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Me again
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Date Posted: 01:21:25 05/23/05 Mon
Nobody else has anything to say about the show? I didn't enjoy the second part as much as the first ... although DW is just great. Who else could make cantankerousness so charming? My favorite part is when he glowers, "Good evening, brood!" with that inimitable sarcastic delivery of his. In fact, it's the first thing they showed in the ad they were running all week, and it made me laugh out loud. But I don't quite understand why he spends so much of his time in bed as if he's an invalid when he seems perfectly healthy. He's awfully lively for someone who's debilitated by grief and despair. Anyway, there was nowhere near enough of him in Part 2.
For some reason, all the episodes seem to fizzle in the second half--I watched the previous two, but I kept forgetting to watch the first part and then couldn't get into the conclusions the following week. I chalked that up to having missed the set-up even though they recap it at the beginning of the show. But even having been engrossed in Part 1 of this one, I was disappointed by Part 2. For one thing, while they were entertaining, the characters all seemed like they belonged in a comic book. (John Hannah was one of the few who seemed like a real person.)
And, while I haven't read any of the books and don't know what Miss Marple is *supposed* to be like, I have to agree that Geraldine McEwen seems miscast, unless it's just bad directing. She seems to be trying a little too hard to be cutesy-pie with a devious streak. Plus she wasn't in this episode very much but instead sends an attractive young substitute in to do all her sleuthing work. I usually expect the title character in detective stories to be more actively involved! (She only gets one scene with DW!)
Some questions to anyone who's read the books or seen previous movie versions: Was that romantic subplot one of the things the scriptwriters added to pad it out? What about that ballet-teacher scene? (Let me guess: the Noel Coward thing wasn't in the book either, was it?) And what's with Luther's Anglo-Saxon fascination? I thought that was going to go somewhere interesting, but they just dropped it.
Was the story *meant* to be a comedy, and are Agatha Christie's novels also peopled by over-the-top caricatures instead of real people? Charlie Creed-Miles's lispy, whining wife was waaaay over the top! It was funny at first, but she managed to make her slimy husband seem sympathetic. Meanwhile, I thought CCM made a great bad guy; I hope to see him sink his teeth into a feature-length villainous role sometime. (Best line: "I may be disgusting, but I'm not a murderer.") Also, I'm curious what the character of Miss Marple is supposed to be like and what you think made Margaret Rutherford the best, Cinephilia.
Another thing that bugged me: When Miss Marple is explaining the mystery, they "flash back" on a scene showing how the second murder was committed before our unwitting eyes--but the scene has been changed. I rewound the tape to confirm it: The way the scene originally played out, the murder couldn't have been committed the way she says it was!
BTW, more interesting casting: I just realized where I'd seen the woman who plays Mrs. McGillicuddy: Pam Ferris was Harry Potter's expanding Aunt Marge in the Prisoner of Azkaban. And DW's wife is played by Jenny Agutter, whom I last saw on Logan's Run! (Next week's episode features Ian Richardson, who played Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the few performances besides DW's I enjoyed in that movie.)
OK, OK, I know I'm blathering. I promise I'll refrain from posting again till somebody else says something! (That ought to *really* keep everyone quiet!)
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