24 thoughts on “Oh the Bad Movies & TV You’ll Watch 13!

  1. I enjoyed the wardrobe in Atlantic Crossings! The Crown Princess wore great hats! And you get to see an aspect of the war from a different perspective.

    1. Agreed! Her hats were great, and there were many really good print dresses on everyone.

  2. I started Barkskins enthusiastically because of the great cast (Anuerin Barnard, David Thewlis, Zach McClarnon), but it disappeared off the small screen with much unresolved, and the plot was all over the place as well as too much of it. The only coherent piece was the Filles du Roi (desperate women shipped out to be wives) and the machinations of one of them, Melissande. I agree with Kendra — too much mud and horrible ye olde RenFaire costumes for most of the women.

    1. Yes, I only watched Barkskins because of Anuerin Barnard. It ended on something of a cliffhanger so I have no idea where it’s going or if it will return.

      1. Anuerin Barnard is the ONLY reason even tried to watch “The White Queen,” based on Philippa Fucking Gregory.

  3. I love Dragonwyck. Not for the costumes (although Vincent Price has some nice dressing gowns), but for the evil Vincent Price plays. Gene Tierney is okay, but the overall story is what brings me in every time.

    1. I love both the film Dragonwyck and the book it is based on by Anya Seton.

      1. I loved the book, I have yet to see the movie. Dragonwyck was the first gothic romance I’d ever read, the cover drew me in. :-) Vincent Price is always a good actor to watch and Gene Tierney is good in her movies also. I’ll have to look for it on TCM.

        1. I’m delighted to be reminded of the title of the book. I read it as a tween because the title said Dragon. I was deeply disappointed in the lack of dragons, but bits of the book have stuck with me all these years (cheating with the Bible to be allowed to go, the poisoning, the servant girl in Niagara Falls), though I’d completely forgotten the ending.

  4. With all the praise I’m reading elsewhere about A Suitable Boy, I’m so glad to find kindred spirits here. I couldn’t get past the first couple of episodes either. And I agree with Colleen about Dragonwyck. Great story! It has the feel of a Victoria Holt gothic romance.

    1. I hated A Suitable Boy. I could see how it was trying to be an Austen parallel set in young India, but the dialogue and direction were just awful.

      The costumes were actually the one highlight. Anything but bland! There are some good interviews is Indian media with costume designer Arjun Bhasin on the way he used costumes to convey character (including deliberate anachronisms, like sleeveless sari blouses) https://www.vervemagazine.in/fashion-and-beauty/theyve-got-the-look-costume-design-for-a-suitable-boy and https://scroll.in/reel/976603/how-arjun-bhasin-designed-a-suitable-wardrobe-for-mira-nairs-a-suitable-boy.

    2. I hated A Suitable Boy. At the start it sets up all these things that would upend conservative Indian values, and then ends all the storylines so they confirmed those conservative values but it’s acting like it achieved something. There has been a real trend in recent Hindi movies of children, especially women because usually the men do get some choice, marrying according to the wishes of their parents like we’re back in the 1960s, and after like 8 of those I’ve come to absolutely hate it and immediately check out they go that way.

      I have to say I did enjoy the costumes even though they were like 10 steps below costumes from actual 1950s Indian movies.

      I looove Dragonwyck. Very gothic romance and Vincent Price is great in it.

  5. What keeps me watching Miss Scarlett are the little quirks like the earnest conversations with her dead father. But the poor woman does seem to be short on variety in her wardrobe.

    1. Her wardrobe was certainly peculiar. And boring. But the storyline was fun.

      1. Oh, I watch that show for Teh Hotness that is the male lead, who is a dead ringer for a young hot Sean Connery.

  6. I, too, am past tired of mid-century. (Of course, we boomers probably have the ’70s and ’80s looming as costume-drama fodder.)

  7. Every once in a while I stop and think to myself: Why would one make a David Bowie movie with no rights to his original music…? I still have no answer.

  8. I loved A Suitable Boy! The plot wasn’t the point, and I thought they did a great job of making a really, really, long book into a snappier series.
    Anyway – the Bowie movie. Bowie’s estate refused to license any of his music for the movie, so it was dead before it started. For a far better version of his American journey, the documentary Cracked Actor knocks it out of the park.

  9. As an Indian, I don’t like A Suitable Boy at all. It presents this exotified, inauthentic version of my country. Also it butchers the book and several characters. The book explores 1950s Indian politics, culture, gender norms, religious tensions. It is vast and epic in its scale and has numerous characters who flit in and out of the narrative. It’s essentially about characters navigating their place in society, whether it’s an anglicised upper middle class woman or a farmer from rural India. Tolstoy would be a better comparison than Austen. The show just throws all this out to present a bland love story.

    1. I’ve had A Suitable Boy on my bookshelf for a couple of years now, and your description makes me want to read it even more! I was waiting to watch the series until after I’d read the book but it sounds like I should just skip it.

  10. I really enjoyed A Suitable Boy, although there were weaknesses in plot and characterization. The lead actress, though luminous and joyful, didn’t convince me, although the script’s lack of depth may be responsible there. Finally, a lot of plot twists seemed contrived and came out of nowhere. But worst of all, for me— I’m okay with angsty romantic historic dramas, I live on those— I was 1,000% rooting for hot Muslim Kabir. I found her reasoning for rejecting him— “Have you ever heard of a mixed marriage working? I haven’t”— abhorrent. Basically arguing that Muslim and Hindus can’t coexist, they’re too different: even though the theme of the series is that they can. Hot Kabir forever.

    The man she did choose was super sympathetic though, and a wonderful actor.

  11. In the good old Summer Time is a tedious, poorly done copy of Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. the saving grace of the Garland version is Buster Keaton (if you are asking my opinion!) and Eva Tangary made the song “I don’t care” her song in Vaudeville, Judy oversold it. and her version lost all the fun and romance of the original version. even You’ve Got Mail is better than this.

  12. Miss Scarlet and the Duke was awful. Plots were weak, stories were clichéd, and the obvious insertion of feminism into the story (and I am a feminist) made the series unwatchable. I have seen numerous historical stories that very subtlety frame the story with feminist themes (or any push against oppression) and pull it off. This clobbered you over the head with it every step of the way. What a waste of a potentially good story.

    I’ve got “Atlantic Crossing* queued up to watch soon.

  13. Oh, dear!! Ladies, I am heartbroken to see Dragonwyck and Miss Scarlett and The Duke on this “meh” list!!!! Firstly, I only learned of Dragonwyck from this blog! You used a screencap for a quiz or something and I was immediately intrigued. When I finally watched it I LOVED it!!! Vincent Price totally made that movie!!! As for Miss Scarlett and The Duke, I also LOVE it!! Yes, the lead actresses wardrobe is repetitive, but she’s strapped for cash, so I’ve overlooked the 50 scenes of her in the blue dress. The lead man is GORGEOUS and thankfully, free from the horrible wig he wore in Medici. But beyond that, I’m so surprised to see on this “meh” list because this blog gave a favorable rating to Netflix’s Enola Holmes. I didn’t like that show because I thought it was too “kiddie.” The whole time I watched Miss Scarlett and The Duke I thought, “Oh, this is just Enola Holmes for grown-ups,” and I really like this version. I can’t wait for season 2. I never heard of Barkskins before but that picture is absolutely HILARIOUS and says it all for me!

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