild.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #AngelAerobics, #ExerciseWithBuffy, Angel, Anthony Stewart Head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Downton Abbey, Downton Denial, Exercise, Joss Whedon, Manchild

Colonel William Reid. AKA, a hard man to pin down. He's such a vibrant and amazing character but I kept getting caught up on the fact he was a ginger instead of trying to cast to the character as Lauren had written him. That's when Anthony Stewart Head popped into mine.

Name: Anthony Head

"Dream" Character Casting for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Colonel William Reid

First Impression: Do you remember those old Taster's Choice commercials? I'm sure you do. Though I personally have no recollection of Trevor Eve being in them, it is what I remember Anthony Head from. In fact I remember going to a Doctor Who convention back in the 90s when Buffy had just started and I saw that Anthony Head, aka, the guy from the Taster's Choice commercials was there. I wanted to see him, my friend I was with declined. We made it up to him years later when we went to a Buffy the Vampire Slayer convention in the Catskills.

Why they'd be the perfect actor for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Forget for a moment that he's not a ginger. The reason I think Anthony Head would be perfect is that, aside from being an amazingly talented actor, he has this ability to light up a room when he smiles. There's an infectious mirth that I think is inherent in the character of William Reid that is also part of who Tony is. There's also a bit of a rogue in him. He can also be scary and commanding when needed. Oh, and he looks fabulous on a horse. Is that enough?

Lasting Impression: While technically it is probably the Taster's Choice commercial, I didn't remember his name or anything from that, so I'm counting the lasting impression as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As Rupert Giles he made librarians sexy. He also showed an amazing range from action and adventure, to comedy, to scary dark depths, his name was Ripper! Now I want to go watch all of Buffy again. Dammit. I knew choosing him as William was a trap somehow. OK, queue up all seven seasons, let's get this started.

What else you've seen them in: That picture of the two of us on my wall? No, that's only for me, let's get to you all. Um, everything awesome? He's played the aging playboy in Manchild and The Invisibles, the sexy Prime Minister on Little Britain. The sophisticated aristocrat in a world about to go to war in Dancing on the Edge. He's played evil fantasy fathers in Merlin and Galavant, with singing! He's shown his comedic chops and his ability to navigate dating a younger woman on the fabulous You, Me and Them. He showed his more shallow side as a certain Regency father in Persuasion, and his sexy evil side on Warehouse 13, seen above, go Paracelsus, kill them all, um, I didn't mean to say that out loud. And of course, he was on Doctor Who. It's not like I've watched everything he's ever been in... I'm sure I've missed one or two. Maybe.

Can't believe it's them: Love in a Cold Climate! Seriously! This is awesome! Look at little Tony Head as another Tony, Tony Kroesig, Linda Radlett's husband! Thankfully this has been reissued on DVD so that you and sqwee with me every time he comes on screen.

Wish they hadn't: Left Buffy to be in Manchild? And no, not a joke. Manchild is ok and all, it's just not Buffy. I mean, it's awesome how they had him leave and then come back, both at the end of Season 6 and then in Season 7, but I missed my Giles! Also I totally still want the Ripper movie, I don't care of the comics have covered it, I still want it.

Bio: Anthony Stewart Head, he had to use the Stewart stateside because there was already another Anthony Head over here, was born into a family that prized the arts. He grew up in Hampton and attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Tony's father was a documentary filmmaker, his mother is an actress, his brother is a famous musical theater star, and his long term partner, Sarah Fisher, was a theatre administrator, while their two daughters are actresses as well, Emily even played his daughter on The Invisibles. Like his brother he has a love for singing and has released some music both with a band and solo, where he even wrote some of the songs, as well as starring in musicals. He also has a love of horse riding and his house in Somerset with his horses was featured in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Head is one of those rare actors who is popular on both sides of the ocean and knows who his fans are and continues to make great shows within the sci-fi community but also expands his repertoire with period pieces. He has been acting as long as I have been alive and I hope to see him popping up in shows for years and years to come. I especially loved his random appearance in Galavant recently, such an awesome surprise. He's my William any day!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthony Stewart Head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Lauren Willig, Little Britain, Love in a Cold Climate, Merlin, Persuasion, Rupert Giles, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, Warehouse 13, William Reid

Great news for the fans of BBC's Merlin, as of just a few short hours ago the series, which is currently airing Saturday nights in England, has been renewed for a third season. I'm addicted to this show which has just the right campy level of magic and humor... plus Giles from Buffy. The show has been consistently bringing in over a 30% share of British audiences and is quickly becoming a success worldwide. This season, which will hopefully air stateside this coming summer, has seen some of the cream of the BBC Costume Drama crop with stars from Charles Dance to Sarah Parish to Emilia Fox to Mackenzie Crook in guest starring roles. I hope this show continues to get the success it deserves because this is how entertaining television should be made.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 8:22 PM 2 comments  

Labels: Anthony Stewart Head, Buffy, Charles Dance, Emelia Fox, Giles, Mackenzie Crook, Merlin, Sarah Parish