Waste of Good Actors


OK, I am in the middle of watching the first episode and it is pretty frustrating. The cutting back and forth between the Medieval and the Modern is not well-paced at all. The modern part is just confusing. I got the "connection" between Alice and Alais but the rest? The evil cop, the random evil lady who just cut the guy's throat? It's all over the place.

And don't get me started on when John Hurt was talking to the guy on the phone! That was hilarious. The guy was like: "don't worry everything is gonna be fi….SPLAT!" The CGI was so bad! I was laughing.

I am watching this for Jessica Brown-Findlay, basically. And she's good in the role, as is the guy who plays her father. About as good as they can be given the script and so forth. But everything keeps jumping around so much there is no time for character or plot development. And the way he tells her "BTW I have like one of the three most important books ever and you need to protect it" and she's like "oh okay you can count on me" is just….WTF?

And Katie McGrath is so OTT evil too! She's cartoonish! Don't get me wrong, I like McGrath. I don't think it's her fault. All of the "bad" characters come across as OTT. Who directed this? There are some good actors in this series, but almost everything else is just….not great. The sound is off, too. I do love the scenery. Maybe they all just did it for a vacay in wherever they filmed? France?

Anyway, I want to stick with this but I might just record it and watch it for the parts with JBF.

And I just got to the part where Katie McGrath says "Tell me the truth or I'll rip your tongue out…" out of the blue. And the evil dudes took that woman out of their trunk. And various other evil stuff happened and ominous music played.

Ugh.

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Hi annlevtex,

I found the miniseries to be extremely frustrating for myriad reasons. I watched it with misgivings because Ridley Scott's name was on it, sad but true. Sebastian Stan is a favorite of mine and enjoyed Jessica Brown-Findlay in Downton Abbey. The story of the Cathars could make for some interesting television but this wasn't it. I also wonder why in the new millennium highly-sexed women are still presented as villains?

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Oh yes, that too. Talk about a "Good v. Evil" characterization of the sisters. Alais is strong and pure and good and Orianne is an evil seductress and a witch. Ridiculous.

But Scott just produced this, right? He didn't direct it? Whoever directed it floundered I'd say. Because again, it's a good cast but the director didn't get enough out of any of them. I've seen several of them give much, much better performances.

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Hi annlevtex,

The production also used the same tired cliche in the modern segments. The confused heroine who walked around in a daze as if she'd been kicked in the head by a mule and the murderous sexpot who got her comeuppance in the end.

No, Scott didn't direct it. I lay the blame on the script. Actors can only work with what they are given. I'm sure they all did it to work in a Ridley Scott production.

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I guess. But damn, I loved Gladiator. How did this happen? LOL.

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I love Gladiator too. I haven't read the novel, but something must have intrigued Ridley Scott about this project.

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I don't think you can hold Tony and Ridley Scott responsible for this mess. (although I did watch it because they were associated with it.

the director? the script? why all that back and forth to the past and to the present? The whole first half was cutting back and forth every 5-6 minutes! Flashbacks are used to enhance a story and that did not happen here. I only watched the second half to see something happen and it never did.


It was boring and annoying.

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