Not So Happy Endings

Farewell to 2023!

Recently, I finished the Netflix series Sex Education which gave me pause to reflect on how shows end well or badly. It's hard to remember one that ended well but long-term fans of Sex Education were particularly annoyed with how it finished after four seasons. 

I am guessing Covid and various strikes may have played a part but Season 4 did seem oddly paced, introducing new settings and characters and then rushing to tie everything up in the concluding episode, which was 8 rather than 10 or 12. It really did feel muddled and I felt they got rid of the wrong characters. I really missed Anwar, Olivia, Lily and Ola. So many questions: What will become of Elsie? Will Cal get surgery? Has Ruby really got over Otis? We will never know. 

But I was not that satisfied with how Grace and Frankie ended last year after eight seasons. For a start it was not so much Grace and Frankie as Grace and Frankie's kids and exes. Bud as a stand-up? Coyote searching for his ex? Not that interesting. Thank heavens for Dolly Parton's cameo. 

Fans of Killing Eve are still cursing the showrunner for how that show ended last year. I am only on Season 2 so can't get too excited or let down, but it is funny how difficult producers find it to wrap up long-running shows. 

I thought Derry Girls did OK even though I really wanted Clare to find a girlfriend and did not really buy James and Erin as a couple. 

Atypical was one of my favourite shows and I thought that ending was mixed, too. I didn't mind so much leaving Izzie and Casey's ending open but I did not buy the sudden interest of Doug in travelling with his son. Nope. 

Bringing it back to SexEd, introducing new characters in the final season can really backfire as they take attention from the main characters and don't necessarily add anything. Witness Never Have I Ever which ended this year. I loved that show but why add new love interests and rivals in the last year? I wish they had spent more time on the friends Fabiola and Ramona and less on various pointless love triangles. Sigh. 

Here is hoping for happier endings and joyful beginnings for 2024.

Christmas with Netflix

 Much as I would love to offer an end-of-year Best Of full of visits to the cinema, it just hasn't been that kind of year. :)

However, I have managed to visit an extraordinary place full of folk wisdom, romantic encounters and fake snow: Christmas with Netflix. 

It was a few years ago I made my first visit and since then I return annually, the mist lifting on 1 December and closing on 31 December. So many fascinating characters have come my way: hard-bitten executives, heartbroken writers, quite a few social influencers. All of them seeking meaning in their broken lives. And lo! All it takes is a few life lessons offered by the spirit of Christmas. Wow. 

This year I sampled no fewer than 11 Christmas-themed films on Netflix and wowzers. There are some actual rank duds out there. I'm looking at you, A Wish for Christmas. Netflix makes originals but also draws from other networks and my tip is avoid the Hallmark ones. 

But some do actually punch above their weight. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Princess Switch trio, the most recent of which arrived this year. Filmed in Scotland, too, after previously using Romania as a location. 

Single All the Way offered an interracial gay couple as the protagonists, with amusing supporting work from Kathy Najimy and Barry Bostwick. 

Christmas with a View features a chef with stubble and resort manager who could double for Meghan Markle. Great scenery, shame about the script. But Patrick Duffy with a man-bun! Vivica Fox making gingerbread houses! Canadian mountains!

But my favourite Netflix viewing was actually a film I avoided at the cinema two years ago: Last Christmas. Definitely a Whamageddon, as it features the title track many, many times. But it wasn't the wan rom-com I thought it would be. Emma Thompson speaking Serbo-Croat! Henry Golding showing some emotion! Emilia Clarke singing! A lesbian couple! And a message about family conflict and trying again. Plus, a cameo by Broadway legend Patti LuPone. What's not to love?

See you next year. 

Passing

I was quite keen to watch the drama Passing which has arrived on Netflix recently. Adapted from Nella Larsen's novel by Rebecca Hall, who also directs, it's an unexpected debut for the actor turned filmmaker: a 1929 novel set in NYC about the conflagration that erupts when two old school friends reconnect as adults. 

It turns out the storyline of a black woman passing as white had personal significance for the writer-director. I find the concept fascinating for many reasons, but never having read the novel I approached the film in a state of ignorance. 

Passing

Irene, a married woman who lives in Harlem, runs into her former schoolfriend Clare in a chi-chi restaurant, where (it is suggested) both are passing as white. Clare invites a rather reluctant Irene back into her life and the latter realises that Clare's racist husband has no idea his wife is passing. The stage is set for dramatics and the rest of the film unfolds under this tension.

For me, the film of Passing is only partly successful. Ruth Negga as Clare conveys exuberance and flirtation and it definitely feels like Clare is performing the role of a white wife and mother. She actually reminded me a lot of Carol Aird, as played by Cate Blanchett in Carol from her blonde wig to her big gestures and meaningful looks. 

As Irene, Tessa Thompson has the less showy part, but as the film takes place from her POV, the audience has some investment in her character. Nevertheless, I felt the dynamic between the two characters was unclear and I wanted to see more of them and their backstory, rather than the two husbands, the maid, or the white literary lion who hangs around Harlem, commenting on racial difference and whether Irene can tell who is passing. “We’re, all of us, passing for something or the other,” she tells him. 

Indeed, it has been suggested that Larsen's novel was not just about racial passing but sexual, as the relationship between Clare and Irene seems fraught with unspoken desires and complications. I definitely detected some frisson between them but that aspect was definitely downplayed in Hall's telling. 

As I anticipated, things go horribly wrong and the ending is ambiguous and a bit frustrating. No spoilers here. But we really, really do need to know what kind of feeling was shared by Irene and Clare before we can make up our minds. I found the film quite slow, a bit ponderous and not that emotionally involving. However, I will definitely be seeking out Larsen's novel to find out more. 

Historical Drama Fact and Fiction

Does it matter of an historical drama is factually incorrect? I thought about this after a recent viewing of the Netflix drama The Dig. I enjoyed the film, was swept up in the emotion and mood of the piece, especially the misty views of the Suffolk coast. Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes turned in bravura performances as landowner Edith Pretty and excavator Basil Brown as they uncovered an historically significant archaelogical find. Afterward, curious about what I'd seen, I went online and did some digging of a different sort to find out more about these figures and the others depicted in the film.

It's no secret Edith Pretty was 21 years older than Mulligan at the time she is depicted in the film. Equally, supporting characters' ages have also been changed and this has prompted some Twitter rage. The Dig is an adaptation of a novel based on actual events, so there is some leeway for depictions. We can all speculate why the producers could not find a 56-year old actress to portray Pretty, while having no trouble finding a 50-something to portray Brown. Indeed. I suppose for people like me who had no knowledge of the Sutton Hoo find the film more than justified the factual errors by bringing to light the personages of Pretty and Brown for us to appreciate. After all, Brown was lost to history, as the British Museum which took over the treasure erased his name from the record. The Dig at least restores some credit to both of them.