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icepixieSomeone to Watch Over Me
- Father Mac in the sauna with the housekeeper cracked me right up. That whole plotline was pretty funny, for sure.
- But Niamh doing what the Gardai could not with the juvenile delinquents was comedy gold. Bwaaaaaaaaaahahahaha.
- That moment with Ambrose and Peter, where Ambrose mentions that "[the miscarriage] was my baby too," and says how no one seems to remember that...and then goes on to thank Peter for suggesting Niamh volunteer at the school to take her mind off of it slayed me. Wonderful writing. Wonderful.
- Peter is such a sweetheart, helping Assumpta in the pub. The "Do you ever want what you can't have" conversation was kind of painful, actually, because you can tell that both of them are just taking everything the other says the wrong way, and ow. But I have to say, Assumpta exiling him from the bar didn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm siding with Peter; there wasn't anywhere else that conversation could've gone. Meh?
Only Skin Deep
- Loved Ambrose's mentoring of "Ghengis" Con O'Neill (love "Ghengis Con" as well--ha!), and loaning him the violin. More and more I really like Ambrose...and then wonder what exactly he sees in Niamh, since to be honest I'm not totally in love with her.
- Niamh teaching the kids to dance a reel! Hee. And oooh, pretty costumes.
- Er, so we missed the scene where Peter and Assumpta make up? Sort of? Confusing, but they danced together at the end (along with that gorgeous dog of hers), so yay?
- *wants to hug Siobhan a lot*
- HOW AWESOME is it that Siobhan and Brendan can have drunken comfort sex and then deal with it like adults afterwards, remaining friends? Yay for adult characters acting like adults. Awesome.
- Speaking of Brendan, I think he's my favorite secondary character. He had a line in the episode about the community play, after Peter read Padraig's play and thought it was good: "What do the English know about literature?" Had me on the floor. He's awesome. And he totally knows about Peter and Assumpta, which amuses me greatly. So he loves literature, loves Irish literature, is a good friend and a good teacher, and is perceptive. Why's he a TV character, again?
Money, Money, Money
- Yeah, in this one, Father Mac and Kathleen kind of crossed a line from "argh, the meanies" to "Wow, sleazebucket" and "ARGH, I HATE YOU," respectively. Father Mac was particularly bad; it seemed like they could've gotten the point across with the parish church actually needing refurbishment, rather than taking it that little bit further with him wanting to spend the money he forced out of his curates on new vestments. He still could've been an ass, but I wouldn't have completely lost respect for him. Then again, maybe this is all part of a plan, to get Peter questioning the church/his vocation more and more...
- But ack, Kathleen fawning over Father Mac's "generosity" when he'd only contributed five pounds to the whole thing was just terrible to watch. At least we had the satisfaction of knowing that all the regulars were big enough to put themselves out in the collection for a woman none of them even really like, just because they're good people. Yay regulars!
- Also, it was nice to see Siobhan get her confidence back up after that beatdown she had in the last episode. And hey, doggehs! Racing doggehs!
Chinese Whispers
- This one...kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. It's not so much the fact that everyone had something to hide from the suspected tax men, but the way it was presented...as if it weren't breaking the law, but rather just a laughing matter; everybody does it, there's no harm, etc. I didn't really care for that kind of presentation. And then Peter agreeing to cover for all their misdeeds didn't feel right at all. Hmmm.
- Ohhhh, season three is gonna hurt. Peter and Assumpta are already breaking my heart here, with that lovely multi-layered "I care about you" conversation, and the "you can find it anywhere" conversation. But at least he told her! Sort of. And she doesn't go to Dublin! ...Yet. Ow. S3's gonna hurt. (I said that already, didn't I? Damn.)
So, Elf, have I convinced you to watch this show yet? ;)
- Father Mac in the sauna with the housekeeper cracked me right up. That whole plotline was pretty funny, for sure.
- But Niamh doing what the Gardai could not with the juvenile delinquents was comedy gold. Bwaaaaaaaaaahahahaha.
- That moment with Ambrose and Peter, where Ambrose mentions that "[the miscarriage] was my baby too," and says how no one seems to remember that...and then goes on to thank Peter for suggesting Niamh volunteer at the school to take her mind off of it slayed me. Wonderful writing. Wonderful.
- Peter is such a sweetheart, helping Assumpta in the pub. The "Do you ever want what you can't have" conversation was kind of painful, actually, because you can tell that both of them are just taking everything the other says the wrong way, and ow. But I have to say, Assumpta exiling him from the bar didn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm siding with Peter; there wasn't anywhere else that conversation could've gone. Meh?
Only Skin Deep
- Loved Ambrose's mentoring of "Ghengis" Con O'Neill (love "Ghengis Con" as well--ha!), and loaning him the violin. More and more I really like Ambrose...and then wonder what exactly he sees in Niamh, since to be honest I'm not totally in love with her.
- Niamh teaching the kids to dance a reel! Hee. And oooh, pretty costumes.
- Er, so we missed the scene where Peter and Assumpta make up? Sort of? Confusing, but they danced together at the end (along with that gorgeous dog of hers), so yay?
- *wants to hug Siobhan a lot*
- HOW AWESOME is it that Siobhan and Brendan can have drunken comfort sex and then deal with it like adults afterwards, remaining friends? Yay for adult characters acting like adults. Awesome.
- Speaking of Brendan, I think he's my favorite secondary character. He had a line in the episode about the community play, after Peter read Padraig's play and thought it was good: "What do the English know about literature?" Had me on the floor. He's awesome. And he totally knows about Peter and Assumpta, which amuses me greatly. So he loves literature, loves Irish literature, is a good friend and a good teacher, and is perceptive. Why's he a TV character, again?
Money, Money, Money
- Yeah, in this one, Father Mac and Kathleen kind of crossed a line from "argh, the meanies" to "Wow, sleazebucket" and "ARGH, I HATE YOU," respectively. Father Mac was particularly bad; it seemed like they could've gotten the point across with the parish church actually needing refurbishment, rather than taking it that little bit further with him wanting to spend the money he forced out of his curates on new vestments. He still could've been an ass, but I wouldn't have completely lost respect for him. Then again, maybe this is all part of a plan, to get Peter questioning the church/his vocation more and more...
- But ack, Kathleen fawning over Father Mac's "generosity" when he'd only contributed five pounds to the whole thing was just terrible to watch. At least we had the satisfaction of knowing that all the regulars were big enough to put themselves out in the collection for a woman none of them even really like, just because they're good people. Yay regulars!
- Also, it was nice to see Siobhan get her confidence back up after that beatdown she had in the last episode. And hey, doggehs! Racing doggehs!
Chinese Whispers
- This one...kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. It's not so much the fact that everyone had something to hide from the suspected tax men, but the way it was presented...as if it weren't breaking the law, but rather just a laughing matter; everybody does it, there's no harm, etc. I didn't really care for that kind of presentation. And then Peter agreeing to cover for all their misdeeds didn't feel right at all. Hmmm.
- Ohhhh, season three is gonna hurt. Peter and Assumpta are already breaking my heart here, with that lovely multi-layered "I care about you" conversation, and the "you can find it anywhere" conversation. But at least he told her! Sort of. And she doesn't go to Dublin! ...Yet. Ow. S3's gonna hurt. (I said that already, didn't I? Damn.)
So, Elf, have I convinced you to watch this show yet? ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 05:40 am (UTC)Oh, you'd love it. It's an ensemble show set in a small town in Ireland, about two hours south of Dublin (beautiful scenery). An young English priest, Peter Clifford, is transferred to the town (prompting outcry of "This is IRELAND! Why the hell do we need to import priests?!"), and his rather progressive views clash with the conservative nature of his boss, the parish priest. While he quickly comes to love the town, and most residents to love him, he finds that it's definitely a different way of life. The other main character is the publican, Assumpta Fitzgerald, who is young and smart and sharp-tongued and has a huge chip on her shoulder about the Chruch.
Naturally, they fall in love.
And they spend three seasons denying it and claiming to be just friends. Of course, these are BBC seasons, consisting of 6, 8, or 12 episodes (there were only three seasons with these characters in them). They are utterly adorable. I'll spoil you about how that ends, if you like, because I can't imagine going into their last episode unspoiled.
The other plots tend to revolve around Brian Quigley, the local vaguely-sketchy-but-in-an-ultimately-good-way real estate wheeler-dealer; his daughter, Niamh, and her husband Ambrose, the local police officer; and a few of the regulars at Assumpta's pub--a vet, a teacher, a mechanic, and a farmer.
It's a comedy/drama, akin to Northern Exposure (it's often called the Irish NX). When it's funny, it can be hilarious, and it's often rather dark as well, even in the same episode. They do a lot of stuff on the relevance of the Catholic Church in modern Irish life, but never in a preachy sort of way; it's extremely light on the theology. There's some excellent writing--most episodes have intricately detailed plots and really good characterization--and some really good acting from everyone, especially Dervla Kirwan (Assumpta) and Stephen Tomkinson (Peter), who have damn well made me cry. The combination makes for a collection of characters I'd love to know in real life.
It's really good. I think you'd like it.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-04 10:53 pm (UTC)As if I need something else to watch but it's BBC so how can I not. So where would I go about getting a copy of this show.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-04 11:08 pm (UTC)Netflix has all the episodes. That's how I've been getting my fix.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-07 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-07 02:59 am (UTC)