I liked Fosse/Verdon more than you did, but not as much as I thought I would. I was anticipating a miniseries as wildly kinetic and seductive as Fosse's dance routines, and mostly got a depressing relationship drama with occasional jazz hand flourishes. It was a very GOOD depressing relationship drama, but not exactly what I had in mind.
My wife HATED it, couldn't wait for it to end. I get the feeling that as we continued to be sucked into the vortex of Bob and Gwen's toxic symbiosis, she wanted out just as much as Ron did. ("RUN, Ron, run!" she yelled at the screen.)
I wasn't that desperate to escape, but I understood. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a lot of this series. (I do think we got enough of how the sausage got made, so to speak; any more rehearsal detail, IMO, would be like a Fosse version of Full Metal Jacket.) Michelle Williams was easily the best thing about it, capturing Verdon's moods, moves and voice over a 25 year period. I thought Rockwell was great too, but his Fosse didn't have the same range. It was: stare dully into the distance, take pills, quietly humiliate a dancer, screw said dancer, dangle a cigarette from lip. Repeat. Nothing got a rise out of him, and he seemed to be an emotional void on the screen most of the time.
(It did pay off last week, though, when Bob suggested they try "Nowadays" as a duet. Gwen laid into him, full blast, and he just took it, glassy-eyed, cigarette dangling from his lip. What was going through his head? Was he delivering a hearty "fuck you" to Gwen, or did he genuinely think the song would be better as a duet? I couldn't tell, and I liked the ambiguity.)
I liked the non-linear chronology, as it strengthened the emotional beats; I was disappointed that they went to the "life is a musical" trope, because... well, that's "All that Jazz." Fosse did that already. (The only time I enjoyed it was the finale, when they took the whole "life mirrors art" angle to absurd extremes. We had Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Roy Scheider playing Bob Fosse telling Sam Rockwell playing Bob Fosse to do a scene from a movie about Fosse's life within a TV show about Fosse.)
I would have enjoyed Bob and Gwen finally putting aside their issues to protect their creation (Sweet Charity) if it wasn't intercut with scenes of their actual, biological child plunging into drug and alcohol addiction without either of them noticing.
BTW, you're right: Gwen did have a pretty good second career as a TV actress once Bob died and the dancing stopped. I still remember her from Magnum P.I.
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branchandroot
Fun? Laughs? Good Times?
Date: 2019-05-31 07:08 pm (UTC)My wife HATED it, couldn't wait for it to end. I get the feeling that as we continued to be sucked into the vortex of Bob and Gwen's toxic symbiosis, she wanted out just as much as Ron did. ("RUN, Ron, run!" she yelled at the screen.)
I wasn't that desperate to escape, but I understood. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a lot of this series. (I do think we got enough of how the sausage got made, so to speak; any more rehearsal detail, IMO, would be like a Fosse version of Full Metal Jacket.) Michelle Williams was easily the best thing about it, capturing Verdon's moods, moves and voice over a 25 year period. I thought Rockwell was great too, but his Fosse didn't have the same range. It was: stare dully into the distance, take pills, quietly humiliate a dancer, screw said dancer, dangle a cigarette from lip. Repeat. Nothing got a rise out of him, and he seemed to be an emotional void on the screen most of the time.
(It did pay off last week, though, when Bob suggested they try "Nowadays" as a duet. Gwen laid into him, full blast, and he just took it, glassy-eyed, cigarette dangling from his lip. What was going through his head? Was he delivering a hearty "fuck you" to Gwen, or did he genuinely think the song would be better as a duet? I couldn't tell, and I liked the ambiguity.)
I liked the non-linear chronology, as it strengthened the emotional beats; I was disappointed that they went to the "life is a musical" trope, because... well, that's "All that Jazz." Fosse did that already. (The only time I enjoyed it was the finale, when they took the whole "life mirrors art" angle to absurd extremes. We had Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Roy Scheider playing Bob Fosse telling Sam Rockwell playing Bob Fosse to do a scene from a movie about Fosse's life within a TV show about Fosse.)
I would have enjoyed Bob and Gwen finally putting aside their issues to protect their creation (Sweet Charity) if it wasn't intercut with scenes of their actual, biological child plunging into drug and alcohol addiction without either of them noticing.
BTW, you're right: Gwen did have a pretty good second career as a TV actress once Bob died and the dancing stopped. I still remember her from Magnum P.I.