![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Finished Little Drummer Girl -- the BBC limited series that aired on AMC this past fall. Apparently AMC has a deal with British Television and is airing various British television series. Poor PBS, they are no longer the only channel that gets rights to this stuff. Actually the more interesting stuff is ending up on AMC and BBC America. PBS is just doing a lot of historical costume dramas and staid mysteries. PBS needs to up its game.
Anyhow, it's good, but - the spy plot works better than the dual passionate romances. I went to sleep during one of the love scenes -- which was with Kalim.
The description in Wiki and Rotten Tomatoes is misleading. Charlie (the protagonist) doesn't fall in love with Gadi Berker (Alexander Skaarsgard) and Marty Kurtz (Michael Sheen) but with Gadi and Kalim, which made more sense. Although -- I bought the Gadi romance, I did not buy the Kalim romance. I didn't in the book or movie either...so that may just be the fault of Le Carr.
The spy plot is twisty, and morally ambiguous. At the end of it, it is hard to know who is worse, Marty Kurtz the Isralei spymaster or Kalim, the Palestinian Terrorist.
Or Charlie and Gadi who go along for the ride.
It also shines a light on Israel and Palistine, with the Brits caught in the middle.
While it's nice to blame the Brits for it, the Brits point out that this has been going for a long time prior to their arrival on the scene, and the Mossad is far nastier in their spy craft than the Brits. Hugh Dancy sort of points this out in a very nice cameo. I didn't totally by it -- since the story is told from a British point of view, and Britain much like the US and Europe, tends to turn a blind eye to it's own involvement in these things.
That said, the series poses more questions than answers and isn't preachy in the least. It is a bit slow in places -- the romantic parts sort of drug, and those were the ones that lulled me to sleep on a warm Sunday. And I happen to like romance.
But it is hard to do well, apparently.
The performances however are quite good. Florence Pugh is far better in the role of Charlie than Diane Keaton had been. But I still liked the prior Le Carre presentation -- "The Night Manager" much better -- found it to be more fun and better paced not to mention easier to follow, due to the pacing.
2. Sleepy Sunday. Pretty day if a little warm. No vertigo headache -- so yay. Am going off salt as much as possible -- because that apparently helps cause it. The last time I had them -- when I scaled back on salt that helped tremendously.
Also lots of antihistimines. I think it's the mold in the air.
Could be anything really. I'm pretty much allergic to everything.
3. Frustrated with the novel I'm reading -- I want the family confrontations. But instead I'm getting boring and somewhat improbable sex scenes. The heroine keeps sneaking into the Duke's bed-chamber and they have sex in various positions. I'm skimming -- it's boring. Sex scenes are boring unless they further character and plot. If they are basically just there for masturbation purposes (aka porn) or
repetitive -- they are boring. This is not helped by the fact that the story takes place in the 1700s, and the characters aren't married, and allegedly in love -- and the heroine is considered a friend of the family, and beloved of the Duke's mother, sister, and seen as a little sister by his two brothers. And the Duke is in love with her but apparently doesn't care a whit about her reputation or what will happen to her when sexy times are over...
I'm thinking the writer is projecting her modern sensibilities on a historical period and somewhat romanticizing said period in the process.
Also these people didn't bath very often...and there's no protection, and the hero had slept with quite a few actresses and others in his youth. Yet no one is pregnant, or has an STD? Granted he ejaculates outside, but still. Yes, I think about these things -- my mind goes there.
Anyhow, it's good, but - the spy plot works better than the dual passionate romances. I went to sleep during one of the love scenes -- which was with Kalim.
The description in Wiki and Rotten Tomatoes is misleading. Charlie (the protagonist) doesn't fall in love with Gadi Berker (Alexander Skaarsgard) and Marty Kurtz (Michael Sheen) but with Gadi and Kalim, which made more sense. Although -- I bought the Gadi romance, I did not buy the Kalim romance. I didn't in the book or movie either...so that may just be the fault of Le Carr.
The spy plot is twisty, and morally ambiguous. At the end of it, it is hard to know who is worse, Marty Kurtz the Isralei spymaster or Kalim, the Palestinian Terrorist.
Or Charlie and Gadi who go along for the ride.
It also shines a light on Israel and Palistine, with the Brits caught in the middle.
While it's nice to blame the Brits for it, the Brits point out that this has been going for a long time prior to their arrival on the scene, and the Mossad is far nastier in their spy craft than the Brits. Hugh Dancy sort of points this out in a very nice cameo. I didn't totally by it -- since the story is told from a British point of view, and Britain much like the US and Europe, tends to turn a blind eye to it's own involvement in these things.
That said, the series poses more questions than answers and isn't preachy in the least. It is a bit slow in places -- the romantic parts sort of drug, and those were the ones that lulled me to sleep on a warm Sunday. And I happen to like romance.
But it is hard to do well, apparently.
The performances however are quite good. Florence Pugh is far better in the role of Charlie than Diane Keaton had been. But I still liked the prior Le Carre presentation -- "The Night Manager" much better -- found it to be more fun and better paced not to mention easier to follow, due to the pacing.
2. Sleepy Sunday. Pretty day if a little warm. No vertigo headache -- so yay. Am going off salt as much as possible -- because that apparently helps cause it. The last time I had them -- when I scaled back on salt that helped tremendously.
Also lots of antihistimines. I think it's the mold in the air.
Could be anything really. I'm pretty much allergic to everything.
3. Frustrated with the novel I'm reading -- I want the family confrontations. But instead I'm getting boring and somewhat improbable sex scenes. The heroine keeps sneaking into the Duke's bed-chamber and they have sex in various positions. I'm skimming -- it's boring. Sex scenes are boring unless they further character and plot. If they are basically just there for masturbation purposes (aka porn) or
repetitive -- they are boring. This is not helped by the fact that the story takes place in the 1700s, and the characters aren't married, and allegedly in love -- and the heroine is considered a friend of the family, and beloved of the Duke's mother, sister, and seen as a little sister by his two brothers. And the Duke is in love with her but apparently doesn't care a whit about her reputation or what will happen to her when sexy times are over...
I'm thinking the writer is projecting her modern sensibilities on a historical period and somewhat romanticizing said period in the process.
Also these people didn't bath very often...and there's no protection, and the hero had slept with quite a few actresses and others in his youth. Yet no one is pregnant, or has an STD? Granted he ejaculates outside, but still. Yes, I think about these things -- my mind goes there.