Of Murder Mysteries and Memes
Oct. 30th, 2010 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99First of all
I want to start with a lot of clucking about how I'm right about what I think ITV are up to.
Mark Gattis did a good job adapting the book. Julian Rhind-Tutt, meanwhile, did a bang up brilliant job as Michael Garfield. He was helped by the atmosphere, but Garfield is an odd character, in all of the Christie novels he's one of the few murders who are utterly only at home to Mr. and Mrs. Cuckoo. Most of the rest are pushed there by circumstance or desire or whatnot, but he's the only one I can think of that's out and out mad. And Rhind-Tutt gets that, all while being the charming, interesting person Garfield is when he's not killing people.
Good job on all fronts.
Thorne:Sleepyhead was less well done. I managed to catch the end through use of the V+ box.
Part of the problem is that they totally got Thorne wrong. Not totally wrong, but the feel of him was off. In the books he's well aware he's mildly ridculous, and several other characters point that out to him too.
the voices he hears. In the books, he hears voices, which not so much in the programme. In the book, it's the voices of the female victims, whereas in the show it's the voice of a previous, male, killer.
They kept Alison, who is the most wonderful character in the book, and the one I was most scared of them changing, but they turn the interesting, spikey, short-cropped grey-haired Anne Coburn into someone far more traditionally comforting (and cast long, blonde-haired Natascha McElhone). None of that should be taken as a diss on the actress, who played the now somewhat under-written part as well as it could be.
They also changed the plot. Now I grant the book's plot made sense only in the book but it made sense, and was part of the whole thing that our lead character and his hunches are not always right and the great male hero complex is not a good thing, and the tv show lost all that.
However, I shall be the first to admit that I was watching this for Aiden Gillen. I was intrigued when he was cast, especially since the Radio Times made such a thing of him being in it so I watched the first episode and all he got to do was be background pathologist guy/best friend/mildly suspicious.
I did wonder why he'd taken the part, and then I remembered that this is a man who was in a WWE film, he has no sense or shame.
And I knew why he'd taken the part. Oh the beginning of part 3!!
In the books, the character has a pivotal scene where he comes out to Thorne, as part of the section where the detective is shown to be a pretty lousy human being (an understandable one, but not the best). In the show, he's already out so I was wondering what they'd do instead.
What they do is a doozy.
In the book, Francis Calvert kills his three daughters and then himself when he's about to be arrested for a series of murders. In the show, Thorne kills him and rings Hendricks (Gillen's character) who covers it up for him. After the most recent murder, a message is left on a mirror saying "how did it feel when you killed him".
Thorne therefore thinks that Hendricks must be the killer because he's the only one who knows and goes awol. Hendricks finds him at the Calvert house and Thorne accuses him of the crimes. Hendricks doesn't say no, he just talks about the weight of the secret he's been keeping, and when Thorne presses him, he still doesn't say no, he just keeps hitting Thorne.
Once Thorne stops getting up, he just walks away. From this, Thorne gets that he's innocent. The police, for entirely different reasons, also think Hendricks did it and arrest him.
The best bit of this is the acting. David Morissey is one of those actors who delivers. Aiden Gillen though, he was wowza. Normally his characters are so lively, almost too lively, all fizzing and whizzing. That's what Hendricks was like in the first two parts, but in the third, it becomes clear that that was mostly fronting, and he just stops. Becomes utterly blank. Even while hitting Thorne. And later, when the police are expecting some sort of response to being arrested.
The best bit is that he saves the day when he's being frog-marched between the interview room and the cells, and actually looks at the pictures on the big seethrough board of crime.
So yes, I'll be watching more of it, but still for the wrong reasons.
Having seen how long this entry has gotten, meme later.
I want to start with a lot of clucking about how I'm right about what I think ITV are up to.
Mark Gattis did a good job adapting the book. Julian Rhind-Tutt, meanwhile, did a bang up brilliant job as Michael Garfield. He was helped by the atmosphere, but Garfield is an odd character, in all of the Christie novels he's one of the few murders who are utterly only at home to Mr. and Mrs. Cuckoo. Most of the rest are pushed there by circumstance or desire or whatnot, but he's the only one I can think of that's out and out mad. And Rhind-Tutt gets that, all while being the charming, interesting person Garfield is when he's not killing people.
Good job on all fronts.
Thorne:Sleepyhead was less well done. I managed to catch the end through use of the V+ box.
Part of the problem is that they totally got Thorne wrong. Not totally wrong, but the feel of him was off. In the books he's well aware he's mildly ridculous, and several other characters point that out to him too.
the voices he hears. In the books, he hears voices, which not so much in the programme. In the book, it's the voices of the female victims, whereas in the show it's the voice of a previous, male, killer.
They kept Alison, who is the most wonderful character in the book, and the one I was most scared of them changing, but they turn the interesting, spikey, short-cropped grey-haired Anne Coburn into someone far more traditionally comforting (and cast long, blonde-haired Natascha McElhone). None of that should be taken as a diss on the actress, who played the now somewhat under-written part as well as it could be.
They also changed the plot. Now I grant the book's plot made sense only in the book but it made sense, and was part of the whole thing that our lead character and his hunches are not always right and the great male hero complex is not a good thing, and the tv show lost all that.
However, I shall be the first to admit that I was watching this for Aiden Gillen. I was intrigued when he was cast, especially since the Radio Times made such a thing of him being in it so I watched the first episode and all he got to do was be background pathologist guy/best friend/mildly suspicious.
I did wonder why he'd taken the part, and then I remembered that this is a man who was in a WWE film, he has no sense or shame.
And I knew why he'd taken the part. Oh the beginning of part 3!!
In the books, the character has a pivotal scene where he comes out to Thorne, as part of the section where the detective is shown to be a pretty lousy human being (an understandable one, but not the best). In the show, he's already out so I was wondering what they'd do instead.
What they do is a doozy.
In the book, Francis Calvert kills his three daughters and then himself when he's about to be arrested for a series of murders. In the show, Thorne kills him and rings Hendricks (Gillen's character) who covers it up for him. After the most recent murder, a message is left on a mirror saying "how did it feel when you killed him".
Thorne therefore thinks that Hendricks must be the killer because he's the only one who knows and goes awol. Hendricks finds him at the Calvert house and Thorne accuses him of the crimes. Hendricks doesn't say no, he just talks about the weight of the secret he's been keeping, and when Thorne presses him, he still doesn't say no, he just keeps hitting Thorne.
Once Thorne stops getting up, he just walks away. From this, Thorne gets that he's innocent. The police, for entirely different reasons, also think Hendricks did it and arrest him.
The best bit of this is the acting. David Morissey is one of those actors who delivers. Aiden Gillen though, he was wowza. Normally his characters are so lively, almost too lively, all fizzing and whizzing. That's what Hendricks was like in the first two parts, but in the third, it becomes clear that that was mostly fronting, and he just stops. Becomes utterly blank. Even while hitting Thorne. And later, when the police are expecting some sort of response to being arrested.
The best bit is that he saves the day when he's being frog-marched between the interview room and the cells, and actually looks at the pictures on the big seethrough board of crime.
So yes, I'll be watching more of it, but still for the wrong reasons.
Having seen how long this entry has gotten, meme later.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 05:40 pm (UTC)BWAHAHAHAHA
... I still have to see that. *coff*
no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 07:33 pm (UTC)