Tonight I finished the 10 hour, 20 episode "Dickensian" with a final 4-ep binge-watch. It was an eminently enjoyable series, for the most part, with flawless acting from dozens of characters, dead-on Victorian production design, and a tightly controlled script that, combined with a fast paced direction, allowed for multiple story threads to be interwoven. By constantly changing from thread to thread, minute by minute, the threads felt all of a piece, as if all the Dickens characters' lives had intersected.
And this was what "Dickensian" was all about. I looked for reviews on IMDB, some viewers loved it, others less so (for differing reasons), but overall it got a 7.5/10 score, and almost every reviewer mentioned it's addictive quality as I found out for myself. Once you start watching, you can't stop.
If I had stopped (for some reason which would make no sense) at around Episode 15, let's say, I would have given "Dickensian" a 10/10 review, Two Mega Thumbs Up. But in the last four or five episodes, the series seemed to take a darker and more cynical turn. I know that we are dealing with horrible conditions in London at the time, and class issues, and issues involving unwed mothers, not to mention how orphan children were treated, and Charles Dickens wrote about all of these things and more in his books. I have never read the books, but in the BBC adaptations I have seen, even in his tales that do not have happy endings that resolve every issue, there seemed to be a heart of compassion at the center of every story. That was Dickens' message in a nutshell, understanding and compassion.
And that message is present in "Dickensian" as well. It's just that the message does definitely not apply to all the characters, nor is there cumuppence for certain characters who deserve it, and who the writers lead you to believe will falter in their deceptive machinations. I'm not sure Charles Dickens would have ended the story as these writers did, had he made a "Dickensian" mashup himself.
Still, because of the high quality of the show, and for the great writing up until the end, and for great direction all the way through, I'll give it an 8/10, and two big thumbs up. A big thumbs down for how two of the major story threads ended, however. These endings were a mite too cynical for me. /////
Tomorrow I will resume watching movies, with possibly a Christmas classic or two in the mix for next week. I wish I had other stuff to write about, but it's hard for me to even get out on a hike anymore, except for my days off. I miss Elizabeth's posts and photos too. I used to write this blog mostly to her, and I miss those days, but it seems she has abandoned Facebook....... :(
I don't like to write about politics unless it looks like Trump is about to be impeached.
And I don't really follow sports anymore, except that I do follow sports, but I know that my teams are never gonna win championships and so why get all worked up over nothing.
The Rams have lost two in a row now, to seemingly inferior teams, especially tonight at home at the Colosseum to the Eagles, and I am thinking that, despite their 6-0 start and their 11-1 record two weeks ago, that they really aren't as good as we thought they were. They will probably be "one-and-done" in the playoffs as they were last year.
Ahhh, sports. An addictive diversion. Glad I have trained myself not to pay as much attention.
I am three quarters of the way through KK Downing's autobiography, which is quite a story overall, but which kind of turns into a recitation of same-sounding events during the recordings of Judas Priest albums in the 1980s.
We had really good singing in church this morning, with two new members in the women's soprano/alto section, bringing the total to nine in the front row, a regular wall of sound. In the back row, we have the same three men we've had since I started in November 2014, but all three of us can belt it, and we provide a contrast to the many voices of the women, good singers all themselves. I am looking forward to next week, when we will be doing two anthems on Sunday and then two more the next evening on Monday, Christmas Eve. No doubt we will get to sing a few carols as well. Christmas is probably my favorite time of the year to sing with the choir, because the music has even more feeling than usual.
Whomever reads this, I hope you had a nice day and I will see you in the morning. xoxoxoxo :):)
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