I'm a bit behind the times and have only just got around to watching the first two episodes. What can I say? The marvel of 'series record' is both a blessing and a curse, but in my defence I have also only just started watching Ashes to Ashes. Anyway, I thought it really worked. Brydon and Coogan spark off each other magnificently, there is really a rapport and understanding there. The series is clever in that it is quite obviously planned and scripted down to the very minutest detail yet it still feels fresh and improvised. Quite an achievement. The Lake District setting and the confident focus on just two main characters revealing their insecurities and foibles really does remind me of Withnail and I. And I think it works. Oh and the food looks flipping delicious! So here's to episode three served on a bed of walnuts with a port and stilton reduction I think.
Well it is partly improvised.
Tremendous.
Moving and funny.
I think this will 'do something' at the awards.
Yes, a good end to a good series. And a nice portrait of friendship, capturing the fun, competitiveness and exasperation between friends.
I thought he was going to throw himself off the balcony at the end.
Quote: Marooned @ December 6 2010, 11:26 PM GMTI thought he was going to throw himself off the balcony at the end.
I think you were meant to.
I thought it was very powerful.
Quote: Lazzard @ December 6 2010, 11:28 PM GMTI think you were meant to.
I thought it was very powerful.
I got that; I just wasn't expecting the subject to even be hinted at.
It reminded me of something the great Karl Pilkington once said, what's the point of living in a gorgeous expensive flat, if your view is of a shithole council estate.
I didn't think it was a bad view. Although I'd hate a flat with that much glass. I hate accidentally catching sight of myself.
Quote: chipolata @ December 7 2010, 8:36 AM GMTI didn't think it was a bad view. Although I'd hate a flat with that much glass. I hate accidentally catching sight of myself.
It makes you shit yourself to start with.
Just finished last episode. Enjoyed the whole series terribly, very touching too. So glad this was made. Brilliant stuff and well written.
After much debate on this post I looked forward to the final episode with as open a mind as I could conjure. Several posters here suggested that we couldn't judge the work until it was complete, well, now it is, and I am very glad for it.
There were some very fine moments in this episode:
Brydon shouting "you're stuck in a metaphor!"
Coogan pondering the Oscar vs. sick child conundrum.
Rob singing his 3 octaves (I laughed out loud)
Coogan arriving home to his empty flat contrasted with Brydon's warm family-filled home.
But, even with all those lovely moments, I think the episode (and the series as a whole) falls short.
First, the episde had a ton of fat that could have been trimmed. These long scenes of coogan doing Brydon's eulogy, or the winner takes it all scene just dragged on for me. Most of teh scene with Coogan's parents felt really extraneous - it wasn't funny, it didn't move the action forward, it didn't reveal anything to us about coogan's character.... why was it there?
Even little exchanges like "The car doors are locked", "Oh sorry I thought I pushed the button" are just a waste of page space - I'd bet that any writer on this forum could come up with ten alternate exchanges that would have been better.
In the end, coogan turns down the HBO gig in favour of being in England with his kids. (We'll ignore the totaly implausible "7 year contract" - as if everything HBO makes gets renewed for 7 seasons.) So is that what Coogan's journey was about? Then why didn't we spend real time on it? Why didn't we meet a kid until episode 5? If we're supposed to believe that his kids are important to him we should have dealt with that issue in a more substantive way.
What was the effect of the journey on Brydon's character? We have no idea... In the end his passive character remained passive and was unaffected by the events of the episode or series.
I've gone on about this before but I'll do it again - if you're going to set things up - you have to play them out - all these little elements in the beginning are just cast aside and forgotten - the eulogy, the poem, the fence jumping... dropped threads = lazy writing.
I will concede to my fellow posters a couple of things. First, it was actually kind of moving in the end. But I'd argue that pulling heart strings is easy... a little music... a lonely man... some wistful looks at old movies on an iPhone 4.. It doesn't take much.
Also, I'll concede that what Coogan claimed to have wanted, and what he actually needed (fame versus sincere connection) did collide in the end fulfilling a tenet of the classical paradigm. I just wish it had been handled better. Why did we waste so much time on other stuff that had nothing to do with addressing that issue?
There was a lot of beauty in this series but there was a lot of filler and ultimately I remain disappointed.
You have a very utalitarian view of art, JPM1.
Quote: JPM1 @ December 7 2010, 10:17 AM GMT(We'll ignore the totaly implausible "7 year contract" - as if everything HBO makes gets renewed for 7 seasons.)
That's not implausible at all; if you're asked to be the lead in an American show, you have to make that sort of commitment at the outset, even though there's obviously no way of knowing whether it'll actually get past one episode.
