19 thoughts on “Oh the Bad Movies & TV You’ll Watch 12!

  1. Green Book was a massive disappointment.Such brilliant direction,strong performances,gripping script weighed down by its problematic themes.
    Carnival Row is a lot of fun though.Some costumes are amazeballs,and I wonder if the designers got those wings and prosthetics custom made.The cinematography,however,made everything too gritty and boring.

  2. Add the reboot of “Partners In Crime” to the “Don’t Bother”list. They’ve moved it to the 50’s and they have confused Agatha Christie with John LeCarre. Costuming is Right, But Who Cares. Tommy is a bit thick and Tuppence is idiotically reckless, but they somehow end up working for MI-5.

    1. Mixing up Christie and Carre? Why do I have a feeling that the show runners wanted something “gritty”? I don’t mind gritty in and of itself, but I’m on the road to hating it since the approach to anything out of copyright and has the gall to be on the whole cheery has to be obliterated by it. My favorite ax to grind on this is Anne with an E. Anne Shirley is not gritty. So many things going for it, but I couldn’t take it beyond the first couple episodes.

      1. Nzie, THIS. If filmmakers want to make something gritty, why not make gritty original content–even if that content is “inspired” by an existent work. This trend has made gritty a four-letter word in my book. Anne with an E was particularly egregious in this way. As you said, Anne Shirley is not gritty.

        1. The whole POINT of Anne Shirley is that she’s not gritty. She makes a conscious choice to not be! There’s a moment in one of the later books when one of her children says “you don’t know what hardship is!” and Anne basically says “OH YEAH LET ME SAY A THING” (but it’s L.M.Montgomery, so it’s something like “in a few curt sentences Anne sketched the lines of her early life”. It was traumatic! But she decided to not make that be the whole of her life! (That’s easier in fiction than in real life, when you can’t always choose, BUT STILL). So yes: I agree.

      2. Yessss. I tried to watch Anne with an E when it first came out because I’d heard so many good things about it but I only barely made it through the first episode. There is value in tackling a serious topic like being an orphan with cheer and good humor. I always found the books uplifting, and the show was the absolute opposite. I tried again this past year because I figured I was in quarantine and I’d heard really good things about the actor who played Gilbert but their attempts to address 21st century issues through Anne of Green Gables felt so hamfisted and clumsy I couldn’t stand it. They might as well have just created an original story at that point.

    2. I watched the series and it bored me spitless. Tommy is one of the dumbest characters on TV. Nice costumes, but turn off the sound. It works better that way.

    3. Got through the first ep and didn’t care enough about it to watch anymore. Shame since I loved the 1980s Partners in Crime with Francesca Annes and James Warwick.

  3. On this list I’ve only seen a few episodes of Up the Women. It seemed like one of those shows that only Brits would think is funny, and I am not British. Green Book, Leonie, and Loving have been on my To Watch list for a while, and now so is Pale Horse. How is Rufus Sewell getting hotter and hotter? Sean Bean looks like a total snack in that photo from World on Fire. I’ve been on the fence about that show, hearing both good and bad. If I drink enough wine, I might watch Carnival Row and Dickinson.

  4. Aww. I love Young Sherlock Holmes. It caused me to become a Nicholas Rowe, so whenever he turns up a costume drama (often by towering over everyone else) I’m delighted. But they should give him more parts. ;)

    The Pale Horse was nothing like the book and one of those WTF? things for me.

    Carnival Rowe, for having all the bloodshed, sex, and bad language, was a snore-bore.

  5. Rufus Sewell is still dishy but the filmmakers totally changed the story of The Pale House which absolutely infuriated me. I watched in disbelief and my jaw dropped at the end, it is NOTHING like the original book which is excellent. WTF. The costumes are great and Rufus is pretty but that’s about it.

  6. “I thought this was such an important story and yet suuuuch a slow movie. I did try to watch it on a plane, maybe that explains it?” Kendra, that’s it. “Loving” is slow and deliberate and moving–not a film to watch in an airplane. It needs to be viewed on a big screen. (I was fortunate enough to see “Loving” in a real movie theatre.) I love Ruth Negga. She is so ’30s in looks and style. She could play Luise Rainer.

  7. I’m biracial, my mother is black, my father was white so Loving should have been right up my alley.

    I was booooored to tears and I didn’t like how they portrayed Richard Loving. I understand he must have been rather taciturn in real life and that’s why they made the choices they did but they way they handled that made him seem rather closed off, instead of in love with his wife.

    He reads more like an abusive lifetime movie husband, like we’re going to come back from commercial break and find him throwing a fit because dinner is late.

  8. I zzzz-ed right through World on Fire! It did have lovely 1940s costumes though! But good costumes can’t save a dull show!

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