TV Round-Up of the Week

 

 

 

Unless you’re a die hard Simpsons fan, you probably won’t have heard of most of the voice artists that lend their talents to the long-running animation series. Last Thursday one of the actors behind a few of the well-loved characters Harry Shearer quit the show citing contract negotiation failures, something to do with the producers not letting him do other work. There’s already talk of recasting but you can’t deny that this is the end of an era, considering the 25 years that Shearer gave to The Simpsons. I was going to write a countdown of the best characters he played last week but again that proved to be futile. Just consider this, the guy’s portrayed Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and Smithers. Three completely different characters. It also means that the guy’s been talking to himself in at least a quarter of his scenes. I suppose first signs of madness aren’t quite as worrying if you can make money from it.

 

 

 

The fandom of Game of Thrones is split into two categories - those who have read the books and those who haven’t. For the latter, they can be a little more accepting of what happens in the TV show since they don’t know what’s supposed to happen to any given character. For the former, it’s a rough ride.

 

Last night one of the main characters Sansa Stark was raped on her wedding night by Ramsay Bolton, causing outrage and shock among book readers and fans in general. In the books Sansa is with Littlefinger in The Eyrie so I’m not sure how she wound up with Ramsay (I don’t remember too much of him in the books. Isn't he Roose Bolton's son born out of wedlock?). As book readers, our instinct is to say of the TV series whenever they deviate ‘That didn’t happen in the books so we don’t like it.’ I try to think things through before saying that but in this case I believe the showrunners made the wrong move. The way Sansa’s story arc was set up in the fourth book (which this season is partly based upon), we were starting to get less of a victim and a glimpse of a strong woman who owns everything she’s been through. Having her raped just sets her character backwards. By the way, I wasn’t happy when they did the same thing to Cersei. The Queen of Westeros (false queen I guess since Daenerys is out there somewhere) is many things - cold, calculating, vicious - but she’s not and never should be a victim. Plus it made Jaime evil which isn't fair! I know at the end of the day it’s a TV show set in a historical period where women weren’t treated well (understatement). But it’s starting to get a bit much now.

 

 

 

And strange is definitely the word to use here!

 

BBC’s latest drama started its run on Sunday night, against the backdrop of the return of magic to Georgian England. The study of magic has been around for hundreds of years but never actually performed. A young magician wants to know why and defies the magician’s guild of York (who only seem to meet for the dinners) to track down one Mr. Norrell who claims can perform magic. He makes the statues and sculptures in York Minster come to life in what was one of the more creepier moments of the episode.

 

On the other side of the coin, we have Mr. Strange navigating his way through life with no clear course, a foppish man whose surname denotes the opposite of what he is. The two magicians couldn’t be more different. Strange delights in the simplest things and watching him perform his first magic trick is like watching a child with a new toy. Norrell is used to the job of a magician and simply wishes people would leave him alone; he’d rather curl up in an armchair by the fireplace with a good book. Which should make their first meeting interesting! (Come on, it’s bound to happen!).

 

Overall the first episode was… weird. In a good way! The two characters were compelling but Norrell in particular was nearly overshadowed by the campness and scenery-chewing of a few of the other characters. There was the insane and heavy-bearded Vinculus who was going on about prophecies and two magicians; typical Georgian gentleman Drawlight who must be the campest, most scenery-chewing character I have ever seen, and the slightly bizarre Lady Pole who spent half the episode dead but still making enough of an impression at the end to give us a good shiver. Having said that, I would have liked some more scares. Maybe next week?

 

 

That’s most of the news summarised and reviewed for this week. I could go on of course. Some television series called Big Brother started showing on Channel 5. It’ll never catch on. And we had the British Soap Awards on Saturday night but since the ceremony is airing on Thursday, I don’t want to get into that too much. And if there’s enough news, maybe this could be a weekly feature. Maybe. I’ve made promises like this before. They don’t end well!