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It's a mini-series about Goofus and Gallant. The TV level CGI was distracting but I enjoyed it overall especially the chemistry between the leads.
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Jun 2, 2019 18:05
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I was looking forward to this because I like the book a lot. I really don't like the tone they went with this, it feels like dirk gently did, this sort of American conception of "quirky british humour" feel to it. The book was of course narrated by Pratchett, a man who had unlimited insight into British society and pop culture and he wrote something here that was exactly bang on accurate to the year it was published. If you're English you read it and you nod along and go "Exactly!" This version throws that all away. The only bit of his voice left is just some surface level commentary and digressions that for some reason are now the voice of god? The satire and the playing around with archetypes have all been neutered by shifting the story forward in time, or completely misunderstood, or adapted out for no good reason. Occasional glimpses of the original setting poke though the paint in ways that don't fit the characters. Crowley's tape answering machine. The paintball team building exercise is cutting edge satire for 30 years ago. Should've been replaced by something more modern or they should've committed to a period adaptation. The Agnes Nutter scene was a disaster. In the book it works because her blowing everyone up is mentioned offhand and unexpectedly, what we call a "punchline" which is used to end a thing called "a joke". We didn't need the long explanation. Anathema. They made her be a millionaire american supermodel type, which makes no sense for her role in the story, so she has to get on a plane and live in a hovel on a whim so that the story can continue. She's supposed to be skint, on the fringes of society. Gets hit by the car because rides around the countryside like a 1940s rural midwife - a 20th century village witch with a 20th century broomstick of rod brakes and uselessly dim lights. You put her on a modern bike and Aziraphale's whole "oops I got carried away making it better" scene doesn't work because the prop looks the same. The audience can't tell anything happened. It's lost all it's charm and it makes me wonder how much creative control Gaiman had, because it feels like it was made by someone with a shallow reading of the text. HorseLord fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Jun 2, 2019 |
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Jun 2, 2019 20:10
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HorseLord posted:You put her on a modern bike and Aziraphale's whole "oops I got carried away making it better" scene doesn't work because the prop looks the same. The audience can't tell anything happened. Without going into the rest of your post, small parts of which I agree with, it shows her gearless bike, it then shows the bike with gears, Crowley mocks him, she comments, the bike no longer has gears when they arrive at the cottage. Gaiman was showrunner. He had a great deal of control.
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Jun 2, 2019 21:05
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It wasn't perfect but I liked it a lot. I kind of wish it had been more its own thing and less of a direct adaptation but for what it was, it was good. The one scene (well two) from the book I did miss (and it seems like everyone had one) was the bit where Agnes gives her last speech and looks up at the sky and says "And that goes for you as well, you old fool", and then Shadwell's dream of the same thing where he realizes that burning witches is actually horrible.
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Jun 2, 2019 21:15
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Between this and American Gods season 2, maybe Gaiman shouldn’t have this much control.
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Jun 2, 2019 21:47
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Also, a lot of parts of Anathema's character in the books which would serve to make her a weirdo in the 80s, would make her pretty normal or cool today. Using that, plus the international production to add a bit of diversity (THE HORROR) to the show isn't exactly crazy.
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Jun 2, 2019 22:35
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MisterBibs posted:Man, I loved this so much. I've seemingly slept on Adria Arjona ( True detective season 2
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Jun 2, 2019 22:51
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); has she been in anything I should check out?
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The narration really got in the way of a lot of the jokes, for me. But Tennant and Sheen killed it in their role.
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Jun 3, 2019 00:27
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Hadn't read the book (inexcusable for someone who grew up on Douglas Adams, I know), but I really enjoyed this. Appreciate seeing a bunch of the foregoing posts pointing out things I have quibbles with too as a non-book-knower. One thing I particularly loved was the Gilliam-esque title sequence and that rollicking dark-carnival theme music (and how it was woven throughout the score and characters' leitmotifs).
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Jun 3, 2019 02:22
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minus: narration was a bit overaggressive. plus: adding Gabriel and Sandalphon was an excellent adaptational choice to flesh out Aziraphale; you always buy that Crowley's not cool with Hell but why exactly Aziraphale is so willing to rebel against Heaven was always a bit of a "well the premise of the story says he does" thing in the original book. John Hamm as Insufferable American Who Thinks He's Brilliant and *hastily looks up who the gently caress Sandalphon was played by* Paul Chahidi as That Ancient Fucker Who Heard A Buzzword On MSNBC This Morning And Wants It Worked Into The Meeting Somehow does -wonderful- things to Aziraphale by proxy. you know he would never say he hates them, you know he would never think that he hates them, you know he would aggressively defend them as wonderful people to anyone who impugned them, but you know there is a part of him deep down whispering "man it would be great to watch Beelzebub rip them both in half"
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Jun 3, 2019 03:29
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Finished it up tonight and it was a good watch. I was a bit disappointed by the show-down between the horsemen and the children, really felt clunky with the OH IT'S MY TURN TO PICK UP THE SWORD thing. Really should have had them bring their own 'weapons' as in the book. I think the second episode dragged really hard in the beginning, and the last episode dragged at the end, but otherwise good.
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Jun 3, 2019 06:44
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Oh, how I wanted to like this. I really did but I had to turn it off at episode three because I could not take it anymore. What utter rubbish.
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Jun 3, 2019 07:17
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Pratchett adaptations need to stop lifting dialog directly from the page. Exchanges that flow beautifully as prose always come across as overlong and overwrought when spoken by actors.
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Jun 3, 2019 09:29
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Also this is probably true to the books (been a while) but Crowley and Az didn’t actually do anything other than give Adam a pep talk, did they.
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Jun 3, 2019 09:44
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Pratchett's exchanges don't even always flow all that beautifully, if I'm honest. But yeah, the Pratchett adaptation I thought was best was Going Postal, because it actually treated the book as source material and not as the script itself. I like it as much as anyone when an adaptation sticks to its source but there's just differences in reception in books and film you have to adapt to. I don't want to play armchair psychologist but it seems to me like there was a greater-than-average motivation to, as it were, keep Terry's vision intact in play here, and for completely obvious reasons that I fully empathize with, but it's not for the show's best. Kinda worried about The Watch now if that ever happens. To say nothing of the rumoured Sandman adaptation which they really should just leave alone at this point.
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Jun 3, 2019 09:46
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Konnie Huq 
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Jun 3, 2019 13:32
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Loved this. It was just so much fun. "It's on fire or something."
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Jun 3, 2019 13:43
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PYF bits cut from the book. Mine was the Them meeting Metatron and saying he doesn't look anything like he's meant to. No gun or kung-fu action or anything.
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Jun 3, 2019 13:43
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Every part that's not Crowley and Aziraphale just had me waiting to get those two back on the screen. They don't spend a lot of time on the kids (true to the book, IIRC) but even the parts we get feel like too much because child actors are always terrible. I don't like Anathema either, but maybe it's because she really only gets to interact with the kids. What the gently caress is that music they always play when she's talking to the kids, by the way? It's loving awful. (See 33 minutes into episode 2 for an example in the midst of a very bad scene) Also what the gently caress is it with British TV and CGI? I get that TV budgets don't allow for the super high-end poo poo like movies, but I swear they cooked up that hell-hound on some Amigas left over from Babylon 5. Couldn't they have just got a really big dog and Baskerville'd it up a bit?
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Jun 3, 2019 15:36
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The blurred-out mouths were some pre-Matrix poo poo
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Jun 3, 2019 15:51
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I really think they should have fleshed Adam out in this adaptation, he's fairly flat here.
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Jun 3, 2019 15:54
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This is a 'one and done' show, yes? There were hooks to take the show for a Season 2, but most of the plots seem complete. (As much as I'd love a simple Sheen/Tennant road-trip season.)
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Jun 3, 2019 17:57
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I appreciated the Andy Hamilton cameo as the little demon in ep 6. (Andy had a radio sitcom, "Old Harry's Game", set in Hell, where he played the devil.)
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Jun 3, 2019 18:02
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Surprisingly the bit I missed most that hasn't been already mentioned, was the janitor sitting down to lunch under a sickly tree, nudging a root to a crack in the concrete and then foliage exploding up around him.
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Jun 3, 2019 18:13
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Conclusions posted:This is a 'one and done' show, yes? There were hooks to take the show for a Season 2, but most of the plots seem complete. this is where the book ends. There is no second book, unles gaiman is currently creating one.
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Jun 3, 2019 18:13
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Data Graham posted:One thing I particularly loved was the Gilliam-esque title sequence and that rollicking dark-carnival theme music (and how it was woven throughout the score and characters' leitmotifs). I wonder if it was the same animation team that did Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men. It has a similar feel and look.
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Jun 3, 2019 19:50
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double nine posted:this is where the book ends. There is no second book, unles gaiman is currently creating one. I doubt Gaiman would write a sequel without Terry Pratchett, even if they talked about what would happen in a sequel.
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Jun 3, 2019 19:58
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I wasn't sold on Sheen until episode 3 and imo he really nailed it. Tennant is perfect and so was Anathema. The kids were really spot on too especially Wensleydale. Overall just great stuff. "Our records indicate you were issued a flaming sword..."
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Jun 3, 2019 20:15
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Was Wensley's "actually..." tic in the book, or was it topical he's-gonna-grow-up-to-be-a-Redditor stuff? It got kinda grating either way.
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Jun 3, 2019 21:24
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Actually it was in the book, actually
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Jun 3, 2019 21:26
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I took some time to rethink over this series. Overall I hope it allows a higher budget version of other prachett books to be turned into shows, but I'm happy with the outcome of this. THAT SAID I think Hogfather came out better than this even with its flaws.
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Jun 3, 2019 22:13
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I normally don't like excess narration, but with this I feel it works here because the book is filled with stuff that is basically mentioned by the narrator to nobody in particular, and I think I'd miss most of that if it wasn't thrown in. And I know it's a stupid-as-hell cliche, but man alive I dug Shadwell's horrifiedly worrying about what the witches could be doing to Pulsifer... fast cut to crazy-amazing sex with a really pretty witch, during a tornado. I'm not sure if I liked that Adam basically had a gently caress-off-real-Dad talk, as opposed to his casual replacement of Real Dad with Adopted One. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
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Jun 3, 2019 22:47
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I missed the biker gang that were playing bar trivia with Death during the Horsemen meetup. They decide that riding with the literal Four Horsemen is the most metal thing ever (duh) and have some super funny banter on the ride with them to Taddfield.
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Jun 4, 2019 00:36
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I applaud the choice of 1199 Panigale for War 
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Jun 4, 2019 01:19
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Is Newt's car a real thing that exists?
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Jun 4, 2019 02:29
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Paddyo posted:I missed the biker gang that were playing bar trivia with Death during the Horsemen meetup. They decide that riding with the literal Four Horsemen is the most metal thing ever (duh) and have some super funny banter on the ride with them to Taddfield. "Grievous Bodily Harm"
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Jun 4, 2019 02:29
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I started to feel that this show was losing its luster as it progressed, but then the final episode comes around and we get Jon Hamm and Anna Maxwell Martin fighting to dominate a scene and its loving amazing.
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Jun 4, 2019 02:55
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I didn't mind the excess narration, I just don't think much of the humor translated well to TV. Or maybe it was just that too much of it was played seriously, and the joke just didn't work seeing it actually acted out instead of in my imagination. Especially Azirephale, who had the right characterization but instead of being a parody of a conflicted angel, he just came across as pointless and pitiable.
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Jun 4, 2019 03:13
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precision posted:Is Newt's car a real thing that exists? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Robin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8
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Jun 4, 2019 03:36
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precision posted:Is Newt's car a real thing that exists? their defining characteristic, as cars, is that they're incredibly easy to flip
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Jun 4, 2019 03:47
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