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Dec. 11th, 2012 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Seen about four or five episodes of Elementary and continue to be charmed by the Watson/Holmes dynamic, the cases-of-the-week ( a rarity for me, they've actually come up with a few I have not seen tv do for a bit...see, this is why you should take long sabbaticals from certain genres, get away from it long enough...the cases of the week seem new), and Sherlock himself.
Sherlock's character development is a lot faster here than it has been elsewhere and a bit deeper.
Interesting. You'd think it would be the opposite? Considering the Downy Jr films and the BBC series have less time to convey his character. Maybe that's the problem - less time? So they rush certain things and leave others under-developed? I don't know. For the record, I adore the BBC version entitled "Sherlock" and think Elementary and Sherlock can be enjoyed separately, they are completely different takes on the same character - with almost nothing in common. Quite astonishing that. Usually they copy more from each other. But not so much.
Was quite surprised that Sherlock admitted to his friend, the Captain, that he had not told him about his down-ward spiral into heroine addiction...because he embarrassed and did not want his friend to know about his weakness. While the Captain, basically shrugged, and told him that he had figured it out a long time ago. And was just waiting for Sherlock to tell him. I rather adore the Captain - who for once is not painted as a nitwit. It annoys me when the actual cops are painted as nitwit...you know the people who are doing it for a living wage, while this brilliant detective comes in and perplexes them. Here...the cops aren't portrayed as doofuses. Just with different skills than Sherlock. It's actually one of the more realistic procedurals that I've seen. I don't find myself taken out of the story quite as much as I am by the other ones.
2. Christmas with Holly - Hallmark Hall of Fame's Christmas Special...makes me miss the good old days when they actually worked at this sort of thing. The days when they won Emmy's and Awards for their Hallmark Hall of Fame series. Now, unfortunately, they have their own cable channel - and the quality of their product has...gone dramatically down-hill. This felt like one of those 24 days of Xmas made for tv flicks that you see on Lifetime, ABC Family, and well, the Hallmark Channel. Oddly? Syfy does a better job. Scarey, but true.
Christmas with Holly is loosely based on the sappy Lisa Kleypas novel - Christmas at Friday Harbor - Book #1 in the Friday Harbor series - which is about two people who meet on a Ferry going from Seattle to Friday Harbor. One is Maggie Hope - who opens a toy store on the island (Friday Harbor), and has recently been stood up at the alter, the other is Mark Nolan, who has been made the reluctant guardian of his 8 year old niece, Holly, who lost her Mom in a car accident. The film doesn't really tell us. I only know, because I read the second book in the series, Rainshadow Road - which is a bit better and far less sentimental and cliche. Not memorable, but better. Nolan is one of three hardscrabble brothers...whose father left them and mother was an alcoholic - this information is quickly thrown at us but never followed up on. We're told a lot, but shown little. Which, come to think of it, was the problem I had with Kleypas writing. She's a best-seller, I have no idea why. The appeal of Kleypas' writing is unfortunately lost on me. Her plots meander all over the place and she lacks focus. Also the characters feel somewhat cliche.
I watched the film - to see how they did it, because Rainshadow Road was admittedly one of the better trashy romance novels that I read this past year (which I guess says something about this genre, doesn't it? Or my ability to find cheap and decent books to read within it?). And "Christmas at Friday Harbor" was the first of the series. But they changed some of the characters...the brothers are quite different in the movie. For one thing it's Sam Nolan not Scott. And I think he's younger than Mark in the books. Hard to remember.
Personally, I don't think trashy romances make good movies. There's not much plot and they tend to be a bit...internally focused - lots of scenes with the characters doing nothing but staring off into the distance - thinking. Not exactly the most visual of genres. Kleypas sucks at sex scenes...and there's little of them in her books, so no loss there.
But seriously, Hallmark couldn't find a better book to do? Surely, there's something?
Sherlock's character development is a lot faster here than it has been elsewhere and a bit deeper.
Interesting. You'd think it would be the opposite? Considering the Downy Jr films and the BBC series have less time to convey his character. Maybe that's the problem - less time? So they rush certain things and leave others under-developed? I don't know. For the record, I adore the BBC version entitled "Sherlock" and think Elementary and Sherlock can be enjoyed separately, they are completely different takes on the same character - with almost nothing in common. Quite astonishing that. Usually they copy more from each other. But not so much.
Was quite surprised that Sherlock admitted to his friend, the Captain, that he had not told him about his down-ward spiral into heroine addiction...because he embarrassed and did not want his friend to know about his weakness. While the Captain, basically shrugged, and told him that he had figured it out a long time ago. And was just waiting for Sherlock to tell him. I rather adore the Captain - who for once is not painted as a nitwit. It annoys me when the actual cops are painted as nitwit...you know the people who are doing it for a living wage, while this brilliant detective comes in and perplexes them. Here...the cops aren't portrayed as doofuses. Just with different skills than Sherlock. It's actually one of the more realistic procedurals that I've seen. I don't find myself taken out of the story quite as much as I am by the other ones.
2. Christmas with Holly - Hallmark Hall of Fame's Christmas Special...makes me miss the good old days when they actually worked at this sort of thing. The days when they won Emmy's and Awards for their Hallmark Hall of Fame series. Now, unfortunately, they have their own cable channel - and the quality of their product has...gone dramatically down-hill. This felt like one of those 24 days of Xmas made for tv flicks that you see on Lifetime, ABC Family, and well, the Hallmark Channel. Oddly? Syfy does a better job. Scarey, but true.
Christmas with Holly is loosely based on the sappy Lisa Kleypas novel - Christmas at Friday Harbor - Book #1 in the Friday Harbor series - which is about two people who meet on a Ferry going from Seattle to Friday Harbor. One is Maggie Hope - who opens a toy store on the island (Friday Harbor), and has recently been stood up at the alter, the other is Mark Nolan, who has been made the reluctant guardian of his 8 year old niece, Holly, who lost her Mom in a car accident. The film doesn't really tell us. I only know, because I read the second book in the series, Rainshadow Road - which is a bit better and far less sentimental and cliche. Not memorable, but better. Nolan is one of three hardscrabble brothers...whose father left them and mother was an alcoholic - this information is quickly thrown at us but never followed up on. We're told a lot, but shown little. Which, come to think of it, was the problem I had with Kleypas writing. She's a best-seller, I have no idea why. The appeal of Kleypas' writing is unfortunately lost on me. Her plots meander all over the place and she lacks focus. Also the characters feel somewhat cliche.
I watched the film - to see how they did it, because Rainshadow Road was admittedly one of the better trashy romance novels that I read this past year (which I guess says something about this genre, doesn't it? Or my ability to find cheap and decent books to read within it?). And "Christmas at Friday Harbor" was the first of the series. But they changed some of the characters...the brothers are quite different in the movie. For one thing it's Sam Nolan not Scott. And I think he's younger than Mark in the books. Hard to remember.
Personally, I don't think trashy romances make good movies. There's not much plot and they tend to be a bit...internally focused - lots of scenes with the characters doing nothing but staring off into the distance - thinking. Not exactly the most visual of genres. Kleypas sucks at sex scenes...and there's little of them in her books, so no loss there.
But seriously, Hallmark couldn't find a better book to do? Surely, there's something?