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Post by talkingheads on May 17, 2019 6:24:54 GMT
Absolutely knocked me for six. Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne have created something extraordinary, not least the part that gives Stephen Graham space to give possibly his best performance (and that's saying something! The economy of storytelling, the silences that convey whole speeches, it really touched something deep within.
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Post by NeilVHughes on May 18, 2019 13:08:54 GMT
Absolutely knocked me for six. Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne have created something extraordinary, not least the part that gives Stephen Graham space to give possibly his best performance (and that's saying something! The economy of storytelling, the silences that convey whole speeches, it really touched something deep within. Agree wholeheartedly. The scene in the Park was incredible, the willpower to put the cap back on was off the scale and as stated the silences are a character all in themselves. Stephen is a phenomenal actor and looking forward to seeing where this leads. |
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Post by talkingheads on May 18, 2019 19:56:48 GMT
Absolutely knocked me for six. Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne have created something extraordinary, not least the part that gives Stephen Graham space to give possibly his best performance (and that's saying something! The economy of storytelling, the silences that convey whole speeches, it really touched something deep within. Agree wholeheartedly. The scene in the Park was incredible, the willpower to put the cap back on was off the scale and as stated the silences are a character all in themselves. Stephen is a phenomenal actor and looking forward to seeing where this leads. Yes! You know it struck me that despite only having known him for forty odd minutes, I was more invested in whether he would put that cap back on than I have been in whole episodes of other dramas, now THAT is astonishing writing. |
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Post by peelee on May 19, 2019 17:28:08 GMT
Thank you for starting a thread on this. On 15 May on a thread about something else I'd written:
Having just watched the first episode of the four-part The Virtues on Channel 4, I think that was more 'drama of the week' material than the publicity-hogging and political calculations behind Years and Years. Written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne, led by Stephen Graham playing a recovering alcoholic, theme music by PJ Harvey, The Virtues will surely have touched many hearts. A series of human stories are there on display, and the skills involved do them justice.
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Post by wickedgrin on May 23, 2019 0:17:58 GMT
After a promising first episode I was disappointed with the second.
The acting is very strong and naturalistic but so much mumbling. The scene between the brother and sister in the kids bedroom was completely unintelligible.
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Post by peelee on May 24, 2019 18:28:56 GMT
I was expecting things to move quickly back to Britain but it seems that the childhood of Joseph (Stephen Graham) years before part-explains the intensity of the adult character being portrayed and this character takes time to reveal his anguish. The director and co-writer Shane Meadows had experiences in his formative years in England that have contributed to this series. Meadows and Jack Thorne give the few scenes plenty of time to unfold, and they're convincing in developing the story.
I liked the scenes involving the kids in the family he learns more about, which I suppose is the quality of acting, the writing and the editing. The adults are good too and there is one scene that is one of the funniest I've seen in ages. These are really good actors who convince the audience theirs are family relationships.
It all looks and sounds appropriate, and marks an artistic leap; the effect is mesmerising. Interesting that it was PJ Harvey who was the initiating party in having written to Meadows about the chance of a drama to match her music.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Jun 5, 2019 22:02:42 GMT
An intensity amplified by the the cumulative periods of silence.
Three lost souls left down by institutions, not sure how much was a true reflection of the writers past and hope it was exaggerated for dramatic impact.
Acting of the highest quality, some really natural scenes offset by some of the best portrayals of inner mental anguish, the pain was oozing out of the TV.
Not the easiest series to watch but the best art usually isn’t.
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Post by lookingatthestars on Jun 5, 2019 22:15:06 GMT
I couldn't breath watching the last 20 or so minutes, the acting was almost too realistic. Wow the power of good art!
I though it showed long term effects of abuse in a way that's really compounds the idea, we never know what people go through/have went through. People deal with things in very different ways. Art gives us that window into which we can peer through the layers of humanity, which we really don't/can't do when we ourselves are navigating our own lives.
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Post by peelee on Jun 6, 2019 10:07:57 GMT
This playing at the end of each episode, and the filmed scene, has been unsettling yet captures the mood and something essential about this series:
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Post by peggs on Jun 16, 2019 21:52:47 GMT
Just finished this and realise that in comparison everything else i'm watching is really quite jolly. Geez this was really hard going but so good.
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Post by peelee on Jun 17, 2019 15:45:05 GMT
I hadn't seen or heard of Niamh Algar but will look out for what she's in in future. She held the screen comfortably with Stephen Graham who himself has screen presence. She's in her mid-20s apparently, yet just as well cast, and excellent in providing some family-wit at the breakfast table, were the children of the family whom character Joseph spends some time with in Ireland. The series contrasted the gruelling childhood memories of some characters with the carefree, happy lives of Joseph's young relatives. It was bleak in places, certainly, yet it was far from unrelenting misery and was all so gripping that the drama of this short series repaid the few hours we spent watching it at home. Bleaker by far was another TV four-parter we watched this weekend, From the Darkness (2015) from BBC iPlayer featuring Ann-Marie Duff, who I enjoy on stage and screen, which had its moments but not many.
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