IdleRich
IdleRich
Is anyone watching this? It feels quite dissensus with its complex issues and East London setting.
Well, quick bit of info for those who haven't heard about it. Basically Michaela Coel plays a woman who has just made it big-ish via a twitter account which got her a book deal and some moments of "Oh are you Arabella?" type fame. As the story begins she is on holiday in Ostia, paid for by the publishers or something to help her get away from it all and finish the overdue first draft of her second book. While there she falls for an Italian guy, takes some drugs and doesn't write her book... when she gets back she interrupts an all night writing session by joining her mates for a few beers and then, over the next few days, increasingly strong flashbacks convince her that she has been drugged and raped.
So that's the set up and it sort of goes off from there with various developments and, not exactly twists as such (not so crude as that) but changes of emphasis etc with more and more elements of everything and everyone being revealed. I really like Coel as a rule, both as an actor and a writer but I'm not totally made up on this one yet. It's involved and it's mainly very well done but there are a few elements that feel kinda cliched - maybe she's taken them on to challenge them, I dunno - most notably the way that nobody ever seems to just SAY the really important things that they know full well could hugely clear up the situation. I feel that that happens so often on tv and, while I'm not claiming it never happens at all, I find it quite a weakness of this to have it as such a driver of the plot so often as it is in this, especially having seen it so often before in other things. Also the same feeling with the writer constantly facing deadlines and always choosing to go out for "one quick drink before really getting down to it" type thing - I'm sure that's exactly what ninety percent of us would do in her situation so it feels real but it's also frustrating to see yet again and to be forced to watch her self-destructing in the exact same way I've seen so many people do it before.
But I do really like the way that there are no black and white issues, or ridiculously good/bad people, with almost everyone having suitably rich characters which belie their archetypes of "gay best friend" or "Italian drug dealer" or whatever.
A lot of it is raw and uncomfortable to watch in some sense, it really captures a lot of the awkwardness that arises in situations where one person has power over the other - not just talking about sexual assault here but also in terms of employer/employee or police and crime victim. And this in fact makes it quite hard for me to watch, or at least relative to others series which I'd often gobble up just one after another after another. I find this much more of a certain kind of emotional investment and that means that we tend to watch one, or at most two, episodes a day. That's not a criticism (if I'm not being clear).
In fact, going back to what I said above about my mind not being made up, let me re-state that; it's obviously a good show with lots to it and you should watch it, it does have elements of it that make it quite hard to watch but art is supposed to affect you... and yeah, it does have a few elements I'd criticise, but what doesn't?
Well, quick bit of info for those who haven't heard about it. Basically Michaela Coel plays a woman who has just made it big-ish via a twitter account which got her a book deal and some moments of "Oh are you Arabella?" type fame. As the story begins she is on holiday in Ostia, paid for by the publishers or something to help her get away from it all and finish the overdue first draft of her second book. While there she falls for an Italian guy, takes some drugs and doesn't write her book... when she gets back she interrupts an all night writing session by joining her mates for a few beers and then, over the next few days, increasingly strong flashbacks convince her that she has been drugged and raped.
So that's the set up and it sort of goes off from there with various developments and, not exactly twists as such (not so crude as that) but changes of emphasis etc with more and more elements of everything and everyone being revealed. I really like Coel as a rule, both as an actor and a writer but I'm not totally made up on this one yet. It's involved and it's mainly very well done but there are a few elements that feel kinda cliched - maybe she's taken them on to challenge them, I dunno - most notably the way that nobody ever seems to just SAY the really important things that they know full well could hugely clear up the situation. I feel that that happens so often on tv and, while I'm not claiming it never happens at all, I find it quite a weakness of this to have it as such a driver of the plot so often as it is in this, especially having seen it so often before in other things. Also the same feeling with the writer constantly facing deadlines and always choosing to go out for "one quick drink before really getting down to it" type thing - I'm sure that's exactly what ninety percent of us would do in her situation so it feels real but it's also frustrating to see yet again and to be forced to watch her self-destructing in the exact same way I've seen so many people do it before.
But I do really like the way that there are no black and white issues, or ridiculously good/bad people, with almost everyone having suitably rich characters which belie their archetypes of "gay best friend" or "Italian drug dealer" or whatever.
A lot of it is raw and uncomfortable to watch in some sense, it really captures a lot of the awkwardness that arises in situations where one person has power over the other - not just talking about sexual assault here but also in terms of employer/employee or police and crime victim. And this in fact makes it quite hard for me to watch, or at least relative to others series which I'd often gobble up just one after another after another. I find this much more of a certain kind of emotional investment and that means that we tend to watch one, or at most two, episodes a day. That's not a criticism (if I'm not being clear).
In fact, going back to what I said above about my mind not being made up, let me re-state that; it's obviously a good show with lots to it and you should watch it, it does have elements of it that make it quite hard to watch but art is supposed to affect you... and yeah, it does have a few elements I'd criticise, but what doesn't?
