Thursday, July 15, 2010

NETFLIX FRIDAY #12: Bleak House


Murder! Class warfare! Plague! Betrayal! Obsession! A shocking expose of the intricacies and injustices of the 19th century British legal system!

No, seriously, it's great. I can't attempt to do the book justice in a summary, but it's an incredibly intricate story, cutting across every layer of British society, based off a long-running legal case with a massive treasure at the end of the rainbow. It is arguably Dickens' masterpiece, and this adaptation helps you understand just why he was the most popular writer on earth at the time.

I've written about this before, but it's worth revisiting as the TV industry is in flux. This amazing adaptation of Dickins' Bleak House is split into a one-hour pilot and then 14 more half-hour episodes. Half-hour single camera, highly serialized. This matches the structure and pace of the original text, which was, as our friends at Wikipedia let us know,"published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853." This transforms what could easily be another leisurely historical into a pulp machine.

I'd love to watch you try to convince an American network to do half-hour single-camera dramas. If web distro gives us anything (and it would be nice if it eventually did give us something other than fuel for executives to argue that they can't afford to pay us anymore), it'll be a variance in the locked storytelling formats. You're starting to see that with fiction distribution on the web -- people financing through Kickstarter novellas that there's no market for in the traditional magazine market.

Don't let this get lost in the discussion of the novelty of the broadcast format: you get a great, fast-moving little historical with an amazing performance by under-rated British actor Denis Lawson. What often comes across as a creepy, obsessive relationship between an older man and a vulnerable young woman becomes, in Lawson's hands, the lovely little story of a lonely, honorable, responsible man attracted to the only decent person in a hundred miles. Most of you may also recognize Lawson from Jekyll. But you know, he also played Wedge Antilles.

Let me repeat that: this British historical stars Wedge $^%# Antilles.

You've got Oscar nominated actress Carey Mulligan. A magnificently sinister Charles Dance. Also, Gillian Anderson in a period dress for bonus points. The class and economic issues in the story are incredibly relevant in today's New Class World. All working off an viciously lean script by epic British writer Andrew Davies, who also penned one of my favorite political ...

... wait a minute. BRB.

SWEET HOPPING JESUS! HOUSE OF CARDS IS ON NETFLIX STREAMING!!

Okay. I know what I"m writing about next week. No cheating, no reading, no spoilers on House of Cards, people. But in the meantime, your Netflix Instant Streaming recommendation for this week is the 2005 Bleak House series.

55 comments:

Susannah said...

My favorite thing about Bleak House? The names. How can you not love a story with characters named Turveydrop, Tulkinghorn, Smallweed, Snagsby, Boythorn, Jellyby, etc? Dickens was a genius.

Stacy said...

Hmmm. Usually I trust your judgment, but I can't imagine that any sort of production can do this book justice (one of my all time-favorites). Plus Gillian Anderson is in it, which raises suspicions on my suck'o'meter. Do you promise I'll like it?

David said...

Not a bad performance in the whole thing - aside from Dance, Lawson & Anderson, may I also commend you to Timothy West, Hugo Speer, the stand-up comic Johnny Vegas & the majestic Alun Armstrong - and, yes, the pacing, and yes, yes, yes, the STORY. Twists & turns & reversals & shocks & me repeatedly swearing at the TV in the sheer abundant wonder of it all. See it.

Unknown said...

I promise. Let me put it this way. Gina was walking by while I was doing this, and she said "Bleak House? I so wanted that part Gillian Anderson got. (beat) She did a great job with it."

LawMonkey said...

I seem to be defective in some important respect--I've truly enjoyed several of Dickens's works. But Bleak House just didn't do it for me. I snagged a copy when I was in Russia this winter with a lot of time on my hands; I was thinking I might work my way through Dickens. (I had a *LOT* of time on my hands.) And I really tried to like it--any time I wasn't drilling myself on Russian vocabulary, I was plugging away at this beast of a novel. It was pleasant enough, there's no doubt about that. But, when I left Russia and passed it along to a friend I'd met there, I was somewhat more than half way through it--and the plot had only *just* started to pick up. I am, perhaps, just too spoiled by the pace of most modern enterntainment to appreciate BH. (FWIW, I'd given the BBC series a try as well, earlier; I couldn't get into that at all, but it may have been a matter of mood.)

On the other hand, House of Cards... :D You might very well think that I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it, but of course I couldn't *possibly* comment.

Keith said...

Stacy:

Gillian Anderson can really act and she proves it in Bleak House. Also, in Tristram Shandy, where she plays herself (a version of, anyway).

She's one of those actresses Americans don't know what to do with because she doesn't fall into the good girl/whore/mother triad of acceptable Hollywood roles for women. That's why she always seems bored or out of place when she finds herself in those roles.

Richard Howe said...

Lawson was also in LOCAL HERO, one of my favorite movies of all time. It's a quiet, quirky little comedy about an American oil company trying to buy a small Scottish town.

Anonymous said...

Bleak House was fantastic. And might I add, there was also a small part for Nathaniel Parker (one of my favorite british actors... and criminally underused! People in the States might know him as Inspector Lynley) as the skeevy Harold Skimpole. American television just can't produce television like this.

Anonymous said...

I remember one of the reviews for this comparing Anderson's performance to that of a decrepit angel and trust me, it was a compliment. I love this production and recommend it all the time!

Katie A said...

Why is everyone surprised Gillian Anderson can act? It's like people discount acting work in genre pieces - 'cause she was acting the shit out of The X-Files for years (just watch one of the eps without her). She lights it up in Bleak House - and Burn Gorman was great too. Andrew Davies can do no wrong!

Shelley said...

Cheers for the reccy! I've been hearing whispers about this series on a few other boards (Doctor Who for one) so this has gone into the streaming queue.

Stacy said...

@Katie A

Its more like surprised she CAN'T act. The only time I thought she was good was in X-Files. Well, also Princess Mononoke, but that was animated.

I'll give her a shot in Bleak House.

Anonymous said...

She may be "Oscar nominated actress Carey Mulligan" now, but she'll always be Sally Sparrow to me. :D

Stefan Jones said...

YES!

I found the book to be a brutal slog. Sufficient delights to keep me going, but too many diversions and side stories (Like George's travails and a family he visits . . . didn't advance the plot a bit) to make it a romp.

But this adaptation . . . man, what a blast! Just perfect.

Favorite thing: The industrialist, sternly dressed, visiting Dedlock to ask him to give up a servant girl so she can marry his son.

And Dedlock sneers that they'll probably educate her.

Charles Q. Choi said...

As an aside, since you mentioned Jonathan Strange in another post, have you watched New Tricks? Brit procedural -- to solve cold cases, throw in retired cops. Old dicks, old mysteries. A v. slight Tinker Tailor vibe there.

Unknown said...

"I'd love to watch you try to convince an American network to do half-hour single-camera dramas."

HBO already has one it's called "In Treatment" and it's pretty good. They air it several times a week with different storylines running on different days of the week. It's even gotten several Emmy nominations (and one win) in the drama categories. It's coming back this fall for a third season, too.

Unknown said...

You know, with the countless movie versions out there, a lot of people forget that The Three Musketeers was originally published in serial form. I think it'd be a good fit for the Bleak format (wait, that sounds wrong...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers

Keith said...

Karl:

I'm just finishing up Three Musketeers right now and my thought has been, since the first hundred pages, is that no movie has ever done this story justice and that to do it, it would have to be serialized like Bleak House.

Mark Clapham said...

Bleak House is great. Little Dorrit, which the BBC did a couple of years later in the same format, is possibly even better. Unfortunately it tanked due to bad scheduling, and the BBC seem to have given up on this model for adapting novels. A shame, I'd have liked to see them do something like Doctor Zhivago in this format.

Emily Blake said...

I love this book. I've always been wary of watching this version because of how much I love this book. But if you say so, I will give it a shot.

Steve said...

As enjoyable as Bleak House was, House of Cards is one of my favorite serials ever. I haven't seen it since PBS first broadcast it, what, 20 years ago? (something like that), but I think I'll have to watch it again.

("You might well think that. I couldn't possibly comment." is SUCH an awesome line in context!)

Baritenor said...

I can't believe it. I just started reading the book, and here it is, popping up on your blog! Awesome.

Anonymous said...

You say House of Cards I think Tommy Lee Jones and the girl who paints her whole body to blend in with the tree thing...lol Damn you meant the politcal one.

Red said...

Because you rec'ed it and my sister confirmed its quality, I bought the DVDs. Just started watching this and having fun with the actors (It's Owen and Adam from Torchwood!). I also like that so many guys are falling in love with Esther...because she's good, smart, and competent.

Have yet to watch the second half. Saving it for tomorrow.

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