Season 20 - Scoop (1990-1991)
Evelyn Waugh's 1938 book Scoop was a parody of sensationalist journalism obviously inspired by the Spanish Civil War but more specifically Waugh's experience in Abyssinia covering the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The hyperbole of this kind of journalism has only intensified as time goes on. Just look to our twenty-four hours a day news cycle where the smallest thing is blown up and overanalyzed by talking heads. Which is what makes this adaptation just as relevant today as it was in the late eighties and early nineties. As I was watching this skewering of a phoney war in order for Herbert Lom to parachute in and secure Ishmaelia's mineral rights for himself the United States invaded Venuzula and kidnapped Maduro. Why? For the country's mineral rights of course. Because the more things change the more things stay the same. Though it's hard to get a "scoop" on what the United States government is doing until they announce it after the fact on Twitter. Scoop is more like a quirky independent British film of the day than an episode of Masterpiece Theatre. This is Dr. Strangelove meets The Wrong Box with a heavy helping of Moon Over Parador and Coming to America if Terry Gilliam shot it. The Brazil vibes are strong. In other words, if I had seen it when it first came out it would have been a seminal film in my life. In fact there's one person in this world that I think was strongly influenced by this film at a young age and that's Wes Anderson. He would have been in his early twenties when this was released and every single frame and setup made me think of him. So, if nothing else, because of this film we have a signature style that became the TikTok Wes Anderson trend. As it is I am more than a little obsessed with this movie now. London socialites? Decaying relatives at a decrepit country estate? Mistaken identities? Yes please! And more! Poor Boot, a corespondent for The Daily Beast, writes about country life. He is mistaken for a novelist named Boot who asked his lover to pull some strings for him to get sent to Ishmaelia. Needless to say, our Boot is in over his head but because he's not a typical reporter and because he is part of the old boys' network he is privy to actual information about Ishmaelia and not wild conjecture and therefore knows that the leadership of the country is sending the reporters on a wild goose chase. He just stays put and comes back a hero with the biggest scoop of any paper. What makes this so memorable is the actors. We have Nicola Pagett, Donald Pleasence, Denholm Elliott, Michael Maloney, the aforementioned Herbert Lom, and just oodles of British characters actors that understand the importance of timing and keeping a straight face. Denholm Elliott trying to deal with Boot's family at the ancestral estate could be added to the list of great dinner scenes that is obviously topped by John Gielgud in Brideshead Revisited. Seriously, just check out this undiscovered gem. If anything you will get an insight into what the inside of my mind looks like.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Likeness by Tana French
If you are watching this for Jeremy Brett, be forewarned that there is a lot less Jeremy Brett than the DVD cover would have you believe. This is a starring vehicle for Susan Fleetwood and Robin "OG Poldark" Ellis doing his best Morgan Freeman narration in the era before Morgan Freeman started being known as the go-to narrator and was known as that guy from The Electric Company and various soap operas. The Good Soldier is a tale of infidelity set against the backdrop of a German spa town revolving around two couples, the Dowells and the Ashburnhams. This adaptation leans heavily on the 1974 adaptation of 
In the days before the internet you'd be channel surfing, usually late at night, and find something you really liked and you'd watch as much of it as you could before you fell asleep because you never knew if you'd see it again let alone find out what it was called. After the successful airing of Colin Firth's Pride and Prejudice, on a cable channel no less, lots of shows that were originally shown on Masterpiece Theatre started showing up on cable channels late in the night to the delight of Anglophile insomniacs and night owls everywhere. Of course I'd catch them and wouldn't find out what they were until years later. Sometimes it was because I was able to accurately describe a scene to someone and they'd fill me in on what it was, hence the miniseries about deflating sheep turned out to be Far from the Madding Crowd with Colin Firth's younger brother Jonathan. But most often it was eventually an actor I recognized that got me to finally put a title to a favorite movie or series. This is how I learned the title of Louisa May Alcott's The Inheritance, because of Greg from Dharma and Greg. Also it's fabulous but nothing like the original story if you watch it and yes, that is Chilton from Gilmore Girls. So all I had to go on to find the title of The Buccaneers was that it stared the actress from Pauly Shore's Son in Law. To more knowledgeable people, that would be Carla Gugino, to me it was Crawl's love interest. I might have seen that movie a few too many times. So once I finally knew the name of the miniseries I obviously bought it, no questions about watching it first. This is everything an Anglophile growing up in America wishes for, that they go to England and are wooed by the most eligible of bachelors. Oh the cast, Michael Kitchen, Jenny Agutter, Connie Booth, Mira Sorvino, Greg Wise, and James Frain before he made it his lifelong ambition, or so I assume, to be in every science fiction show I've ever watched. And the houses! Yes, they DO film at Castle Howard, made immortal by Brideshead Revisited. Oh dear, I think writing this has convinced me I need to go watch this miniseries immediately, it's been too long.
Maurice by E.M. Forster
First Impression: The first time I saw Hayley Atwell was as the fabulous JJ Feild's sister Rosa in The Ruby in the Smoke. What struck me about her was not only her assurance as an actress, but that the character wasn't pretentious and let her heart, not society, lead her choices. Plus she got a kick ass wedding in the follow up, The Shadow in the North. I mean look at that wedding dress!
Lasting Impression: Captain America. As you know I totally saw Captain America for one JJ Feild, but his co-star Hayley really stole the show. She went her own way, put up with no nonsense, and seriously is awesome. She went on to form S.H.I.E.L.D. after all! A strong female lead in a male dominated Marvel franchise is sure to make us women viewers sit up and take notice. We're finally not the damsel in distress, we're saving the day! 
Can't believe it's them: Cinderella. And yes, I did for some reason go to this overly Technicolor live action reinterpretation of the cartoon which couldn't figure out which time period it was meant to be in. Seriously, what is with Cate Blanchett? She's dressed for the golden age of Hollywood in rural France! What was so odd though was Hayley playing the bucolic and dying mother of Cinderella who looked like she had stepped out of a painting by Rossetti. Also, seriously, what's up with the blond hair? That is SO obviously a wig!
Bio: Hayley was born to two motivational speakers in London who soon divorced and she spent her childhood divided between the school year in England and the summer in the US in Missouri, being a dual citizen. But having two such outspoken parents led to some interesting experiences, such as walking on hot coals at the age of nine and going on anti-vivisection rallies as a teenager. Her mother believed that theater was an important communal experience and Hayley was taken to productions at an early age, once at the age of eleven seeing her future co-star Ralph Fiennes as Hamlet. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 2005 and getting her first role in a TV movie about Charles and Camilla starring Laurence Fox as Prince Charles. But it was her role the following year in Andrew Davies's The Line of Beauty that really brought her into prominence, getting a role in a Woody Allen film the following year. Though film and television aren't her only outlets, she is also an accomplished stage actress earning a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for the 2009 revival of A View from the Bridge. Most people site 2011, the year Captain America came out, as her big breakthrough, but I think she's been brilliant from day one, seriously, just watch Mansfield Park. Her rise to fame was just inevitable. Plus she has some wicked 
I never really talk about why I started my blog sincerely. I will almost always give the true, though somewhat flippant answer, that it was to get free books, and in particular Lauren Willig's ARCs. So perhaps it's time to tell this story? After my semester from hell, which ended with me getting pneumonia, I was at loose ends. I was supposed to go to Canada for the New Year but was too sick, so I started playing around with the idea of a blog. I thought it would be really cool to have a blog titled "Crazy Random Happenstance" because of the line from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, though my blog would be entirely free of singing. Per dictates in place banning my vocalizations. Though I couldn't quite remember the quote "Crazy Random Happenstance" and instead used "Strange and Random Happenstance" which, if I'm honest, I like far more because crazy, well, I don't like all the connotations and I'm not pigeonholed as a Whedonverse blog then, despite the first post. I love you Joss, but seriously, not liking your recent work. So I made a blog and then school started and I forgot all about it. Then the semester ended and life was still stressful, just minus school. My cat was really sick, and well, really old if truth be told. I was in denial that he might not be around much longer and I needed a distraction. A blog was the answer. On May 19th one of my friends who had just started doing a knitting blog asked if I had thought of doing my own blog. I immediately wrote back: "sweet, I have blog I set up, just haven't started yet (with hopes of free books!)
mine is called strange and random happenstance." Within the hour I had written my first post. By 10PM the next day my cat would be dead. 
Mad World by Paula Byrne
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
