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Post by crowblack on May 18, 2024 12:38:02 GMT
Apparently Nemo has had a girlfriend for the last five years - presumably is still with her - and 'came out as nonbinary' a few months ago. The 'queer nonbinary witch' (as she called herself in interviews) Bambi Thug, wearing a trans flag bikini, performed on stage with her longtime boyfriend. One does rather get the feel of 'spicy straights' giving themselves a rainbow wash for votes here. Gender identity and sexuality aren't the same thing though. Identifying as non binary doesn't mean they can't still be attracted to their partners. 'Gender identity' is the more sexist and regressive rebranding of what we used to just call a personality or personal style in dress sense. I don't think it makes you oppressed or a freedom fighter in the way gay people who sometimes used the controversial word 'queer' had to be in the 80s.
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Post by crowblack on May 18, 2024 8:25:58 GMT
Apparently Nemo has had a girlfriend for the last five years - presumably is still with her - and 'came out as nonbinary' a few months ago. The 'queer nonbinary witch' (as she called herself in interviews) Bambi Thug, wearing a trans flag bikini, performed on stage with her longtime boyfriend. One does rather get the feel of 'spicy straights' giving themselves a rainbow wash for votes here.
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Post by crowblack on May 17, 2024 16:19:37 GMT
But then why is everyone so intent on excusing the actions of a stalker who allegedly did things that were ruining someone's life? And pinning so much of the blame on Gadd? He seems to shoulder enough of that himself. If a male stalker was interviewed like this would people be using sympathetic terms like "vulnerable person" to describe him? I just find it so jarring that something like this can happen to someone and the stalker is received by the public as something between a victim and a sort of comedy icon. I don't think most of those concerned about the show are doing so because they defend the stalker's actions (or alleged actions). Instead it's about the ethics of this kind of show and, as discussed in yesterday's Media Show, the honesty and potential for defamation given that the subject, quickly identified by viewers, wasn't taken to court or imprisoned for what Netflix/Gadd described in their publicity as a 'true story'. And it was that 'true story' aspect and the praise being heaped on the show for its 'honesty' that got me, like so many others, watching (fwiw I've been the victim of stalkers, which is partly why I watched and partly why some things didn't ring true - like the failure to report attacks which police would have taken action on, and it now appears may not have happened). I'm conscious too that we are living in a world where show fandoms have actually bullied people into suicide through social media, so when a show's fans, as here, quickly identified, or believe they identified, two characters and started sending them threats, that's a problem, and it's something the broadcaster should have anticipated and taken steps to avoid.
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Post by crowblack on May 16, 2024 21:09:56 GMT
Radio 4's The Media Show tonight was on the ethics / responsibilities of Baby Reindeer and UK vs streaming codes of conduct (yes, as suspected, lower standards for streamers).
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Post by crowblack on May 16, 2024 14:40:44 GMT
I don't think there was much indication Sweeney Todd was a musical in its marketing - the person I went with, who was expecting a gothic horror like Burton's earlier Sleepy Hollow groaned when he discovered it was!
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Post by crowblack on May 13, 2024 17:21:24 GMT
Why can't gay performers do sleaze? I loved that staging. Female singers do it all the time. It's fine post watershed, Channel 4, theatre, cinema, whatever, but not on Saturday early evening light entertainment BBC One shows.
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Post by crowblack on May 13, 2024 12:31:15 GMT
The win went to someone of gender non-specificity and wearing a pink skirt. I don't think conservatism was an issue. but essentially sexless. Yes, and dressed like a cute little pom-pom - a lot of the comments I saw online that night reminded me of that episode of Father Ted where all the old ladies want to mother the baby-faced singer and Mrs Doyle bakes him a jumper in a cake. It wasn't a sexually challenging androgyny, Bowie or Frank N'Furter style.
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Post by crowblack on May 12, 2024 9:58:36 GMT
Someone posting the public vote breakdown says only Ukraine gave Switzerland 12 points in the public vote, which adds weight to the idea that the national juries were steering it in the direction of a conflict-neutral rich country.
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Post by crowblack on May 12, 2024 9:06:45 GMT
Did anyone else find the staging particularly the lighting overpowering to the point of some acts being unwatchable on TV?It seemed to be everything all at once which was I guess spectacular in the arena but in close up migrane inducing. Yes - 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should'. It's interesting that the higher placed acts are the ones that look less 'Ai generated' (so many of the women in particular have been given that Ai, airbrushed look with barely-there costumes that look like the sci fi / fantasy stuff worn by female characters n in ads for computer games)
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Post by crowblack on May 12, 2024 8:47:17 GMT
I ended up watching with a Croatian friend and she commented that it was the best-possible outcome, Baby Lasagna king of the hearts, but Switzerland has to fork out to host the thing next year which Croatia was too broke for. One feels this outcome was partly tactical from the national jury votes, so many giving it 12: it's a famously / notoriously politically 'neutral' country when it comes to wars and has shedloads of cash. I'd imagine large demonstrations and death threats aren't something that happen there (but I may be wrong). I don't 'get' the Olly Alexander phenomenon here in the UK (he was ok as a vampire monster in a tv show years ago but his skills don't live up to the hype & opportunities he's given here). It was a run of the mill song, neither better nor worse than some of the others, but his voice was flat and the staging here, cramped in a box dressed up to look like a smelly toilet, is just such a bizarre choice for a stadium audience and the dancing OTT for what used to be a family show.
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Post by crowblack on May 11, 2024 20:38:11 GMT
Finland was fun - would probably get the teenage boy vote, if there was one (maybe there is - Lordi?)
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Post by crowblack on May 11, 2024 17:15:04 GMT
He made a threatening movement at the camera, but did not come near nor touched the woman in question. Which is horrible, and he deserves to be suspended for that. He's an adult professional representing his country. Imagine if that was a politician backstage at Question Time making a threatening gesture at anyone, especially when it's a male to a woman. It would be instantly career-ending behaviour and no-one would be arguing in his favour. His behaviour at a press conference was odd too. Maybe he's high, but that's no excuse either.
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Post by crowblack on May 11, 2024 15:32:24 GMT
To disqualify someone without proper investigation is just wrong. I doubt organisers would do this without a strong reason given the diplomatic and financial repercussions: the act in question reportedly threatened to assault someone.
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Post by crowblack on May 10, 2024 12:09:00 GMT
It's just that Europe don't like us. 😞 I don't think that's the case, more that we don't put forward strong acts: last year's was a bit grumpy sixth form school show c. 1996, surprisingly weak given she was on home turf.
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Post by crowblack on May 9, 2024 19:39:21 GMT
And what were Gadd's serious issues and why are people so keen to lay blame at his door? He was the victim of two traumatic crimes around the same time, The show was about his mental health / trauma issues too. That was the point I thought: why he delayed going to the police, listened obsessively to her messages, plastered a wall with stuff about her at the end while friends look concerned, thought of her during sex etc. and now years layer is still re-enacting it.
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Post by crowblack on May 9, 2024 9:22:00 GMT
It seems that everyone has been making assumptions, which, whilst possibly correct, seem to favour treating her as an unfortunate victim, rather than viewing her as the perpetrator of a crime, which she is. She's both. In a society with better mental health care this situation could be prevented. Instead a situation with two people with serious 'issues' playing into each others obsession has been made into a TV entertainment with little thought to safeguarding (of both of them). It feels a bit like The Lady in the Van - turning a strange life experience and a real woman with serious mental health problems into drama, but at least Alan Bennett waited until she was dead.
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Post by crowblack on May 7, 2024 11:56:08 GMT
I've booked stalls non dining tickets for this, though there's no indication on the site of where I'll be sitting - is it a free for all so better to arrive early?
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Post by crowblack on Apr 27, 2024 10:30:35 GMT
Has anyone thought that this is all a big setup that he’s been planning for years? He said he worked hard on making her untraceable, yet it actually seems that not many details were changed at all, and someone as big as Netflix didn’t go over every detail with a fine toothed comb to check this? Netflix would get sued to hell. Something just doesn’t add up. I've seen some people wondering if it's a Black Mirror thing but I think it's more like a lack of care by the programme makers and platform in pursuit of the sort of story that can be, and is, this year's Tiger King style ratings hit. As he portrays himself in the series, he's a man who makes very bad decisions and is desperate to make it in showbusiness, even going back to a predatory man who, as portrayed in the series, sexually assaulted him, to get a career boost.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 27, 2024 9:59:58 GMT
Doxxing implies malicious intent which is clearly not the case here. There's certainly dishonesty when he claims he made her unrecognisable: quite the contrary, he and the production seem to have gone to great pains to cast an actress who looks, dresses, has the CV, has the speech patterns, actual cut and paste dialogue, and presumably accent of the alleged 'real Martha'. Every single aspect of that could have been altered to distance her, but weren't. In the series, he then goes on to portray Martha physically assaulting people with racial abuse, and going to prison for stalking him. We know the latter isn't true, so is the former? An unreliable narrator is a familiar trope in fiction but it's very dodgy when you are claiming it's fact. And she's getting online death threats for her behaviour as portrayed in the series. It's 'emotionally true', says Gadd, weaselly. Even more icky is that he includes a scene - and it's ambiguous whether it's fantasy or reality, of his character, played by himself, having sex with an actress who looks like a real person. That's like an analogue version of personally tailored 'deepfake porn'. Netflix have a ratings hit, and controversy is all grist to that mill, but there's a reason why shows like this are rare - it's because they're reckless.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 25, 2024 21:42:55 GMT
I wonder given the success of the TV adaptation if we might finally see the original version go to the West End since it was postponed due to the pandemic. Seeing the way this story is now developing across social media and the media, probably not...
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Post by crowblack on Apr 23, 2024 10:21:10 GMT
There's now 1.6 million views on a Twitter post that shows Martha's dialogue alongside the still existing Twitter posts of the woman alleged to be the real Martha. He hasn't made much (any) effort to disguise her, from her ex job and field, looks, haircut, nationality, history, right down to the diet coke.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 23, 2024 9:45:51 GMT
Yes, there's a big difference between a stage show and a global netflix production with a pause button. We're in the 'true crime podcast' era, and things like the reaction to that poor woman who drowned in the river, amateur sleuths all over the scene. When a show is pitched as incredible but true, of course people are going to go, hang on, is it really true? Is there evidence? That's human nature. If the show uses vivid, direct quotes from social media accounts that still exist, legal cases that are public record, then yes, people are going to be traceable. If you say someone you worked with behaved in a certain way, then everyone you worked with, all listed on IMDB, will be in the frame, like Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence. In my admittedly limited experience, I think a UK broadcaster would be more cautious here with safety checks and repercussions.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 22, 2024 11:59:53 GMT
And, inevitably, both names in the frame are now getting threats. The allegedly real people also look very like the actors cast to play them. This does feel irresponsible.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 19, 2024 19:44:29 GMT
Uncomfortable with a global TV drama based around a real woman with severe mental health issues who is presumably still out there somewhere hopefully trying to recover and rehabilitate.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 19, 2024 13:11:30 GMT
It's powerful, but I think it would have worked better if he'd been played by a much younger actor - there's a level of naivety, haplessness, vulnerability and delusion - and even the title - that don't really work when he looks getting on for middle aged himself. Martha's meant to be much older, one of life's losers, but looks the same age as him. There's also the question of why the other characters don't report or record the physical assaults on them: with the racial element and loads of witnesses to one of them they'd have a case for police action
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Post by crowblack on Apr 14, 2024 22:10:58 GMT
'Men', starring Jessie Buckley and several Rory Kinnears is on All4 for a month and I've just watched it - fantastic performances and setting, nods, perhaps, to eerie classics like The Signalman and Penda's Fen though I think it loses the plot with a lot of gratuitous and thematically confused Cronenbergian body horror in the last half hour
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Post by crowblack on Apr 11, 2024 19:57:26 GMT
There was a BBC Radio 4 series on a couple of years that said yes, foreign powers were indeed boosting 'genuine account' divisive Tweets and creating fake persona accounts to amplify wedge issues - this even included popularising the misogynistic, ageist term 'Karen'. I'm still seeing it, still report it - accounts that are a load of numbers, zero followers, just relentlessly picking on someone online.
Romeo and Juliet, with its Marvel Franchise actor, will have the additional problem of misogynist as well as racist fandoms, and many of these fans are actually female, probably teenagers, who will internet-pile-on actresses paired with their fan-favourite male.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 8, 2024 22:40:23 GMT
I've seen people say it perks up when the Italian police detective comes in - I'll give it another go. It looks beautiful with all the b&w and arty shots of statuary, but in my head I keep thinking "oh, Vienna!". I read all the Ripley novels in sequence a few years ago and maybe it would have made more sense if this series had missed out 'Talented' - a very well known movie and a hard act to follow - and gone straight into the stories where Ripley's older. As good as he is, I didn't think the Italian detective really saved it. But yeah he makes it a bit more watchable, but all the problems are still there. I don't think it's enough to change your mind if you didn't like it already. I enjoyed the last three episodes, the final one especially, but it was a bit of a slog getting there. Andrew Scott in Venice in some fine threads and a 'tache helps too.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 7, 2024 19:49:17 GMT
I've just finished it and it was so disappointing. Massively miscast, lots of style and little substance. Also story wise it doesn't work as an adaption. I like black and white, but it doesn't really serve anything here. And the number of 'arty shots' felt like it was the directors first job out of film school and wanted to throw everything at it. Sadly, I agree with all of this. I was looking forward to this series for well over a year and, as outstanding as Scott and Flynn both are, they were both miscast in this. Completely devoid of any tension and nothing I haven't seen before cinematically. I also don't feel there is enough story to flesh out 8 episodes. I love the original but this was a huge let down. I've seen people say it perks up when the Italian police detective comes in - I'll give it another go. It looks beautiful with all the b&w and arty shots of statuary, but in my head I keep thinking "oh, Vienna!". I read all the Ripley novels in sequence a few years ago and maybe it would have made more sense if this series had missed out 'Talented' - a very well known movie and a hard act to follow - and gone straight into the stories where Ripley's older.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 6, 2024 22:55:03 GMT
Is anyone watching Ripley on Netflix? It has Andrew Scott and Johnny Flynn and mixed reviews: some critics love it, but it's not working for me. It's a shame, as I was looking forward to it, but Scott and Flynn feel miscast - both too old for the set up to be plausible, and devoid of anything in their characterisation to engage me.
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