Ratched is supposedly based on a character in a brilliant 1970s movie.
The only recognisable character feature in this 2020 TV series
is the name of the nurse.
Ratched has been turned into a fashion model parading on a very expensive UHD set. Murphys Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
In this camp extravaganza it does.
Reviews
6 Reviews
Hollywood
(2020)
Dollywoodland
6 May 2020
The best thing about this series is the opening titles.
Watch it and then change the channel.
The acting and script are so wooden the series should be called Dollywoodland.
There have been some great writer/directors. Ryan Murphy is not one of them.
He is no Billy Wilder - more Gene Wilder.
Like the boss of Ace Studios , who makes money from trash movies,
he is probably laughing all the way to the bank.
A Shakespearian Tragedy
17 November 2018
I watch the news of what is happening in the Middle East and despair.
It was beyond my comprehension until I watched this three part series.
The House of Assad documentary tells the story of the family. Mother, father, three sons and a daughter. We learn how an introverted London trained doctor, Bashar Assad, came to power in Syria and became a mass murderer and monster.
The story has elements of Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth. Now we need this documentary to be made into a 3 act play. A challenge that the Royal Shakespeare Company or National Theatre could do justice to.
The House of Assad documentary tells the story of the family. Mother, father, three sons and a daughter. We learn how an introverted London trained doctor, Bashar Assad, came to power in Syria and became a mass murderer and monster.
The story has elements of Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth. Now we need this documentary to be made into a 3 act play. A challenge that the Royal Shakespeare Company or National Theatre could do justice to.
Gunpowder
(2017)
History is written by the victors
25 October 2017
...so it's a refreshing change to see the losers having their say.
"Gunpowder" was made to tell the story about the real leader behind the gunpowder plot, Robert Catesby. He is played by Kit Harington, a descendant of Catesby.
More interesting than Catesby or Fawkes are the hunchback Lord Robert Cecil (Mark Gatiss) and his father William. They ran England as a police state during the reigns of Elizabeth I and King James I. They used a network of censors, spies, propagandists and spin doctors who were so successful in spin that some people still peddle it in the 21st century. The British constitution still bans the Head of State being a Roman Catholic.
The Cecil's set the template for authoritarian police states, communist and fascist. We can see their methods to this day in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. "Gunpowder" is really their story.
"Gunpowder" was made to tell the story about the real leader behind the gunpowder plot, Robert Catesby. He is played by Kit Harington, a descendant of Catesby.
More interesting than Catesby or Fawkes are the hunchback Lord Robert Cecil (Mark Gatiss) and his father William. They ran England as a police state during the reigns of Elizabeth I and King James I. They used a network of censors, spies, propagandists and spin doctors who were so successful in spin that some people still peddle it in the 21st century. The British constitution still bans the Head of State being a Roman Catholic.
The Cecil's set the template for authoritarian police states, communist and fascist. We can see their methods to this day in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. "Gunpowder" is really their story.
The Young Pope
(2016)
Pius XIII and Hadrian the Seventh
27 February 2017
The Young Pope reminds me of a book by Frederick Rolfe called Hadrian the Seventh (1904). The book is on a Guardian list of the 100 Best Novels at No37. It was subsequently made into a play produced in London and on Broadway.
Frederick Rolfe aka "Baron Corvo" was a tragic, self destructive person. He was peculiarly old fashioned very English and homosexual. He alienated everyone, even those who tried to help him. He died alone, cold and starving on a gondola in Venice.
Rolfe was a teacher and journalist who converted to the Roman Catholic Church. He tried to become a Priest a few times but was always rejected. On one occasion he was physically thrown out of a seminary. He sometimes used the initials FR Rolfe to give the impression he was a priest (Father Rolfe) – which he was not.
Rolfe had one great achievement we should never forget. He wrote a masterpiece: "Hadrian the Seventh."
There has only ever been one English Pope, Hadrian IV (William Breakspeare ) 1154 -1159.
The story of Hadrian the Seventh is wish fulfillment. It tells the story of a chain smoking priest who by accident becomes Pope to break a voting deadlock when a new Pope is being elected. Hadrian causes havoc at the Vatican with his extreme conservative traditional views and dogma. In the end he is assassinated by a pope-hating Ulsterman.
Frederick Rolfe aka "Baron Corvo" was a tragic, self destructive person. He was peculiarly old fashioned very English and homosexual. He alienated everyone, even those who tried to help him. He died alone, cold and starving on a gondola in Venice.
Rolfe was a teacher and journalist who converted to the Roman Catholic Church. He tried to become a Priest a few times but was always rejected. On one occasion he was physically thrown out of a seminary. He sometimes used the initials FR Rolfe to give the impression he was a priest (Father Rolfe) – which he was not.
Rolfe had one great achievement we should never forget. He wrote a masterpiece: "Hadrian the Seventh."
There has only ever been one English Pope, Hadrian IV (William Breakspeare ) 1154 -1159.
The story of Hadrian the Seventh is wish fulfillment. It tells the story of a chain smoking priest who by accident becomes Pope to break a voting deadlock when a new Pope is being elected. Hadrian causes havoc at the Vatican with his extreme conservative traditional views and dogma. In the end he is assassinated by a pope-hating Ulsterman.
The Last Kingdom
(2015–2022)
A Peculiar Christianity
27 February 2017
To enjoy The Last Kingdom you need to put aside historical accuracy and religion. When we had a discussion board, the way Bernard Cornwell treated these two issues upset many contributors.
My advice: just enjoy The Last Kingdom as great adventure stories with interesting characters and story lines with a historical background. It is not a documentary.
Series 1 was under promoted by BBC. Series 2 is to start in Spring 2017 and the BBC is at last giving it the publicity it deserved. It's more interesting than Vikings and more realistic than Game of Thrones. The Last Kingdom will also be shown on Netflix, who co-produced Series 2 .
Cornwell's atheism is probably influenced by "an upbringing that is the stuff of nightmares". This is reflected in his books and the television series. Why does Cornwell have such a jaundiced view of Christianity and such an idealized view of his natural father (who deserted his mother when she became pregnant with him)? To understand this you need to read his own words in an article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph a few years ago. (Google: "a page in the life Bernard Cornwell -Telegraph")
Here's an extract: Cornwell was one of five children adopted by Joe and Marjorie Wiggins, members of the Peculiar People, a now-extinct Protestant fundamentalist sect based in Essex. His adoptive parents, he reflects, failed. "The family didn't ignite. We weren't a family." His elder brother John was "committed to a Salvation Army reform home in the Rhondda Valley run by a friend of my parents who I think was put in prison for (abusing) choirboys" and later killed himself.
My advice: just enjoy The Last Kingdom as great adventure stories with interesting characters and story lines with a historical background. It is not a documentary.
Series 1 was under promoted by BBC. Series 2 is to start in Spring 2017 and the BBC is at last giving it the publicity it deserved. It's more interesting than Vikings and more realistic than Game of Thrones. The Last Kingdom will also be shown on Netflix, who co-produced Series 2 .
Cornwell's atheism is probably influenced by "an upbringing that is the stuff of nightmares". This is reflected in his books and the television series. Why does Cornwell have such a jaundiced view of Christianity and such an idealized view of his natural father (who deserted his mother when she became pregnant with him)? To understand this you need to read his own words in an article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph a few years ago. (Google: "a page in the life Bernard Cornwell -Telegraph")
Here's an extract: Cornwell was one of five children adopted by Joe and Marjorie Wiggins, members of the Peculiar People, a now-extinct Protestant fundamentalist sect based in Essex. His adoptive parents, he reflects, failed. "The family didn't ignite. We weren't a family." His elder brother John was "committed to a Salvation Army reform home in the Rhondda Valley run by a friend of my parents who I think was put in prison for (abusing) choirboys" and later killed himself.
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