Day 22: Your friendly neighborhood pimpage post for Grantchester!
Come watch this show with meeeeeee! Okay, if that wasn't persuasive enough...
WHAT: GRANTCHESTER - a new British show, one of those 6-eps-a-season deals. It's a detective drama set in the 1950s in a village outside Cambridge, where a hot priest and a hot police inspector solve murder mysteries. What else could a person possibly need?!
WHEN & WHERE: It's airing Mondays on ITV (so if you need ~alternative sources, let me know). Two eps have aired so far.
WHY: Uhh, well. If the hot priest & hot police inspector combo is not enough of a draw (...really?!), let's break it down:
· Fantastic performances: James Norton is super compelling as Sidney Chambers, the young vicar coping as best he can with WWII trauma, heartache, and some tough decisions; and doing so with optimism & vitality of a very human spirit. Robson Green (who was marvelous in Wire in the Blood, making Tony brilliant and difficult AND sort of deeply innocent in such a believable way) is a different kind of marvelous here, quirky and grumpy and charming, managing to combine fatigued cynicism and genuine curiosity in Inspector Keating's character with the same apparent ease. (I... kinda love him a lot, you guys.) And all other characters are played by fantastic actors, whose interpretations are pitch-perfect for the historical setting and the style of the show. It's just REALLY FUCKING SOLID ALL AROUND, you know?
· Speaking of other characters... There's Mrs. Maguire, a hilarious, ever-disapproving housekeeper who could easily slip into a bigoted caricature in less caring hands, except she's already portrayed with too much background and humor for such easy compartmentalization. There's Sidney's sister Jen, free-spirited and big-hearted and lovely; there's Amanda, a bright young woman in love/loved by Sidney, and I won't say anything else to avoid spoilers; there's Leonard, the new gay curate who has fully embraced his nerdiness and, alas, appears relieved at the loneliness of church life. All characters are given depth and complexity from the get-go, and treated with great kindness. Oh, and there's also A BLACK LAB PUPPY. (Yes. I'm pulling the big guns here.)
The vicar, btw, is the prettiest of the cast and treated as the primary eye candy. The women are beautiful in a very NORMAL way. I approve so very, very hard.
· Ships ahoy! I'm gonna be boring and predictable and fall head-over-heels in love with the main slash pairing, because they have the most delicious tension AND they become such fast friends sort of despite themselves AND alongside all the crime-solving shenanigans, there's drinking at the pub & playing backgammon & visiting each other's homes & WALKING THE DOG. Oh, and there's an exchange of "I could have you arrested" followed by a rather curious (!) & full-on smiling (!!!) "Really?" IN THE FREAKIN' PILOT... so, yeah, I'm gonna be in this slightly D/s shaded corner if you wanna join me. But if you're less into subtext and more into actual text: the will-they-won't-they romance between Sidney and Amanda is quite heartfelt and angsty and beautiful so far, filled with longing and self-doubt and interspersed with the sheer joy they share when they're casually hanging out together. So, you know. SIGH. (Oh, and I hope Leonard gets someone who could make him happy... um, anyway.)
· Social issues: yep, we got that. The pilot starts out as a bit comfortable - the most controversial cultural topic, outside the church funeral for a suicide (*gasp!*), is that the wife of the dead man is German, ergo xenophobia and hatred associated with the recent ending of WWII - but the second ep brings up race, class, and sexuality in quick and sharp interweaving of plot threads, and handles the issues at hand with wit and wisdom without coming across as didactic or jarringly unrealistic. If a priest and a police inspector refuse to be shocked by homosexuality, well... they just happen to know plenty about human nature, is all.
· The show looks STUNNING - every penny spent on cinematography is well worth it. Gorgeous, gorgeous countryside, beautiful interiors, lovely color palette and brilliant framing - churches, offices, stained glass, Cambridge buildings and trees and fields and dark river waters. I love the costumes (dresses! hats! lace! suspenders!!!) and the settings (from mansions to the vicar's quarters to the police station), and OH, the lighting is SO WELL DONE. Basically, I wanna roll around in the pretty of this show. ♥
Annnnnnd I think that's all I got. Except I also made some (rather shippy) icons from the pilot, so... yeah. *draws heart with shoe tip on the carpet*
PIMPAGE POST HEREBY COMPLETED. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I MADE YOU WATCH THE SHOW AND IF YOU'D LIKE TO COME BY AND LOVE IT ALL OVER WITH ME.
Happy weekend, all.
WHAT: GRANTCHESTER - a new British show, one of those 6-eps-a-season deals. It's a detective drama set in the 1950s in a village outside Cambridge, where a hot priest and a hot police inspector solve murder mysteries. What else could a person possibly need?!
WHEN & WHERE: It's airing Mondays on ITV (so if you need ~alternative sources, let me know). Two eps have aired so far.
WHY: Uhh, well. If the hot priest & hot police inspector combo is not enough of a draw (...really?!), let's break it down:
· Fantastic performances: James Norton is super compelling as Sidney Chambers, the young vicar coping as best he can with WWII trauma, heartache, and some tough decisions; and doing so with optimism & vitality of a very human spirit. Robson Green (who was marvelous in Wire in the Blood, making Tony brilliant and difficult AND sort of deeply innocent in such a believable way) is a different kind of marvelous here, quirky and grumpy and charming, managing to combine fatigued cynicism and genuine curiosity in Inspector Keating's character with the same apparent ease. (I... kinda love him a lot, you guys.) And all other characters are played by fantastic actors, whose interpretations are pitch-perfect for the historical setting and the style of the show. It's just REALLY FUCKING SOLID ALL AROUND, you know?
· Speaking of other characters... There's Mrs. Maguire, a hilarious, ever-disapproving housekeeper who could easily slip into a bigoted caricature in less caring hands, except she's already portrayed with too much background and humor for such easy compartmentalization. There's Sidney's sister Jen, free-spirited and big-hearted and lovely; there's Amanda, a bright young woman in love/loved by Sidney, and I won't say anything else to avoid spoilers; there's Leonard, the new gay curate who has fully embraced his nerdiness and, alas, appears relieved at the loneliness of church life. All characters are given depth and complexity from the get-go, and treated with great kindness. Oh, and there's also A BLACK LAB PUPPY. (Yes. I'm pulling the big guns here.)
The vicar, btw, is the prettiest of the cast and treated as the primary eye candy. The women are beautiful in a very NORMAL way. I approve so very, very hard.
· Ships ahoy! I'm gonna be boring and predictable and fall head-over-heels in love with the main slash pairing, because they have the most delicious tension AND they become such fast friends sort of despite themselves AND alongside all the crime-solving shenanigans, there's drinking at the pub & playing backgammon & visiting each other's homes & WALKING THE DOG. Oh, and there's an exchange of "I could have you arrested" followed by a rather curious (!) & full-on smiling (!!!) "Really?" IN THE FREAKIN' PILOT... so, yeah, I'm gonna be in this slightly D/s shaded corner if you wanna join me. But if you're less into subtext and more into actual text: the will-they-won't-they romance between Sidney and Amanda is quite heartfelt and angsty and beautiful so far, filled with longing and self-doubt and interspersed with the sheer joy they share when they're casually hanging out together. So, you know. SIGH. (Oh, and I hope Leonard gets someone who could make him happy... um, anyway.)
· Social issues: yep, we got that. The pilot starts out as a bit comfortable - the most controversial cultural topic, outside the church funeral for a suicide (*gasp!*), is that the wife of the dead man is German, ergo xenophobia and hatred associated with the recent ending of WWII - but the second ep brings up race, class, and sexuality in quick and sharp interweaving of plot threads, and handles the issues at hand with wit and wisdom without coming across as didactic or jarringly unrealistic. If a priest and a police inspector refuse to be shocked by homosexuality, well... they just happen to know plenty about human nature, is all.
· The show looks STUNNING - every penny spent on cinematography is well worth it. Gorgeous, gorgeous countryside, beautiful interiors, lovely color palette and brilliant framing - churches, offices, stained glass, Cambridge buildings and trees and fields and dark river waters. I love the costumes (dresses! hats! lace! suspenders!!!) and the settings (from mansions to the vicar's quarters to the police station), and OH, the lighting is SO WELL DONE. Basically, I wanna roll around in the pretty of this show. ♥
Annnnnnd I think that's all I got. Except I also made some (rather shippy) icons from the pilot, so... yeah. *draws heart with shoe tip on the carpet*
PIMPAGE POST HEREBY COMPLETED. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I MADE YOU WATCH THE SHOW AND IF YOU'D LIKE TO COME BY AND LOVE IT ALL OVER WITH ME.
Happy weekend, all.