strange and random happenstance: Murray Gold

Showing posts with label Murray Gold. Show all posts

Friday, August 14, 2026

Season 52 - Around the World in 80 Days (2022)

Hot air balloons and Phileas Fogg go together like Amelia Earhart and aeroplanes. But here's the thing I learned from Michael Palin; Phileas Fogg never goes up in a hot air balloon once in the book. It's a conceit entirely made up for the adaptations and ingrained on our minds by the poster for the 1956 film starring David Niven. In fact almost everything I know about Around the World in Eighty Days I learned from Michael Palin and his documentary where he tried to recreate the journey. Perhaps I should read the book? Or perhaps not. Reading the summary it doesn't seem to have aged well with regard to indigenous cultures. Well, the best thing that can be said about this adaptation is it gets the balloon out of the way in the first episode. I really don't know who this adaptation is made for, aside from my Dad who loves it despite all it's faults. Each episode feels like they have to build to a "teaching moment" with a "very special guest star" who will explain why whatever the issue of the day is is bad. How did they get Lindsay Duncan to do this show? I know she has some schlock on her resume, but seriously? Which brings me back to the who is this written for? Children would be bored stiff, adults just see what's wrong with the whole production and feel a little talked down to when we're told racism is bad. Yeah, I do know a lot of people might need reminding, but I don't think those people are watching PBS. The aesthetic is more Dickensian than Attenborough, and I think you'd want to marvel at the world not make it so dark and dirty. But perhaps they were pushing against all the previous primary color adaptations. As for the music? Hans Zimmer's studio has a lot to answer for for this entirely unappealing Murray Gold wannabe vibe it's failing hard at. It would literally be better without music. Or if it wasn't ripping off another of their own productions, His Dark Materials. In fact everything about this production, aside from the casting, is poor. I actually feel sorry for the actors. David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, and Leonie Benesch are acting their hearts out and breaking ours and the material is just failing them. I feel bad. Especially for Miss Fix. Here we have a woman finally with her own initiative in this male world, being based on Nellie Bly and her attempt to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg's eighty day journey, and instead it takes her from being a world class journalist and intrepid explorer to someone prey to love and yelling about the Chinese not inventing forks. Seriously!?! At least have some standards for the writing! And shoehorning in how she's "changed" as a throwaway line in the finale doesn't count as proper character development. And don't get me started on her pretty dress!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Around the World in Eighty Days, David Niven, David Tennant, Dickensian, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Han Zimmer, His Dark Materials, Ibrahim Koma, Leonie Benesch, Michael Palin, Murray Gold, Nellie Bly, PBS, Phileas Fogg

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Around the World in 80 Days

Hot air balloons and Phileas Fogg go together like Amelia Earhart and aeroplanes. But here's the thing I learned from Michael Palin; Phileas Fogg never goes up in a hot air balloon once in the book. It's a conceit entirely made up for the adaptations and ingrained on our minds by the poster for the 1956 film starring David Niven. In fact almost everything I know about Around the World in Eighty Days I learned from Michael Palin and his documentary where he tried to recreate the journey. Perhaps I should read the book? Or perhaps not. Reading the summary it doesn't seem to have aged well with regard to indigenous cultures. Well, the best thing that can be said about this adaptation is it gets the balloon out of the way in the first episode. I really don't know who this adaptation is made for, aside from my Dad who loves it despite all it's faults. Each episode feels like they have to build to a "teaching moment" with a "very special guest star" who will explain why whatever the issue of the day is is bad. How did they get Lindsay Duncan to do this show? I know she has some schlock on her resume, but seriously? Which brings me back to the who is this written for? Children would be bored stiff, adults just see what's wrong with the whole production and feel a little talked down to when we're told racism is bad. Yeah, I do know a lot of people might need reminding, but I don't think those people are watching PBS. The aesthetic is more Dickensian than Attenborough, and I think you'd want to marvel at the world not make it so dark and dirty. But perhaps they were pushing against all the previous primary color adaptations. As for the music? Hans Zimmer's studio has a lot to answer for for this entirely unappealing Murray Gold wannabe vibe it's failing hard at. It would literally be better without music. Or if it wasn't ripping off another of their own productions, His Dark Materials. In fact everything about this production, aside from the casting, is poor. I actually feel sorry for the actors. David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, and Leonie Benesch are acting their hearts out and breaking ours and the material is just failing them. I feel bad. Especially for Miss Fix. Here we have a woman finally with her own initiative in this male's world, being based on Nellie Bly and her attempt to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg's eighty day journey, and instead it takes her from being a world class journalist and intrepid explorer to someone prey to love and yelling about the Chinese not inventing forks. Seriously!?! At least have some standards for the writing! And shoehorning in how she's "changed" as a throwaway line in the finale doesn't count as proper character development. And don't get me started on her pretty dress!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, Around the World in Eighty Days, David Niven, David Tennant, Dickensian, Han Zimmer, His Dark Materials, Ibrahim Koma, Leonie Benesch, Murray Gold, Nellie Bly, PBS, Phileas Fogg

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Desperate Romantics

Desperate Romantics
Based on the book by Franny Moyle
Release Date: Septmeber 21st, 2009 (Region 2), TBD (Region 1)
Starring: Aidan Turner, Amy Manson, Rafe Spall, Jennine Jacques, Tom Hollander, Zoe Tapper, Samuel Barnett, Timothy West and Sam Crane
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (UK)

This miniseries encapsulating the lives of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood from first laying eyes on Lizzie Siddal to her death was one of the most captivating and energetic adaptations I've seen in recent years. Narrated by the fictitious reporter Fred Walters, we follow the brotherhood of William Holman Hunt (Spall), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Turner) and John Everett Millais (Barnett) as they set out to change the face of art forever. We first encounter them as outcasts trying to break into the Academy, despite the derision of those around them, Dickens himself even being a detractor. But upon finding Lizzie, they all become inspired and realize their best hope is to secure the patronage of John Ruskin, the artist and art critic. As there lives become more and more entwined with lack of inspiration and women troubles they gain more and more prominence in the art world. Their artistic achievements being encapsulated in the mess of their love lives. While each artist is his own character, from the naive child protege Millais, to the spiritually troubled pugilist Hunt, to the womanizing centrifugal force that is Rossetti, it's their friendship that is the driving force of their lives and their art.

What I think will really draw and keep the viewers is, that while this is based on a more historical text, there is a vibrancy and humor to the characters. The writing is willing to let you laugh and not bog you down with dusty old lectures on how life was back in the day. There's life in these artists! Some people I see have taken umbrage that this is too sensationalist, not real, but that's not the case. Sure they change things here and there and contract time, but overall the basic facts are correct. Plus they've done a great job on integrating the art into the show with each episode culminating in one piece created. The first three episodes concentrate on Millais' work, spotlighting Christ in the House of His Parents, Ophelia and The Order of Release. The next episode concentrates on Hunt's The Scapegoat, because who doesn't love a painting of a pretty goat? The final two episodes deal with Rossetti's Bocca Baciata and Beata Beatrix. The BBC's website has a great interactive page so you can learn more about the pieces used in the series. I also felt that this was perfect timing for me to watch this because a few weeks ago I went to the Art Institute of Chicago where they are hosting an exhibition on the Arts and Crafts movement, Apostles of Beauty, where they had not only original drawings from the Pre-Raphaelites, but they had Rossetti's Beata Beatrix, the idealization of his dead wife as Dante's Beatrice. To see the art in the flesh but then to see it celebrated in the series was too much to be hoped for.

Of course, not every miniseries is flawless, I have two issues with Desperate Romantics. The first is the music. It was atrocious, skipping from overtly Gothic to Beatles rifs... it was almost as if a madman had done the score, someone with no knowledge of musical time periods who just threw it all together at the last minute. You can have over the top slightly modern music, look to Murray Gold's work on Casanova. This was just shite. The second is the PR on this...it was billed as kind of a Victorian Entourage, or an Entourage with easels, thankfully it's anything but, no matter what the PR department thought. The main reason being Aidan Turner can act, whereas I've never seen any evidence of that fact with Adrian Grenier... I just think that saying that it's like this other thing that is popular but not very good is going to lead people to make unfair comparisons. The joy and exuberance that Aidan Turner lends to Rossetti, or the desperately psychotic stares of Hunt or the sweetness of Millais could never be captured by the actors or the writers of Entourage. I cry fowl! Just because it's fun and enjoyable doesn't mean you have to sell it by comparison to something similar but not quite, it should sell itself. I'm hoping once this hits stateside you'll get to see what I'm saying.