rashbre central: early television overload

Sunday 22 December 2013

early television overload


I seemed to watch a surprisingly large amount of television on Sunday. Scrooged (obviously), but also The Snowman, Homeland, an episode of Harry Potter and Never Let Me Go.

It kind of snuck up. The fire was blazing, we'd got the tree ready for lights and decorations and there was warm soup and mince pies on offer.

So let's recap:

Scrooged: An essential view at Christmas. A 1980 take on 'A Christmas Carol', it's a Dicken's of a movie. Including the sing-along finale.

The Snowman: Probably 2-3 years since I last saw this, and I'd forgotten that it features David Bowie in the introduction. Fast flights from Brighton to visit Santa at the North Pole.

Homeland: The last of the current series, in a series that lapsed into soap drama in places. I suppose they didn't want to leave Brody's future role hanging, but there were some remarkable escape scenes preceding it. Walking out of the most secure complex in Iran during a coffee break? Driving Hummers to the cottage to stealthily surround Carrie and Brody? Re-employing the unstable Carrie a a prestigious station chief in a hot zone. I can already predict the plot line in the next series, when Saul and Carrie have to join forces to save Merca after a botch-up by the new Senator in charge of Homeland. Maybe they'll invite Jack Bauer along?

Harry Potter: One I'd not seen before. Shot in Pantone 455, dark forces threatened the future of Hogwarts, with striking scenery, wizardry, a bit of snogging and a great game of Hogbat.

Never Let Me Go: A thoughtful morality tale of raising clones to repair humans. Set in idyllic English countryside, sensitively directed and acted. I've read the book and even written about it here before. A bitter sweet thought provoker that tests the soul.

That's the television box ticked for the festive season. Tomorrow it's a gang of us at the pub.

4 comments:

OldLady Of The Hills said...

HOMELAND is really over, for me....The first Season based on the Israeli show was terrific. then, Season two went off the rails, never to get back on track,for me. The BEST Episode of the second season was the interigation episode---Beautifully written, and Beautifully acted......Season 3? It was "24" and nothing more, so, who cared----not me. Too bad.

rashbre said...

Naomi Yes, I liked Series 1. I also thought the start of Season 2 was a good re-boot. How they re-invented the characters and a motives.

Later if started to flag, and then by S3 with all the domestic stuff included, I somehow lost interest. I watched the last episode to see how they would play it out.

Some desperation in the plotting, I felt.

They could have lost the last half hour of the last S3 episode which was really a clunky set-up for the next series.

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

I've had my niece & nephew over today (and again tomorrow) so we ended up with Father Christmas (a bit of a sequel to The Snowman) and Toy Story.

rashbre said...

Nikki-ann I get confused with all the version of the snowman. There's that one with the dog as well.

Toy Story...What a super set of movies!