Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988 TV)

Take everything you know about A Christmas Carol and reverse it and you’ve got this wonderful parody. First and foremost, if you are not familiar with the British tv series Blackadder, this won’t be nearly as funny. Because it’s not just the fact that everything is reversed, but who everything gets reversed on. You have to know the Blackadder cast to get a full appreciation of the comedic genius.

That being said, this being British tv, they are crude, profane and borderline blasphemous.

From Ebenezer Blackadder to Mrs Scratchett and her gigantic son Tiny Tom, to gin drinking, carol singing orphans to the Spirit of Christmas, to Ebenezer’s niece Frederika who steals everything she can, coupled with Baldrick stinking everything up (he’s Blackadder’s witless servant and must have been paid a LOT of money to appear in a leather breachclout on tv) and you have a recipe for hilarity. Even the opening song is a riff on the original Blackadder intro song.

The gist of the story is that Ebenezer Blackadder is the nicest man in the world. He gives everything away to everybody and they take advantage of him. The Ghost of Christmas visits him and is about ready to leave because Ebenezer is such a good fellow until he lets slip that Ebenezer’s ancestors were unscrupulous ne’er-do-wells. This gets Ebenezer curious and sees several Christmas’s past where his ancestors pull dastardly schemes quite successfully. This wets his appetite and make him wonder why he’s being so good. He forces the Ghost of Christmas to show him the future and in one, where Ebenezer turns bad, his descendants rule the galaxy. In the other future where he stays good, his servant Baldrick rules the universe and does it very badly. So Ebenezer tosses all the good out the window and becomes a true Blackadder. In the process he tosses a mysterious couple out on their ear. They turn out to be the king and queen who were going to give him a vast fortune and a title. Which is typical Blackadder. Even when he wins, he still manages to lose.

I laughed my head off. I watched this three times and it was as funny each time.

While I don’t foresee myself ever watching this again after this year, I certainly did enjoy it this time around. It’s silly beyond belief, which fit my mood just fine.

Sense and Sensibility (1971 TV Miniseries)

Another BBC tv miniseries. One thing I’ll note right off is that except for the 2008 version, the BBC has kept child actors out of the picture. While that means excising the third sister, Margaret, from the picture, she plays such a small part that it’s not that big a sacrifice. And not having child actors fully accords with my views on them. More harm is done to children than any possible good by either forcing them or even “allowing” them to be in movies and tv. So bravo to the Beeb for keeping them out. Hollywood should have taken note with their 1995 Version. Oh, won’t SOMEONE think of the children?
~wrings hands piteously~

This was a 4part series with each episode running around 45’ish minutes. Once again the entire run is just under the 3hr mark. That seems to be the regular time frame that the BBC considers optimum. Overall, I tend to agree. It works out very well.

After the 1981 Version, I was dreading taking yet another decade long step backwards. If the 1980’s was a stage play acting, what would this be like? I had horrible images of 70’s hairstyles prancing around in tight dance club suits and randomly breaking out into disco dance moves, ala John Travolta. Now I’m going to have nightmares again 🙁 Thankfully, this was nothing like that at all. This reminded me very much of the 2008 Version in terms of acting and how they presented the material. It felt like a movie. I enjoyed watching this. The relief at finding out there was no disco shouldn’t be discounted though, so maybe I didn’t quite enjoy this as much as I thought I did 😉

Another thing that struck me immediately, was the inclusion of Patricia Routledge as Mrs Jennings. Patricia is better known to me as Hyacinth Bucket, from the british sitcom “Keeping Up Appearances“. That show always leaves me rolling. Mrs Jennings was the perfect role, a good hearted, busybody with no malice whatsoever. Routledge totally owned the role and it was a joy to behold her.

While empire waisted dresses dominated the style scene, there was enough curled hair, jewels and variety of dress to keep every period fanatic in raptures. I also would like to re-emphasize, there was not ONE disco suit on display 😉

I do admit to feeling some story fatigue at this point. But as this is the last screen version, it didn’t hinder me, just kind of added a couple of pounds to my shoulders that I had to drag along. I didn’t force myself to watch this and there was no resignation when it was time to watch the next episode. I was thinking of trying to do this same thing for Pride & Prejudice when I do a buddyread with Lashaan next year. I am questioning the wisdom of that decision, as this experience has quite wiped me out. Not a bad experience, but a very tiring one. But that’s months away, so I refuse to make a choice now about something that far in the future.

As this is the last viewing, I’ve given a few thoughts about how I’d rank them in regards to each other.

• 1995 Movie
• 2008 TV Miniseries
• 1971 TV Miniseries
• 1981 TV Miniseries

And that’s a wrap!

Sense and Sensibility 5Stars

Sense and Sensibility (1981 TV Miniseries)

When I popped this into the blurayer player to watch it with Mrs B, we both thought it was going to be another movie version like the 1995 version. So imagine our surprise when up popped a menu with Episodes 1-7. We looked at each other and immediately decided to watch just one episode a night.

We made the right choice.

I can’t say this was a horrible production, but one episode a night was all we could handle. It was from the BBC and they used their usual cast of ugly people. Why the BBC makes these kind of choices is beyond me.

In many respects this felt like a stage play instead of a movie. The actors spoke their lines to each other instead of having conversations naturally. Even how they moved and their body language felt like they were posing. It was uncomfortable to watch and wasn’t something we looked forward to.

We came to Friday night and had 3 episodes left. We were planning on watching our usual one episode and double up on Saturday. I had eaten two eclairs and the sugar coursing through my veins gave me an unparalleled amount of fake courage. With Mrs B’s blessing, we powered through the final 3 episodes. The series ended with neither of the Miss Dashwoods actually being married, nor even engaged. It was all implied that it was going to happen. Which given the whole issue is that Willoughby didn’t give his word to Marianne, seems to go against everything they were trying to show. It was a very anticlimactic ending.

We were both happy it was over and I have zero interest in ever rewatching it. Not a terrible experience but this version is not one I’d ever recommend anyone ever watch. I wish I could have kinder, more positive things to say, but I can’t and I don’t. I don’t even want to go into more details, sigh.

Sense and Sensibility (2008 TV Miniseries)

I am working backwards in time with these various S&S screen adaptations. First up is this 2008 tv miniseries adaptation by the BBC. It is 3 episodes long and is 2hrs and 50’ish minutes long. Round it to 3hrs.

The first thing I’d like to address is that lascivious cover. Marianne does not go around with her bosom showing off like that at all. That was a concern of mine that was thankfully never realized. That being said, the director starts off the show with the seduction of Colonel Brandon’s young ward. It is not graphic but is very frank about what is going on. Sensual is the word. That does continue for this miniseries. The music, the period clothing, it all is very sensual.

The characters, I was pretty pleased with their portrayal over all. Elinor was calm, cool headed and very practical. Yet she also was able to show her distress with her face and her eyes in the scenes requiring it. Marianne, while not being at all silly, was VERY emotionally driven. The actress did an excellent job of showing a smart young woman who wasn’t stupid but had her faults, mostly of age. Colonel Brandon was serious, mature and yet not shy or withdrawn. He came across as fully self-assured and confident. Edward Ferrars. Now, I always pronounced his last name Fair-Ars. In the movie, they pronounced Fair-iss. In the book his actions and manner were always halting and awkward. There was none of that here. While he was no voluble gentleman of ease, there was nothing that made you think he was in any way uncomfortable. Thankfully, he plays such a small part on screen that it wasn’t a big problem. All of the minor characters didn’t stand out, which is how it should be. On a purely personal note, I was thankful that this BBC production didn’t use the regular crew of ugly people like a lot of BBC productions do. Call me shallow, but I want to see good looking people on the screen. And I got that here.

Storywise, this stuck to the plot rather closely. I’m always a fan of that. Shows the director doesn’t get above himself (looking at YOU, Wheel of Time director, who I hate with the dull red hatred of a fired spoon). There were scenes expanded upon, but they were mentioned in the book and so I didn’t have a real problem with their expansion. If Austen couldn’t/wouldn’t expand, then whatever the director decided was a-ok by me. The scene between Marianne and Willoughby in London was excellently done. The heartbreak was palpable and I liked the addition of Colonel Brandon stepping in to catch her as she fell, it was tone perfect. I’m a sucker for Damsels in Distress and Protectors.

I enjoyed this but it felt a tad too long. I know it had to be that way because of the story but I was ready for it to end. This was a great start to this month of Sense and Sensibility. I just hope the movies, with their abbreviated length, won’t be too abbreviated.

• Book Review of Sense and Sensibility

A Muppet Retrospective

Back in December of 2020 I watched and reviewed The Muppet Christmas Carol. That one lone act sent me down a path that has taken me 2 years to complete. Last month I wrapped up my Muppet Journey of Discovery with Muppets Haunted Mansion. Now I want to talk about the journey as a whole instead of piecemeal like I did for each movie or television season.

Overall, this was some of the best entertainment that I have had in decades. While not every movie or episode landed, the good so far outweighed the mediocre or bad that I think of the journey as Bookstooge’s Totally Excellent Journey. Jim Henson had an idea, ran with it until he felt he had reached the top and then stopped. People should be left wanting more, AND NOT GET IT. Learning to control your desires and to put up limits on them is good for us. It is what we have not done and look at the mess our entertainment is in today. Hollywood can’t (or won’t) even tell a good story nowadays because of excess and mental gluttony. I think the Muppets were a counter to that and each try to revive the show proved that Henson was correct. Not that some of the stuff that came later was total garbage, some of it was quite good, but we as viewers would have been better people without it.

I don’t want to wax too philosophical here, OR anti-cinema/movie, because either of those issues is an easy rut for me to slide into and I tend to repeat my main points over and over again as comments in various places, so no need to repeat it here. But when the aliens come and abduct all the cinemas, you won’t see me mounting a rescue mission to get them back, jus’ sayin’. But I will sit back and debate with you if the aliens had the moral right to take the cinemas or not. So grab that rocking chair, because we’ll be sitting on that porch a long time! (and bring your megaphone, I’m tired of those kids ignoring me when I yell at them to get off of my lawn)

Out of everything I watched, I suspect that the original Muppet Show itself (all 5 seasons) will be the only thing I try to rewatch every 5-10 years. I’m running out of words very quickly for this but some of that is because these are movie and tv related instead of a series of books. I have a very hard time explaining what goes on inside me for that aspect of entertainment. I don’t even know why, as you’d think that it would be almost the same as talking about how a book affects me. But nope. I actually thought about scrapping this post half way through but figured it would be easier to finish it up than to try to start something new and stumble all over that. And I haven’t even hit the 500 word mark yet. Aye yi yi.

If you want some good entertainment, watch the original Muppet tv show. If you’re hooked, then check everything else out.

Muppets Now (2020 TV)

After ABC tried to revive the Muppets with the one season show of The Muppets, in 2015, the franchise lay fallow for another 5 years. Once Disney+ got its feet under itself and established itself as a bona fida streaming option. Then they started streaming various Muppet franchise IP’s and tried to re-start the franchise with brand new stuff.

There were only 6 episodes and since they didn’t make a billion dollars within 24hrs Disney decided to drop this show after 1 season as well. Which was too bad, because this show had potential. I had some issues with how the episodes were structured but that was something you expect from a first season.

Once again Miss Piggy is front and center and honestly, it works. She’s dynamic and just the right amount of “diva” to be funny and yet tough and no non-sense. She had a bit every episode where she and Taye Diggs did a lifestyle segment and then another bit where she and Linda Cardellini. do a group zoom chat. Both segments were brilliant.

The next biggest and regular bit was a cook-off between the Swedish Chef and some guest cook. Sadly, the opening to this bit was really long for such a short show (20min show and the opening to the skit is close to a minute) and detracted from the overall humor. They really leaned into the Swedish Chef and his bad attitude when he lost the cook off (every time).

Scooter is the MC and has to upload the show to stream and we see him having troubles every episode. We get little one-off bits throughout and I enjoyed them as well. If more seasons were created, I would definitely watch them. But this being a failure, I suspect the Muppets will go on another hiatus. There is one more movie for me to watch that came out in 2021 and then I’ll be done my Muppet Journey.

The Muppets (2015 TV)

After the 2011 and 2014 movies, ABC, which was owned by Disney, decided to relaunch the Muppet franchise as a tv show, getting back to their roots. What they also did was to update the times (Miss Piggy has her own late night talk show and Kermit is the producer) and make this a completely adult show. There is no way I’d ever let any kids watch this. There was a lot of adult humor. It was funny and yet uncomfortable.

Along with updating the times, the show also takes an Office’esque approach and has the various muppets talking to the camera about “Up Late with Miss Piggy”. However, it ends up becoming a joke for the muppets to ignore Kermit as he talks to them and claim they thought he was talking to the camera.

Other changes include Kermit and Miss Piggy having broken up and Kermit is now dating another pig. The show revolves around the question of whether Kermit and Miss Piggy will get back together or not.

Overall I enjoyed this but I can see why it was cancelled after the first season. It was not family friendly and I felt that the Muppets were changed for the worst. They weren’t horrible scumbags, but they had become characters that I wouldn’t want to spend time with.

There was a good mix of the original cast and the characters from Muppets Tonight so it really felt like “the whole gang” was included. Because this was Disney, they did have to go and sensitive everything. The Swedish Chef still babbles nonsense but now he’s got subtitles that show he’s discussing the existential meaning of life. It wasn’t “woke” by any stretch but it did show the issues that Disney was having with the Muppets.

This just didn’t have the spirit of the Muppets. While I might have complained about the 2011 Movie, it and the Most Wanted sequel, they still felt like they were true to what the Muppets were about. This was like the Muppets had gotten a tummy tuck, a boob job, had a butt implant and gotten their lips botoxed. It felt like Aubrey Hepburn, the idealization of femininity, had suddenly been Kardashianized.

I won’t be watching this show again. Despite my complaints, I did enjoy this one watch through but it was not good enough to ever revisit. I wouldn’t recommend it to just a casual viewer looking for something to binge on.

• All My “Muppet” Related Posts