also: no matter what byzantine theories you develop re: politics, professional rivalries, corruption, all murders are motivated by sex or money
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:26 (twelve years ago) link
their boss is played by rebecca front, who is a massive -- patient, amused and smart -- improvement on troutface or whatever he was called
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:28 (twelve years ago) link
i'm not seeing Trevor Eve as cute myself.
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
what about young David Yip tho?
http://www.motorbar.co.uk/images/dvd_chinesedetective.jpg
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
my theory is that there are no cute detectives, so we have to test the limit cases
xp good call! terrible actor tho
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vKkO-Vg3VbQ/TPeGe1rWc2I/AAAAAAAABL0/E6Z9-jA0z58/s1600/dempsey-makepeace.jpg
― zvookster, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
all i remember of The Chinese Detective is that one ep where somebody got crucified in a gangland revenge scenario, can't remember whether he cd act or not in that but he did Brookie later and he was down to the required standard
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
xps - I was a devoted Shoestring watcher - i wonder if it was rubbish?
Going Morse for this, much as I enjoy them both. Thaw was great anyway but (as someone who had read the books before the tv)I thought he was terrific as Morse.
― Ned Trifle X, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:34 (twelve years ago) link
xp yes its's brookside i'm mainly judging yip by
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/content/images/2007/04/30/home_619x251.jpg
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
by the late 80s nobody in Brookie cd act tbf
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
I‘d say that Zen is cute if perhaps a little too rugged.http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01791/sewell-zen_1791797e.jpg
― The multi-talented F.R. David (Billy Dods), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:39 (twelve years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6jnIK8BUbm4/TdaPL5rDIcI/AAAAAAAABm0/g30jYeHFjdc/s1600/police%2Bstory.jpg
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
yeah but that's cheating, there must be a ton of cute movie detectives
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaOELExvOk8
took me a while to realise that this is totally a spoof of Morse, not grumpy middle-aged 'tecs in general
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
oops sorry, it was TV wasn't it
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
morse 1: lewis 0 after tonight's ABSURDLY GOTH* conclusion :(
*it was a halloween special originally i think (i hope)
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
mark s in contrarian so-and-so shockah!!
haven't quite managed to get into this but I'm confident that this is a no go. Lewis did happen to be the best sidekick because he was as good as Morse tho'. The proof was when Morse failed to marry that doctor who fancied him.
Incidentally women find Columbo's shabby look cute...and I'm inclined to believe the probably male scriptwriters them.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 17 November 2011 23:15 (twelve years ago) link
Hathaway is ABSURDLY attractive, although admittedly kind of "ugly" (why the long face?) but not in a way that matters. Also questioning your "gay" statement because of that a couple of eps that touch on his past affairs w women.
― It means why you gotta be a montague? (Laurel), Thursday, 17 November 2011 23:18 (twelve years ago) link
i think hathaway's past is entirely rebooted for each episode
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 23:20 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aWTP7W5AW8
― Ridin' Skyrims (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 November 2011 23:21 (twelve years ago) link
hathaway not gay in tonight's ep
― mark s, Friday, 18 November 2011 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
Perhaps Hathaway has an open mind when it comes to his sexuality. (Second the absurdly attractive thing. Do sidekicks count in the cute ratings?)
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Saturday, 19 November 2011 01:04 (twelve years ago) link
sorry guys, but Lewis is embarrassingly shit. Lewis seems to represent the tragedy of the contemporary male condition, whilst Morse seemed to embody the vibrancy of it. Lewis is sad and pathetic, Morse definitely wasn't.
― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Saturday, 19 November 2011 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
u seem to have mistaken Morse for a competent detective getting non-stop lady action
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeG35Ihxjs (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 15:28 (twelve years ago) link
there were many suggestions that Morse was getting quite a bit of action, a love interest every episode at one point. But anyway, that wasn't quite the nuance of my thought.
― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Saturday, 19 November 2011 15:41 (twelve years ago) link
a love interest every episode at one point
some of them not murderers.
but to call a morose, functional alcoholic who uses his education to belittle his peers and is almost painfully inept in matters of the heart "vibrant" and his family-loving, sympathetic partner "pathetic" is...something
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeG35Ihxjs (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
ok ok i get it, you like the drip.
― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:03 (twelve years ago) link
not the point at all, really. yr contempt for Lewis's humanity is interesting. of course Morse is a compelling character, and likeable too, but this is because of his car-wreckness, not despite it. Lewis is sort of deliberately underdrawn in Morse in order to throw Morse's romantic hero into sharper relief but Endeavour is pretty much a Polidori who wishes he was Byron. also in the first ever ep he wears a hilarious leather jacket in one scene. so try-hard.
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeG35Ihxjs (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
So you don't think Morse is a very authentic character? I think that is a question which is quite central to the integrity of the show. If you have trouble suspending your disbelief then surely it's quite a serious problem that pervades the entire production - a problem with the way it was written, acted, directed etc.
― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
as mark pointed out upthread, Morse is a fairy-tale set in a magical Oxford where all the council estates have disappeared and the murder rate is somewhat higher than south central LA. authenticity doesn't come into it really, but Morse is perfectly believable as a human being. like a lot of human beings he is a very bad understander of his own soul, and his dissatisfaction has curdled into a general, defensive misanthropy. except around handsome middle-aged women.
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeG35Ihxjs (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:24 (twelve years ago) link
they're not all middle-aged by any means! they just have to be wearing a skirt
― mark s, Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
lol truth
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeG35Ihxjs (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
tho i've got to say his taste leans towards the more experienced English character actress
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeG35Ihxjs (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:38 (twelve years ago) link
re: magical Oxford - that's certainly true, ha.
Even if Morse is easily captured in the romantic aesthetic, there's something to be said for his character. Lewis, as I mentioned before, is a sad and conservative indictment of contemporary life bereft of any vitality, very depressing and not something I wish to engage with regularly.
― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Saturday, 19 November 2011 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
if I'd known this many people watched Lewis I'd have turned round and gone the other way a few weeks ago when I was slobbily dressed and found my walk home covered in giant filming lights everywhere, too dazzling to work out what was actually being filmed (if anything)
saw two episodes from the first series which seemed to have some slightly unconvincing attempts at edginess shoehorned in (iirc the sidekick turned out to have ~history~ with the victim and/or main suspects of both, one of them from his time in a mysterious cult or something), but I suspect Morse must've been like that too and I was too young to notice
― how do i shot slime mould voltron form (a passing spacecadet), Saturday, 19 November 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
Morse had that ravers ep!
― Joe Hart is Fellaini Hunter (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 17:37 (twelve years ago) link
that's a classic one. lol.
― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Saturday, 19 November 2011 17:49 (twelve years ago) link
well i think with morse the "mysterious edgy cult" was actually "behind the scenes at an oxford college" <-- ie this was groundbreaking behind-the-green-door stuff, in whodunnit-with-the-curare-tipped-blowpipe terms: but yes, the three i just saw back-to-back plus the one a passing spacecadet mentions (which i saw about a month ago) do all work the "weirdos are among us" lever a bit heavily (and hathaway seems to have to recuse himself a lot, but as noted my theory is that his backstory resets to zero every time)
right back to sherlock h, tec-fiction switches between the episodes which are subtly mundane -- "the norwood builder" -- and the eps which are pruriently exotic, pegleg lascars, secret societies, the mormons etc
― mark s, Saturday, 19 November 2011 17:50 (twelve years ago) link
xxp I do remember that one! I considered mentioning it. I don't remember any other episodes like that, but maybe it's only because rave culture was a thing I was dimly aware of, as an admittedly v sheltered 12y/o who liked the Shamen, and any other "edgy" references were completely lost on me
(checked the air date in case I'd severely miscalculated my age when seeing it, and Wikipedia says it was directed by Danny Boyle! Apologies if this was common knowledge...)
― how do i shot slime mould voltron form (a passing spacecadet), Saturday, 19 November 2011 17:57 (twelve years ago) link
now I have read it and not just stomped past it to the Submit button, mark s's post seems wise
hoping future Lewis viewings will be improved if I take "Hathaway's backstory resets every week so he can have history with whatever any victim/suspect does" as the intentional recurring schtick of the show, rather than an accidentally overused plot point
― how do i shot slime mould voltron form (a passing spacecadet), Saturday, 19 November 2011 18:07 (twelve years ago) link
i knew but i'd forgotten. lot of biggish writers and directors did a Morse ep
― Joe Hart is Fellaini Hunter (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 19 November 2011 18:17 (twelve years ago) link
the rave one is quite bad in many ways btw
Lewis ≥ Morse >>>>>>>>>>>>> Endeavour
― you're my luger not my rifle (Noodle Vague), Friday, 13 April 2018 11:39 (six years ago) link
Are any TV detectives cute? New thread enquiry perhaps.― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 21:36 (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2011 21:36 (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
mark mark mark... John Nettles? Catnip to ladies of a certain vintage.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Friday, 13 April 2018 11:49 (six years ago) link
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7a/50/7f/7a507fecb29df297303b5706d9fa748a.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 13 April 2018 11:55 (six years ago) link
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/08/31/01/37B6B5D700000578-0-image-m-69_1472605046580.jpg
Berge
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 13 April 2018 11:57 (six years ago) link
I like Endeavour, but it is a bit DO YOU SEE???
― tokyo rosemary, Friday, 13 April 2018 15:36 (six years ago) link
Is there a Midsomer Murders thread?
― tokyo rosemary, Friday, 13 April 2018 15:37 (six years ago) link
Taking Sides: Midsomer Murders vs 24
Only this one, apparently.
― you're my luger not my rifle (Noodle Vague), Friday, 13 April 2018 15:40 (six years ago) link
john nettles' nipples: too close together? a visual investigation
― #TheBeatlesIn5Words Both surviving members are Vegan (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 13 April 2018 15:42 (six years ago) link
the ep that combines a mary whitehouse-alike with a pink floyd-alike and a gay news-alike* (plus a simon dee-alike) has a moment where morse is harrumphing abt rock criticism
my usual beef: huge surges of anachronism poorly steered thru but lol his actual crit (of a mode of interviewing and writing that didn't really exist yet in 1967) is not inaccurate! though its problems go more to the difficulties of self-taight musicians getting across to non-musicians how music gets collectively put together, than to the brainlessness he prefers to think it (never change lonely grumpy high-culture dude, yr instincts are good but their expressive framework is terrible)
*it compresses the gay news prosecution of 1977 (for blasphemy) into the oz prosecution of 1970 (for obscenity)
― mark s, Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:12 (six months ago) link
decriminalisation only took place in 1967; gay news was in fact founded in 1972 and an equivalent would hardly have needed a mary whitehouse-alike to get it shut it down five years earlier
how much does all this matter (besides driving me the actual person watching very bonkers)?
― mark s, Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:25 (six months ago) link
sylvestra le touzel is p good as the whitehouse-alike lady tho -- she does the accent as a full thatcher, which is cheeky but nevertheless effective
― mark s, Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:32 (six months ago) link
also it gets into the toxicity of LSD *and* the vagaries of copyright law and who wrote what 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
― mark s, Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:41 (six months ago) link
i’ve been watching the original inspector morse series and it’s wild how much pussy this guy gets pic.twitter.com/TAZGIHqpBj— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) September 24, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 24 September 2023 06:31 (six months ago) link
phil daniels klaxon (thursday's brother)
― mark s, Wednesday, 27 September 2023 16:35 (six months ago) link
(also thursday i guess)
chekov's minefeld lol
― mark s, Saturday, 30 September 2023 15:11 (six months ago) link
i have hugely come round on this daft nonsense (endeavour)
(w/its relentless commitment to tackling the most serious historical matter in the goofiest possible anachro-historical context)
― mark s, Saturday, 30 September 2023 15:14 (six months ago) link
the ep set in a public school is kind of a rip of le carre's a murder of quality iirc (which is lol NOT his best book) and the only bits i'm enjoying in are the (v short) exchanges where morse, a copper sneaked in as a suubstitute classics teacher, discusses authors like ovid or suetonius with his pupils. it's not convincing especially, it's just funny
it's the late 60s but here's one of (real) teachers describes a punished child as being "under heavy manners" -- a phrase that entered normie english via rockpaper-chat courtesy a prince far-i album title c. 1977 (and beyind that, according to jonathon green's dictionary of slang, from jamaican political manoeuvring… )
the scriptwriters just have a permanent tin ear for conversation of the exact period they're trying to recreate and as someone who lived through it it is just exhausting
― mark s, Sunday, 1 October 2023 17:50 (six months ago) link
i ended up watching most of an episode on Friday night, mainly because of this thread tickling my inclination - it was the one that ends up with Morse and Friday in Venice toting guns, it was as silly as fuck but it was the good entertainting kind of silly (which is most silly) tbf
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:34 (six months ago) link
i mean i have not given up in disgust 🤣 i am carrying on (despite the disgust)
― mark s, Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:38 (six months ago) link
i never ignored it because of daftness, it was more about not being tonally satisfying, but i'm coming round to the idea of it being v satisfying because of the daftness. like the other serieses
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:39 (six months ago) link
the gunplay shd probably get the fuck out tho
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:40 (six months ago) link
it's often a complete mess but it can be quite ambitious in unexpected ways (which i like) -- the anachronistic speech stuff grates bcz i am just the age to catch the worst of it somehow but i imagine bothers nearly no one else
― mark s, Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:45 (six months ago) link
"Paper says soviet tanks in Prague, Morse"
<Morse, sucks teeth> "Pussssy'oles"
― xl bully romance (Bananaman Begins), Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:47 (six months ago) link
in the years since Endeavour started that kind of anachronism has been claimed as a feature not bug cf Cheeky Blinkers and its ilk
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:47 (six months ago) link
and for better or worse they didn't adopt the "shit 80s indie background music" trope
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 October 2023 18:48 (six months ago) link
morse shd be listening to adam and the ants the entire time (as shd we all)
― mark s, Sunday, 1 October 2023 19:07 (six months ago) link
time for the killer to be a thunderbirds puppet
― mark s, Tuesday, 3 October 2023 15:10 (six months ago) link
"the pelican man!"
very good and funny scene
― mark s, Wednesday, 4 October 2023 17:35 (six months ago) link
"i am a bagman not a yesman!"
morse somewhat shakily referencing the climax of michael clayton to explain why he shd *not* be taken off the case
― mark s, Saturday, 7 October 2023 19:49 (six months ago) link
endeavour s8 and it's roughly 1972 i believe: i wouldn't expect *everyone's* hair to be long -- it didn't really happen like that -- but it's funny that the one character whose locks are descending faintly collar-wards is the recently widowed chief superintendent bright :)
― mark s, Tuesday, 10 October 2023 17:27 (six months ago) link
"it's a rum caper!" (thursday on the craft of acting, which he appears never to have encountered until now)
― mark s, Saturday, 14 October 2023 18:20 (six months ago) link
lol just checking out a character ("lord ormsby-gore") who features in this ep bcz it seemed like vaguely actionable (?) to include a real-named person as potentially a killer (ep not over, no spoilers!) and either way a total dipshit
and the actual real person with rouhgly this name and title at this moment (david ormsby-gore, 5th lord harlech) died in a traffic accident in the village next to the village i grew up in, almost certainly in a near-legendary traffic blackspot which the family (ours not the OGs) had to negotiate on a daily basis
(we weren't involved though, i'd already left home officer)
the younger ormsby-gores were famously all over the rolling stones -- and worse, eric clapton -- at this time (1972) and things didn't go well for them really
― mark s, Saturday, 14 October 2023 19:42 (six months ago) link
(harlech died in 1985, in case you want a test)
― mark s, Saturday, 14 October 2023 19:44 (six months ago) link
i am and have been right about endeavour and it is correct to say so
the anachronisms or incorrect details are certainly a feature and not a bug the entire thing is as daft as dr who but infinitely better because the casting and production quality and attention to (wholly incorrect) detail and the nods and flourishes are all deeply enjoyable and satisfying
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Sunday, 12 November 2023 23:00 (five months ago) link
i want a full season of joly for short
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Sunday, 19 November 2023 20:10 (four months ago) link
just discovered that Max is also the guy who voiced Gollum in the Bakshi LotR and dubbed Pigsy in the (quite annoying) UK dub of Monkey
:O
― wang mang band (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 20 January 2024 18:01 (two months ago) link
subs not dubs! (sorry max)
― mark s, Saturday, 20 January 2024 21:14 (two months ago) link
Was also the original Estragon (Peter Hall's 1955 production)!
― Michael Jones, Monday, 22 January 2024 17:17 (two months ago) link