Netflix’s Persuasion 2022

As many of you know, Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” is my favorite book in the world. I’ve read it more times than I can remember. The 1995 adaptation does have some flaws, but it is still almost perfect. But, when Netflix announced it was making an adaptation of Persuasion, part of me was excited and part of me was filled with dread. The dread intensified when I heard that it was a period piece starring Dakota Johnson.

I dumped Netflix a while back, and the trailer for this offering left me cold. Check it out here:

and let me know what you think.

The reviews were almost universally terrible so, when a good friend who does still have Netflix invited a couple of fellow Janeites over to watch it last Saturday, I was leery but I went. Friends, it was even worse than we thought. I’ve already shared my thoughts with other Janeites in private, but I thought I’d share them with the fine folks here at WordPress:

We hated the inane, teenage dialogue (5s and 10s? exes?). We hated the personality transplant given to Anne. Austen’s Anne (and Nick Dear/Amanda Root’s Anne) is elegant and refined.  Dakota Johnson’s Anne, however, appears to drop an F-bomb just after she sees Frederick for the first time (we rewound it – the part when she’s told about the jam mustache – to confirm).  We were appalled when she drunkenly yells at Frederick through the open window the night before.  We hated that Anne is a whiny lush. We hated that Lady Russell takes discreet sex tours. We hated that Elizabeth told Anne that she (Elizabeth) needed Anne nearby so that Mr. Elliot could see how much prettier she (Elizabeth) is.  We hated that Mr. Elliot told Anne of his plans right off the bat.  We REALLY hated the Mr. Elliot/Mrs. Clay denouement. As in jaws dropping.  We hated the way Harville knew all about Anne.  We hated how Louisa behaved.  We hated that Mary appears to see a shrink and spouts nonsense about loving herself before she can love anyone else. And what they did to The Letter is inexcusable. 

In short, we found zero positives, except for the cinematography. It was, admittedly, beautiful to look at. But I’m a substance-over-appearance kind of girl so the lovely cinematography didn’t cut it with me.

I started pacing pretty early on. I just couldn’t take it.  I found it to be almost physically painful.  There was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

1995 does have its flaws, but it’s still as close to perfection as possible IMNSHO (as one friend put it, “Ciaran Hinds set a bar that could be seen from space” – and I would submit that Amanda Root did, too). To me, the very best example of why this version is so bad is the scene where Anne and Frederick meet for the first time. In this version, Anne is acting like an idiot.  She babbles incoherently when she sees him. In 1995, all we get is the 2 of them looking at each other and then the camera cuts to Anne’s hand holding onto the chair as for dear life.  Same scene, yet the differences are immeasurable.

All this awfulness made me think about the whole “accessibility” issue.  I find it rather condescending to make a period piece that uses modern language and sensibilities to “make it accessible” for the audience. Just make a new Clueless. That was brilliant. As I’ve said, I got people to read Emma because of it. Same with Bridget Jones’s Diary/P&P.

In addition, an LA Times review I read said that this group is considering bringing P&P and S&S to the unwashed masses also.  Dear God, make this stop!!!!!!

I have to wonder how many of the hits that Netflix is getting come from hate-watchers like my friends and me. Most of the reviews I’ve seen on YouTube have been just as scathing as the newspaper/e-zine reviews. This movie is just bad. Truly bad. It’s hard to believe that something could be even worse than MP99, but this managed what I’d previously thought was impossible. I guess that’s an accomplishment?

 

Goodbye Daddy.

My Dad died yesterday morning at around 6. It wasn’t exactly a shock – he was 92, had dementia, COPD and a leaky heart valve. But it still rocked my world.

He was a brilliant man whose mind was taken from him by a horrible disease. Anyone who’s loved a dementia patient can tell you that it’s not something you would wish on anyone, much less someone you love.

The last time I saw him was on Friday. I visited him at the hospice, stroked his forehead, told him that we loved him and missed him. I thanked him for being my Dad. I swear by all I hold dear that his breathing changed almost immediately. 20 hours later he was gone.

I love you Daddy, and will miss you until the day we meet again.

 

To mask or not to mask – there really isn’t a question.

Yes, I am an anti-masker. For myself, at least. If you want to wear one, go ahead. Be my guest. But don’t get pissy with me if I don’t want to wear one.

I had the bug last year. And no, I didn’t die. I am perfectly fine. OK, so maybe my sense of smell is occasionally a bit “off,” but other than that I really am fine. I do know 3 people who died from it, but all 3 had multiple co-morbidities (these included, but were not limited to, advanced age, alcohol issues, immune issues, etc.). I am definitely not someone who thinks the bug is a hoax. I was feverish, achy and tired for 5-6 days, and coughed up a lung for weeks afterwards. So, no, the bug isn’t a hoax. But the fear-mongering is.

The media and the Feds have a vested interest in making people think that Covid is an automatic death sentence. It’s not. My office has finally stopped making us wear them (after a full year!), and it’s as if the entire state of Florida is on the same schedule. The only places that seem to require masks now are my bank and my nail salon. I can avoid the bank (for the most part, I can do things through the ATM or online), but I can’t avoid the nail salon. So, for the time being, I’ll carry a mask just so they’ll let me in. Luckily, I only go once a month.

 

Big Finish: They love stories

Big Finish is a British company that produces audiobooks and plays, and their motto is: “We love stories.” They certainly do. They own the rights to produce audios of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 and Dark Shadows, among others. I’ve only listened to stories in the Doctor Who universe (these include Torchwood and Benny Summerfield), and most of them have been excellent.

I have been watching the Classic Who series starting with “An Unearthly Child” and am currently up to the Fourth Doctor’s second series having just finished watching Terror of the Zygons. Next up is Planet of Evil. This means I have just started season 13 of the Classic series and I am sorry I waited so long to start watching Who. Granted, I grew up in the US where we didn’t get any Who at all until the 1970s, and then it was on PBS and they didn’t really support it. As I mentioned before, I did see a couple of episodes here and there but I never really took to it.

Anyway, every once in a while, I hand my credit card over to Big Finish and buy a slew of stories. They had a sale for Peter Davison’s 70th birthday the other week, and I bought a bunch of his stories. I listened to the 7th Doctor story “Colditz,” and decided I needed to know more about the character of Elizabeth Klein, so I bought some more of those stories. This morning, I finished listening to “Survival of the Fittest” and I really liked it. So now I need to get the rest of the stories in that arc.

Big Finish does do some great stories, but they’ve allowed wokeness to seep in and some of the stories are ruined for me as a result. For example, the 8th Doctor series “Stranded.” The premise is interesting and I really wanted to like it – how will the Doctor and his companions survive in a foreign place and time without the Tardis? But, included in the story is a sidebar about the attraction between Tania, a trans woman on Earth, and Liv Chenka, a woman from a different planet in the future. I wish them happiness with all my heart, but their relationship is NOT central to the story of how the Doctor is going to fix the Tardis and get back to his travels. And, before anyone even thinks about calling me a transphobe, I will point out that I am not a fan of the Doctor/Rose romance either. I thought it was stupid and pointless. I was OK with Amy and Rory because their story was neither. Their romance served a purpose. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what the purpose of the Tania/Liv romance was other than to show just how “woke” the writers are.

I am not a fan of Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor. To paraphrase a review of Sarah Brightman in “Phantom of the Opera,” Jodie couldn’t act scared on the subway at 3 a.m. And her companions, the “fam,” are just as bad. Ryan is supposed to have dyspraxia, but once we learn about this in episode 1 of series 11, we never hear about it again. Yaz is a stupid character played by an actress who has zero range. And now we hear rumors that she and the Doctor may start having a physical relationship. I’m betting that Bradley Walsh is glad he escaped when he did.

But my general point here is to say that I am afraid that Big Finish will start doing 13th Doctor stories once Jodie leaves the show and that they will sell so poorly that the company may not survive. I hope this doesn’t come to pass, but I’m still nervous about it. But, until then, I’m buying as many of the old stories as I can afford.

 

HM the Queen

Today is Her Majesty’s 95th birthday. It’s also 4 days since she buried her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip. Yes, she was born into a famous, entitled family, but wealth and fame don’t mean you can escape heartbreak. I did watch the funeral, and it was a very beautiful, very moving service. My heart went out to the Queen sitting by herself in the choir. I have never seen her looking so frail and alone. Yes, I am a proud citizen of the United States who has ancestors who fought with the Patriots, but I truly admire Queen Elizabeth II. She and her parents showed us grace under fire in WWII and the importance of standing for something bigger than themselves. On her 21st birthday, she promised the Commonwealth that she would devote her life to them, and she has done just that.

Her good-for-nothing grandson, Harry, and his social-climbing wife are proving themselves to be dishonest, petty, narcissistic and selfish. They lied repeatedly in the Oprah interview, and their fans ate it up. They have no concept of the word sacrifice. Harry’s comments that his father and brother are “trapped” were an insult to his great-grandparents, his grandparents, his father, his Uncle/Aunt Wessex and the Princess Royal. All of them have worked tirelessly on behalf of Queen and Country.

The Queen impresses me. Harry and Meghan disgust me.

 

Happy birthday to Peter Capaldi

Today is Peter Capaldi’s 63rd birthday. I hope he has a lovely day. He was a brilliant Doctor and, from what I gather, an even better person.

Peter Davison had his 70th birthday just the other day, so 2 Doctors in the same week. I hope his was lovely as well. To celebrate this birthday, I just bought a bunch of Big Finish stories featuring the 5th Doctor: The Elite, Circular Time, The Kingmaker and Cold Fusion. I started The Kingmaker this morning. From the blurb, it seems that there are some issues with the Doctor and the Princes in the Tower. I’m a British history buff, so this is right up my alley (as was the 2nd Doctor story, The Glorious Revolution – which I loved). I’ll report back when I’m finished.

 

Is There Life Outside the Box? A memoir by Peter Davison

I just finished reading this book by the 5th Doctor, Peter Davison. I haven’t made my way up to his era yet in my Classic Who journey, but I’ve seen him in some other things (The Last Detective, Campion, The Five-ish Doctors, A Very Peculiar Practice, etc.) and I’ve liked him in everything. His autobiography is exactly what I thought it would be – self-deprecating, gentle, funny and honest.

He’s had a very varied career with several professional highs (Love for Lydia, All Creatures Great & Small, Doctor Who, Campion) and also quite some lows (Parting Shots). His personal life has also seen highs and lows, including 2 divorces.

This was a very entertaining book that gave me a lot of insight into someone who’s been both a leading man and a character actor. He’s carried entire series, and has also done one-offs in established programs. I was drawn to it because of the Who connection, but I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is interested in a good read.

 

Doctor Who

One of the things that’s happened since I was last here is that I’ve discovered the joys of the British sci-fi series Doctor Who. I have vague memories of having seen some episodes back in the 70s when I was in my teens (looking back on it, one of them has to have been City of Death, considered one of the all-time greats), but I didn’t pay attention at the time. But, back in 2013, when I heard that the series was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, I decided to check it out and see if I could figure out what all the excitement was about. So I did, and I was hooked.

In those days, the re-booted series was on Netflix and I started from Christopher Eccleston’s first episode, “Rose.” I worked my way through the Tennant years and then the Matt Smith years, watched the BBC special where Peter Capaldi was announced as the 12th Doctor, and then watched “An Adventure in Space and Time,” and then the big one itself, “The Day of the Doctor.” Even though I loved some episodes better than others, I was a Whovian. It got to the point where I could could discuss New Who somewhat knowledgeably, and I made a point to search out YouTube videos produced by serious fans. All was well.

But then, Peter Capaldi quit before he was fired and the new show-runner, Chris Chibnall (of “Broadchurch” fame), decided to take the show to a “new level,” and he hired a woman (Jodie Whittaker) to take his place. And nothing would ever be the same again.

To be continued…

 

I’m back…

Yes, it’s been 7 years, but I’d lost interest in the blog because I just didn’t feel up to reviewing every single book I’d read or every single movie I’d seen. And I’m not an exhibitionist who feels the need to share every detail of my life (which isn’t even remotely fascinating).

A lot has happened since January of 2014. I help my mom and dad with their lives. I’m firmly ensconced in my own little home, and I’ve even made a couple of improvements. I still love my job and have begun to think about what I will end up doing once I retire. That won’t be for a few more years yet, but time flies even if you’re not having fun, and those few years will speed by and I don’t want to be caught unprepared. I’d love to travel around North America – get in a car and go to California to see my brother. Or go to South Dakota to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. Or up to Gettysburg and see the battle site. Or see British Columbia. Or go back to Montreal. There’s so much to do and see.

So I’m going to try to keep up with this, with books or movies or TV shows, or whatever. I’m not trying to amaze the whole room, just a portion of it.

 

Mets Fantasy Camp – 2014 edition

This year’s Fantasy Camp was held in Port St. Lucie from Tuesday, January 14 through Sunday, January 19.  My friends Baboo and Metswinagain were both in attendance.  Baboo flew down from NY, Metswinagain came in from the UK and I drove in from the Gulf Coast.  The coaching staff had a lot of familiar names: John “Dude” Stearns (aka Commissioner for Life), Duffy Dyer, Bobby Wine, Doug Flynn, Joe Pignatano, Al Jackson, Wally Backman, Lenny Harris, Randy Neimann, Turk Wendell (he returned after a 1-year absence), Dwight Gooden, etc.  Two very popular former Mets made their Fantasy Camp debuts: Edgardo Alfonzo and Todd Pratt.  For long-time Mets’ fans, these 2 names bring back a lot of good memories from the teams from the 1999 and 2000 seasons.  Bud Harrelson was absent for the 2nd year in a row, and Ed Charles was, apparently, ill and unable to attend.  Get well soon, Glider.  You were missed.

Unlike last year, I was unable to take Friday off, so I missed the Kangaroo Court.  But I did make it to camp in time for Saturday’s meeting and the awarding of the brown and gold ropes.   It’s not impossible for both ropes to be awarded for the same play, but it’s also not the norm.  But on Saturday, that’s what happened.  Todd Pratt and one of the campers were trash-talking and Todd decided to pitch to him.  And the camper proceeded to hit the ball over the fence for a home run.  So Todd was awarded the brown rope, and the camper got the gold.  The crowd was amused.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures from the meeting — we ended up having to sit in the back, so I really didn’t have a good view of the proceedings.  This is all I could come up with — Tank (Todd’s nickname) was regaling the crowd with a very funny story about how he supposedly found a player’s driver’s license (I will not repeat the story because I cannot do it justice):

Tank being funny.

As always, click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Wally Backman and Tank were the coaches for Baboo and Metswinagain’s team, the Pratt Fallers.  Unfortunately, the PF’s didn’t win a single game, but they had a fun team with a lot of good people.  In fact, several players from higher-ranked teams said that they would have loved to have played for this team because they’d had so much fun.

Something very special did happen at this camp.  For the first time in recent memory, a group of campers beat the pros.  The players celebrated on the field as if they’d won the World Series which, considering the situation, is pretty much exactly what they did.  The fans in the stands knew what was happening and we were just as excited.  It was pretty darned cool.

And now for this year’s batch of pictures. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t great.  There was either too much sun or not enough.  But here goes:

Tank, Fonzie and Turk

This is a photo Baboo sent me from Tuesday’s Welcome Dinner.  It features 3 of my favorite players from the 2000 NL Championship team.  I got to see Tank’s ring at the awards dinner.  It’s very, very cool.

And here is some game action from Saturday:

Metswinagain runs to first

Metswinagain at bat.

Coach Pratt works with his pitcher.

Here is Saturday night’s awards dinner:

Tank and Wally honor the Pratt Fallers.

Tank takes the mic.

Turk at the podium.

Fonzie and Kevin Baez in the crowd.

Piggy, Doug Flynn and Bobby Wine honor their team’s MVP.

Doc Gooden gives out the Tom Seaver award.

And, last but not least, here are photos from Sunday’s campers-vs-coaches game:

Pregame introductions

More introductions.

Doc Gooden on the mound.

Doc started Game 1 (against the top-place team) and gave up 2 runs in the first.  He found his groove soon afterwards, and the coaches won the game.

Doc pitched the first couple of games.

Doc at the plate.

Doc was also pretty incredible at the plate.  I know he made an out over the course of the 8 games, but I don’t remember seeing it.

Turk at the plate.

Turk had a bunch of at bats and got several hits.  Who said pitchers can’t hit???

Guy Conti coaches 1st.

It looks to me as if Guy doesn’t think Turk’s going to run.

Schourek at the plate with Tank on deck.

Tank takes his turn at bat.

SS Turk and 3B Fonzie.

Turk did pitch on Sunday, but he also played short.  Here he is, playing catch with 3B Alfonzo.

Duffy & Tank.

It breaks my heart that this was in the shade and is so hard to see.  But this is Tank (2000 WS Met) and Duffy Dyer (1969 WS Met) changing places.  Duffy caught the first 2 games, and Tank caught the rest.

Piggy on the sidelines.

Joe Pignatano doesn’t play in the games, but he’s still a presence on the sidelines.  He’s a true gentleman, and I’m so happy I’ve gotten to spend time with him over the years.

Fonzie plays

first.

Lots of coaches were out of position.  I honestly cannot remember seeing Fonzie play first base.

Metswinagain gets to first against the coaches in Sunday’s game.

Baboo takes the mound in Game 8.

And here is a picture of Tank and me.  Right after he was traded to the Phillies in 2001, I went to a sporting good store and found a jersey that said “Tank” instead of Pratt.

Dorsal view.

Obviously, we should have swapped places, but we didn’t think of it.

So, Fantasy Camp 2014 is over, but I’m already looking forward to heading East to PSL in 2015.  I’ll repeat what I’ve said before; if you are in the PSL area in the days before MLK weekend, you should visit the camp.  The tournament games are open to the public, as are the campers/coaches game on Sunday.  You will not regret it.