Television programmes [2]

{{ The writers of classic Who once responded simialrly to being accused of 'stealing ideas of the back of a lorry', retorting that they did not steal ideas of the back of a lorry, they steal the entire lorry! }}

Ah hell.  Start with this at 3:15



and compare to this starting at 0:20



No, 1812 isn't it.  I've got a melody like it in my head, with the chords crashing in like the star wars example - and it's a very well known theme and it's driving me crazy that I can't figure out what it is!

So what I'm looking for goes something like this:


Any help identifying it? Played with blaring trumpets.

AHA!  Found it.  New World Symphony finale.  I thought that was it, but it turns out I was searching through an online recording that had "the Moldau" tacked on, so wasn't finding what I expected at the end.  So here they are:



And it starts at about 20 seconds in:



And of course the opening fanfare is pretty close to what opens Mendelssohn's Wedding march:

{{ Makes you wonder if any of the SW soundtrack is actually a fully original piece. }}

Oh, William's Force theme is a HUGE improvement on New World Symphony. His orchestral 'swack' chords are excitingly syncopated (I did some of that in my remembered example under the influence of Williams, but Dvorak's version just clunks along on the downbeat), and his melody is far more evocative, even if strongly reminiscent. It's almost like he turned Dvorak's folk song into an exciting symphonic overture.

All artists crib off each other - that's why there's artistic styles.

Where'd that Bridgerton discussion end up?  Related to it is a nice discussion of the true corset, historically speaking.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-bridgerton-gets-wrong-about-corsets-180976691/

Watched the first 3 episodes of Expanse series 5. Bit of a slow start, but just no it's going to get better.

Besides, if this guy likes it, it has to be good.

The Great is totally worth the Hulu subscription for a month. Doesn't quite hit its comedic stride until the third episode, by which point it's splendidly wicked. The casting is on point, with pitch perfect comedic instincts. They were already good in the first episode, but as an ensemble they really lock in as time goes on, it's a joy to watch.

Enjoyed Season 1 of the Medici, and will continue as I saw some of Season 3 that I enjoyed as well.

Steven Madden played Cosimo, and the first episode had flashbacks between the "present" and the past when he was trying to become an artist. His acting as head of the family is indistinguishable from his role of Robb Stark - both roles carrying heavy loads. From that I would have thought he was a one trick pony, except that during the flashback scenes I couldn't figure out why they were using different actors for teenage and adult Cosimo. Eventually I discovered that they were both Steven Madden, but he did such a good job of being a starry-eyed art student that I couldn't associate him with the ruthless adult. Well played!

But Dustin Hoffman faxed his role in. Anybody could have filled his shoes. To be fair the writers didn't give him much to work with, but I was under the impression one hired a great actor to make pedestrian writing look good. They wasted their money on him.

I think the Hoffman thing was to attract an audience with a big splash, get it moving. The later seasons don't have any big name British or American actors but the franchise is established. For me it got poorer when Madden left.

Another series about the Medici called Da Vinci's Demons was pretty great too, more fantasy and quirky but I really enjoyed it more the The Medici.

Interesting. Though I disagree with the premise that Leonardo affected anyone outside the art world during his time, it may be a fun fantasy.

yep it is fantasy hokum, but entertaining hokum.

I didn't know the Great could keep getting better, but it has. Mixing deep psychological drama with comedy is a subtle and difficult thing, yet they pull it off perfectly. Huzzah.

Is that the one about Russia and Catherine the Great?

Yep.  Very lightly based, as they state right from the beginning "Parts of this story are occasionally true."   They use the basic setup as a launching pad.  Sort of as close to reality as your Leonardo series I reckon.  But don't watch it with young children, in fact I'd be especially careful to keep teenagers at a safe distance: they play with the sexual wisecracks like a standup comic at 2 in the morning with a tough crowd.

Nobody else has seen the Queen's Gambit yet?

What else can I say except it took a lot of well laid groundwork to get to the climax where during the final game of a chess tournament in Moscow the main character turns her eyes up to the ceiling...and the viewing audience breaks into tears.

Awright, that may make as much of an impression as selling LotR with "A major climax is when a dude in black rides through the city gate, you hear horns in the distance and the readers cry."  Pretty much all in the setup that came before.

Watch it while it's still cold and you're cooped up inside.

halfwise wrote:Nobody else has seen the Queen's Gambit yet?

What else can I say except it took a lot of well laid groundwork to get to the climax where during the final game of a chess tournament in Moscow the main character turns her eyes up to the ceiling...and the viewing audience breaks into tears.

Awright, that may make as much of an impression as selling LotR with "A major climax is when a dude in black rides through the city gate, you hear horns in the distance and the readers cry."  Pretty much all in the setup that came before.

Watch it while it's still cold and you're cooped up inside.

Enjoyed that one alot - huge fan of the game, so particularly enjoyed the scenes in the first episode where the janitor is teaching her the different openings, some of them I play myself (not very well, of course). Great show for a chess enthusiast, but it seems to have become a major hit for a much broader audience than your regular chess nerds, which is cool

I think it's so important for teenage girls to see it: a bit dark and complex for anyone under the age of 13. From my own experience as a teacher there is NO gender gap among teenagers either in their ability or their interest in taking technical courses. But somewhere later they get frozen out; and if part of it is not having role models of women outcompeting men, then this show will help - even if she's a fictional character.

Just realized, Hulu gives you a month free trial, which I was using.  So there's no excuse not to try it, just remember to binge and cancel. Like I just did. Will likely pay for a second season of The Great once it's out.

halfwise wrote:The Great is totally worth the Hulu subscription for a month.  Doesn't quite hit its comedic stride until the third episode, by which point it's splendidly wicked.  The casting is on point, with pitch perfect comedic instincts.  They were already good in the first episode, but as an ensemble they really lock in as time goes on, it's a joy to watch.

Expanse just finished. Very good series. Wandavision finishing up. Also very good. Thought Witcher was coming soon, but not till August apparently. Got Stargate Atlantis to watch on blu-ray. (Again) Watched it many times, never get sick of it.

Haven't heard of Expanse.  The imagery of Wandavision turns me off, can't bring myself to watch it, though I take it that it's good?

Edit: just looked up The Expanse. Been around since 2015, won a slew of awards, how could I not have heard of it? At least it wasn't another Firefly which was great but died from being ignored.

Holy crap, Oprah's Harry and Meghan interview is two hours long! Maybe they'll be treating it like a presidential debate and have a room full of correspondents discussing it for the second hour.

Is the interview a big deal in England? Does England even know about it?

{{ Its certainly been noticed. Basically everyone hates them. Whining, privelaged, self entitled gits who have given up their life of service of duty whilst still trying to keep hold of the trappings of Royalty and royal lifestyle.
Cant have both.
They also look really bad given who they are surrounded by, the Queen is the bar for excellence in service and duty, she's dedicated her life to it. And Wills and Kate seem to be doing the job well too and to understand the duty and self-sacrifice that comes with the privelage.
Harry is generally seen as a bit of an idiot whose got hooked up with a nasty, controlling piece of work in Megan.
Probably added to all this is the fact most folk dont think Harry is Charles son anyway but the resultof one of Dianas affairs, most likely with Hewlitt who Harry looks a lot more like than a Windsor. William on the otherhand looks exactly like a Windsor right down to their inherited pattern baldness.
So the view in geenral seems to be 'good riddance, but wish theyd shut the fuck up now too'.}}

Very interesting. They have a much more sympathetic audience here, which is probably why they made the move. There seems to be a feeling here that Megan was blocked from the get-go, and though she didn't make a real effort to learn the royal code, she never was given much of a chance to begin with.