burntcopper: (dr martha entertain)
burntcopper ([personal profile] burntcopper) wrote2007-12-31 10:56 am

victorian thriller plotholes

I have bugger all idea what I'm doing tonight. Unless something comes up, suspect it will be very little. Possibly involving Monty Python Life of Brian thingy on tv.

Had migraine yesterday which was ... fun. And then felt the urge to kick half the robin hood lot due to the fact that I put up the 'review post, stick links in comments please' and then when I groggily got on t'internet yesterday evening, I found about twenty individual review posts. :snarl:

Me and mum watched The Shadow in the North, the sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke (Phillip Pullman Victorian thriller starring Billie Piper). It's one of those things where all the individual stuff is really cool, but like the review said, me and mum agreed that you're left feeling wanting/slightly empty, due it not being the sum of its parts. Forthright girl detective, explosions, steam engines, seances, supporting cast of cool - all extremely cool things individually, but put 'em together and they don't quite gel for some reason. Plus the cliches you can see coming a mile off in places - heroine reconciles with her on-again-off-again-boyfriend, they shag, the villain sets fire to the house that night, boyfriend dies trying to get everyone out. Sally goes off on revenge whatsit, and at the end of the story, me and mum facepalmed and went 'oh, christ, she's pregnant, isn't she?' If I wanted cliched melodrama, I'd watch Dickens. Though even Dickens doesn't do stuff that you can see coming from *that* far off.

Mind you, it seems the Beeb has firmly settled on 'Victorian thriller/detective story to round off the year', considering they did Hound of the Baskervilles and the Silk Stocking in the years prior to the Sally Lockhart stories. Wonder what the ratings are for. Though the Sherlock Holmes stuff worked a bit better. Probably had just as many plot holes, but the stories are so entrenched in the British psyche that we accept the plot holes and would pout mightily if they tried to fix them. New stories we're not as familiar with, not so much.

[identity profile] grondfic.livejournal.com 2007-12-31 02:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah Teh Pregnant was totally gonna happen. Plus I knew he was gonna die as soon as they Dunnit: thus paving the way for her to continue solo for 2008 ... which will be called The XX in the YY - any ideas? The Suggoth in the Nursery?

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-12-31 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Being the impatient little spoiler-whore that I am (and also trying to see if the books matched the tv versions) it appears it's the The Tiger in the Mist - and the Beeb hath bought the rights for all four.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-12-31 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)
actually, thinking about it, I'd have been much more satisfied with the story if it had just been the boys detecting, since their bit hung together really well and it felt like the Sally bit was a sub-plot that kept intruding for no reason other than the author couldn't let it go.

Seriously. The main thread of the story is actually the magician, Bexwell, the seance stuff and Nellie, and Isabel the seamstress. Sally and the financial stuff is pretty peripheral to the main driving plot 'oh, btw, he killed so and so years ago! patents!' Jim and Fred : 'ooooo-kay - do you mind if we get on with tracking down this stuff that's actually got a lot of people in danger *right now*?'

[identity profile] lissy111.livejournal.com 2007-12-31 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
if you wanna come over here you're quite welcome
x

[identity profile] pieces-of-ele.livejournal.com 2008-01-01 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
Huh, they've put the Sally Lockhart stories into a tv series? I read the books when I was younger and loved them, maybe I should go look for them, just for memory's sake... Even if you don't particualy recommend them... Or something.

Happy new year, by the way. I hope you're feeling better.

[identity profile] celievamp.livejournal.com 2008-01-01 11:13 am (UTC)(link)
I've not read the books but they're on my list to get hold of. I quite enjoyed the programme, cliche's and all, putting it somewhere between Dickens and Conan Doyle on the coincidence/plot scale. What intrigued me was that the society appeared to be 'colour'blind, but not gender blind. Is it the same in the books or was that just a casting decision?

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2008-01-01 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
never read the books, but the beeb and co when doing victorian stuff are putting a lot more black characters in at least the background when doing anything in the less salubrious areas of the cities - which from what I've read is a lot closer to the reality than the old tv productions used to show.