Catching up on TV
Jan. 10th, 2016 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinWhen I moved into my own place in 2006, I took my TV but didn't sign up for cable, and was surprised how I hardly even noticed not having television programming in my life anymore. Since then it's only the occasional programme I make time for, usually on DVD, and never a series that demands more than a day's worth of my time to watch from start to finish.
Moving to the UK has, unexpectedly, challenged this status quo, because darn it if the BBC doesn't keep putting out exactly the sort of quality entertainment I actually want to see, and which rewards the watching. I missed the Christmas programming this year on account of actually doing stuff, and am only just now catching up on And Then There Were None, which has been highly recommended by people whose opinion I respect. The promotional material sent up a Pretty People Casting red flag, so I'd had my reservations, but the first seven minutes proved the filmmakers knew what they were doing, and once again I found myself enjoying the small-screen output of a small nation's public broadcaster far more than any big-budget mainstream movie in recent memory. While watching Hollywood films I keep getting inordinately distracted by stupid little things – casting choices, logic gaps, makeup, what have you – which crash my suspension of disbelief. This new crop of dramatic series is happy to engage enough of the grey matter that these distractions can be easily shushed, and satisfies my desire for cinematic craftsmanship enough that I can enjoy them on all levels. Establishing shots! What a novelty! Communicating information through means other than on-the-nose dialogue! What will they think of next? That annoying dissociated corner of my brain can think things like this:
... and instead of derailing my train of thought I can carry on enjoying myself. What a relief!
With Wolf Hall and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell last year, it's small wonder I hardly managed to drag myself to the actual cinema; And Then There Were None is getting 2016 off to a promising start, and I haven't even started War and Peace yet...
Moving to the UK has, unexpectedly, challenged this status quo, because darn it if the BBC doesn't keep putting out exactly the sort of quality entertainment I actually want to see, and which rewards the watching. I missed the Christmas programming this year on account of actually doing stuff, and am only just now catching up on And Then There Were None, which has been highly recommended by people whose opinion I respect. The promotional material sent up a Pretty People Casting red flag, so I'd had my reservations, but the first seven minutes proved the filmmakers knew what they were doing, and once again I found myself enjoying the small-screen output of a small nation's public broadcaster far more than any big-budget mainstream movie in recent memory. While watching Hollywood films I keep getting inordinately distracted by stupid little things – casting choices, logic gaps, makeup, what have you – which crash my suspension of disbelief. This new crop of dramatic series is happy to engage enough of the grey matter that these distractions can be easily shushed, and satisfies my desire for cinematic craftsmanship enough that I can enjoy them on all levels. Establishing shots! What a novelty! Communicating information through means other than on-the-nose dialogue! What will they think of next? That annoying dissociated corner of my brain can think things like this:
... and instead of derailing my train of thought I can carry on enjoying myself. What a relief!
With Wolf Hall and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell last year, it's small wonder I hardly managed to drag myself to the actual cinema; And Then There Were None is getting 2016 off to a promising start, and I haven't even started War and Peace yet...
