MovieChat Forums > The Great Fire (2014) Discussion > In case you missed it....

In case you missed it....

posted 10 years ago by Desufnoc_chick
15 replies | jump to latest

Scene: A surprisingly clean and healthy looking 17th century London. Seems like they got over that mild plague stuff pretty quickly.

Tom: Oh Sarah, thanks for all your help in this bread making and stuff. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here for me...as my sister in law (stops to look yearnfully at her over some bread rolls). PS did I mention I baked things?
Sarah: Yeh, it's pretty annoying though that my husband is missing presumed dead isn't it?
Tom: Oh yeh, I forgot about that even though I see you every day. I suppose we better mention it again though in case someone decides to make a poor quality television programme about this moment. Otherwise the viewers wouldn't be able to get a useful summary of our relationship in just a few minutes!
Sarah: Good point-anyway, better go as its time for me to feel mildly threatened by Charles Dance. Byeeee!

Cut to King dancing with wenches
King: Phwoar
Wench: I admire you sire, but even I can see that I'm going to ignore your advances at least for a little while so that your lust overwhelms you.
King: Hmm, how frustrating

Cut to evil bickering:
Relation of some kind: Look you guys, please tell the king he's gone over he top with all this wig stuff. He looks like a poodle.
Random courtiers: We can't tell him that sire! We are merely random courtiers. We thought we should point that out early on.
Relation of some kind: Well I can't because I am a relation of some kind! I've got to save my misgivings for later in the series to build tension.

Cut to guy who turns out to be Samuel Pepys
Sam: Are you telling me it's 8.25? I'm late for school!....I mean my appointment with the king!
Sam's wife: Isn't it made pretty clear in your diaries that you're only middle class and probably wouldn't know the king on an intimate level?
Sam: How dare you! We're so close that I can insult him and best him at croquet without suffering the consequences. But luckily I am also of a level which means I can interact with the guy who runs that insignificant bakers shop, just in case we need to link all the stories up some how.
Sam's wife: That's nice dear, now let me look out this window so I can look properly forlorn.

Cut to Charles Dance lurking in an alleyway
Charles Dance: I wish I had some great dialogue to work with but instead I will just have to stand around looking evil.

Cut to bakers shop
Daughter 1: Dad, I'm old enough to help, let me start the ovens
Tom / Dad: No
Daughter: We'll I'm perfectly capable so I'll do it anyway
Tom / Dad: FIRE!
Daughter 1: Balls.

Fire ensues at last. People use a giant syringe to try to put it out. Not much else happens.

Cut to Charles Dance lurking in the alleyway again.

The End.

[–] gringott 10 years ago

Thanks, I was going to watch it, but I feel now like I already did.

[–] Adams5905 10 years ago

Chortle chortle-I debated watching this tonight, but as I can't actually remember the last tine I saw anything on ITV1 that was remotely watchable, I passed-looks like I made the right decision-thanks!..

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[–] AlwaysOptimistic 10 years ago

You can't really judge the whole episode based on the OP's mindless post. I personally thought it was quite good, better than the OP has made it sound like definitely and it was only the first episode. So it's a little unfair to start slagging it off now, it has potential!

[–] Marlburian 10 years ago

Not bad at all, and the scenes of the fire in its early stages looked realistic. The escape from the top storey of one house to that of another was a bit contrived plot-wise. I found it a bit difficult to work out who some of the characters were.

[–] starzandi 10 years ago

Funny that some bits of the plot which were historically correct, likethe escape to the next roof are seen as contrived. The bakersmaidservant died in 1666 because she couldn't reach the next roof, other than the rest of the household

More contrived seemed the connections between the characters of different storylines. And a bit difficult to follow.

[–] k.m.bunting 9 years ago

Actually, Pepys did report in person to the King on the first day of the fire, because he could see that no official firefighting was being organised yet. He had been on board the ship that brought the King back in 1660, and his job as a senior civil servant sometimes brought him in contact with the Duke of York.

[–] Prelude-in-C-maj 9 years ago

No, as starzandi says, that actually did happen. It's recorded that the baker and his daughters had to climb out to the next roof. That much plus the man's name, Farriner (or spellings to that effect) is true.

[–] mimosveta 10 years ago

I don't see what's the problem with cutting 12 middleman out of the story, even if now it appears lowly baker and king himself are separated by only two degrees.

I liked the story so far, what you complain about seems to be standard filming technique, hardy worth getting worked up over

___
Anyone who has ever read any spoilers,
knows that Winter Is Coming

[–] Miaowlicious 10 years ago

Yup, this pretty much sums up exactly what I just watched. Very underwhelmed by it all :(

[–] scalisto 10 years ago

I thoroughly enjoyed your review. Thanks for the humor-rich heads up!

[–] mark5000910 9 years ago

Very funny!

(It's a shame not all can take a joke!).

[–] bubab2 9 years ago

Well! That's it! It's all finished now; The final episode was on last night, and what a load of old rubbish it was! The guy who played Samuel Pepys was on "This Morning!" (prior to the first episodes broadcast), and he said that it was the most expensive television drama that had ever been produced!!

Well I want to know what all the money was spent on? Because we didn't see much fire? I mean last night we saw lots of ash falling from the sky; and one of the little girls reaching up to the sky to catch the ash (as if was a snow-flake) -- couldn't she tell it was ash; I mean she surely would have been being gassed by the smoke???

But there were only a handful of actual "fire scenes", and even then they were quite random! Plus, you could tell it was just gas jets coming out of flameproof windows; we didn't actually see wooden houses slowly collapsing with weakened embers and then tumbling down to the ground! All we saw were flames SHOOTING out of the windows "CUT!!! -- Yeah you can turn off the gas now Charlie!!"

And what was the stupid subplots all about? The Charles Dance "baddie" lurking around every corner (in the middle of burning London LOL) kidnapping the woman baker, (or is it bakeress?) and then taking her to the Tower Of London [for some reason????] and then kidnapping her son??? Then telling her she had to get "The red box off that foreign man" -- "You must bring me that box!!!!!!" -- "Oh yes sire, I shall bring ye the red box". She gets the red box; but then they all say "Oh dear its the wrong red box -- You've got to back my dear and find another red box..." - "Oh Okay Sire, I shall do so because I will do anything for you sire" -- YAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And after ALL the family were finally together again, (so we could heave a sigh of relief) the young son pisses off saying "I must go and find my father!! He was on a ship!!" -- OH I had completely lost the plot by this time??????? I thought the baker was his father????? Well to be honest I didn't care who the F was his father... I just wanted it to end by this time.

Oh it was so funny when the King kept taking his wig off to reveal yet another wig underneath which was supposed to represent his hair falling out!!! The secondary wig looked so fake!

I would give this 2 out 5. I am glad I could record it and watch it later on my Sky Box because had I watched it "live" I would have had to suffer three lots of commercial breaks! Each "Hour Long" episode was really only about 42 minutes long when you consider the ads. Not like the thoroughly compelling "The Missing" on BBC1HD.

[–] Prelude-in-C-maj 9 years ago

 Laughed out loud, especially at the giant syringe part!

[–] amorehl-93-99338 8 years ago

Loved your summary, but I'm still going to try to watch it. I haven't gotten very far yet, and, like some others here, I'm already very confused about who is who. The wigs certainly don't help. They should have flashed up on the screen the name &/or title of every character the first time they appeared on the screen. Since I'm in the US, the only actor I recognize is Charles Dance.