BBC movie series recommendations please :) (SPOILERS for TSTAMD)

[dumbledore11214]

> Alla: 
> > I LOVE them. I also read the book and loved it and yes, couple of changes to the story annoyed me, but they do not take away from main storyline for the most part, so I still loved David's teaching battles and his obvious love for kids and I loved all the teachers. And heh, Howarth (sp?) reminded me of Snape the way I think Snape should have been if he gave a d*mn about kids.
> > 
> > And where where do you guys find soooo many talented actors? :-)
> 
> Potioncat:
> I read TSTAMD after one of Geoff's recommendations. I like the book better than the series. Like you Alla, Howarth reminded me of Snape.

Alla:

If I had read the book after the series, I would have probably liked the series even better, heh. Since I read it in between waiting for the next disk arriving, I like it a bit better, but still like series a lot.

But again, it is only because of the changes in the plot and characterization, not because of acting and the screen play itself. Luckily, the main story I like the same, what I like less is how the series handled all the women in David's life except Beth.

Was it really necessary to imagine abusive relationship for Cristine? I mean I get that this way they could easier explain her not wanting to get married to David right away, but as I was talking to somebody about it, they quarrelled and who knows, maybe abuse was there, but I just do not see any indications of it on the page. Or to make Julia so cruel to tell David that she is leaving right after she slept with him instead of writing a letter?

And where the heck is Grace?

However the way they handled school and teachers and David in school makes me love these series dearly.

Yes, love Howarth, love the actor, not for a second doubted that he loved teaching, CARED for kids, sarcastic tongue or not. To me it is a big difference when teacher is sarcastic when you do not know the subject and otherwise cares about you as a human being or when he does not, heh. And OMG I loved Headmaster Herries (spelling?), but evil Headmaster was sooo well done too.


Potioncat:
> And I agree with Alla's question, Where do all those wonderful actors come from? I would have asked sooner, but there's a sterotype that we Americans automatically think an actor with a British accent is a better actor. I've been watching more British productions over the past couple of years, and British actors seem to play a wider variety of roles than American actors. There seems to be no conceit about how they look. Imelda Stanton and Judi Dench have looked pretty horrible in movies, then looked great in following ones.
<SNIP>


Alla:

This is the first time I hear that such stereotype exists, but if you say so, I am sure it is :)

However, I just do not care if it is a stereotype or not, you know?

Never in my life I would judge the actor better because actor has cute british accent (and I sure love the accents). I watch a lot of TV, or should I say used to watch lots of TV? Now I watch lots of rented movies mainly. And I form my opinion of the american TV actors versus british TV actors based on A LOT of the shows that I watched.

I have to say that for the most part I find british actors (and screen writers) to be much more capable bunch based on the results that I see on screen.

You make a good point about looks, which I totally agree with. Why the heck for example all the actors in the police show should look pretty? No, really, why? Do all policemen in RL look cute? I mean, the policemen that I see on the streets of NY look very very different, can we see something like that on TV? Well, apparently we can on British one, but not on american. They can all be models judged on what I see on the screen.

And of course the main part is acting. For the most part in american shows the actors, how to put it? In my opinion they do not act much.

When I watch the House of Eliott, I see two girls living in the London of 20s. When I watch I don't know, CSI? I do not see police officers or intelligence officers, or whoever, I see actors saying the lines, you know?

Oh I can rant for a long time. When I raved to somebody about Prime suspect, I received a recommendation of Closer, american police show. This is the only show that I so far noticed fantastic acting on american tv. I still do not think that it is written just as well, stories that it is, but the actors are great.

If anybody knows any others, please let me know.


When I was not working, I was watching soap operas on american daytime. Eh, do not get me started on those, really. Once upon a time I noticed an actor whose facial expressions actually changed, but that was not often.


And I do not want to knock down our actors, because really when I go see off Broadways and off off Broadways plays in New York, I always feel the same way, acting is fantastic. It seems to me that the lesser actor is known, the harder they work. Why, I have no clue.

Oh well, thanks for listening.