So, what's it like?
I have my doubts...
"British activist Guy Fawkes" sounds like "Leader of the anti-Jewish resistance Adolf Hitler".
It's a really good mini-series. I've seen it twice. Kit is pretty good in it. The acting is top notch and is very well put together. It's heartbreaking in places, though it is sort of a re-creation of what happened in terms of some things are sort of representations of what it was like back then. One scene in particular was in the opening episode where Catesby (Harington) is at his ancestral home and the police show up to search the house for Jesuits. It's what happens to the occupants as well as this being the inciting incident that forces Catesby into action. Considering Catesby is a descendant of Kit's it's funny he should be playing him. Catesby is on his mom's side. Ironically Harington on his dad's side might have been in the series in terms of there was a Lord Harington who on his way out of England had to pass by Catesby's head on a spike. Kit said that would have been a little too on the nose.
shareI've also seen it twice, and I thought it fell flat, and I can't put my finger on why. Yeah, I saw it twice because I wanted to like it, I do love a good historical drama, and it failed to grip me the second time.
I don't know where the fault lies - the writing, the acting, Liv Tyler's trout pout? Really, the main thing I learned from it is that "Game of Thrones" is right to only hire actors who haven't had a lot of plastic surgery.
That depends on what you were expecting. It gripped me the second and third times I watched it mainly because of the fact of where history was at that point. I loved the way it told the truth of Catesby's planning it. History only remembers Guy Fawkes, not Catesby. The writing was good. Liv to me is always playing Arwen when she puts on that fake English accent. But that's like a small gripe. The acting was very good from the guy who played Cecil, to Wade, to Garnet. And yes, even Kit Harington was good as Catesby. Considering this is his family's legacy I'd say he didn't whitewash it as much as he could have.
The plastic surgery remark is just plainly shallow. That you only focused in that means you failed to note the relevance of how this series plays into today's political climate. And what Petyr Bailish in "Game of Thrones" says, "Chaos is a ladder....." That's where England was at that point and where we find ourselves again. Sadly, we never learn from history.
FYI I know a lot about the history of England and generally like nothing more than a good, historically accurate, gripping, historical drama... but somehow this one didn't work for me. I wish it had worked for me the way it did for you, and I'm not sure why it didn't.
And no, commenting on bad plastic surgery isn't "shallow"! Good filmmakers strive for historically accurate production design because visual inaccuracies can yank the viewer out of the willing suspension of disbelief and remind them that this is just a modern shadow play after all, and the fact is that obvious plastic surgery can be as visually out of place as a pair of Adidas. I do like Miss Tyler and wish her the best, but damn, she did NOT look like she belonged in the time period.
Kit Harington did say that the events told as far as the actual plot was concerned, were accurate to history. The circumstances under which Catesby and his co-conspirators embarked on their plot were "created" to show what it was like for Catholics under Protestant rule. It wasn't meant to be a verbatim representation of what happened. No film or series is a 100% accurate depiction. Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" was an amalgam of the book Mark Bowden wrote as well as melding four or five of the men into one such as the character of Hoot Gibson played by Eric Bana. Same with his "Kingdom of Heaven" where the events told as far as the campaign in the Holy Land were correctly depicted, just the characters (based on the real life counterparts) were different. I don't expect a show/film to be 100% correct since if someone wants to use the film/show as a jumping off point to their exploration of the events, that's the reason the film/show is made in my opinion. If you're expecting it to be a documentary, then go watch a documentary. Otherwise you'll continue to be severely disappointed.
Well if you're "striving" for historically accurate production design, then one would have to design a time machine to go back to those events and film them as is. Men and women such as Kit Harington, Mark Gattis, and other actors who have played real life characters, do not look like them because the looks are fundamentally different because of the time and age. Rarely do you ever get that "realism" because actors and actresses do not look like their historical counterparts. Cate Blanchett did not look like Elizabeth I because according to historical works, Elizabeth I was not that good looking to begin with. Henry VIII did not look like either Eric Bana (The Other Boleyn Girl) or like Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors). Kit Harington likely doesn't even look like Catesby.... Even Charlize Theron had to have extensive prosthetics to make her look like killer Eileen Wuronos. So no actor ever actually looks like they belong in the time period being depicted in the production because looks change over any time period. If you're asking for that level of realism or precise casting then you're going to be severely disappointed. And producers (of who Kit Harington was one) have the right to cast who they wish in their productions. Kit is friends with Liv and wanted her in the series. The plastic surgery comment was just plainly made to be shallow.
Gosh, never in my life have I seen such a passionate defense of historical anachronisms in film. So all I can say is...
Hiya, Liv! How are you doing? Dudja gave fun making "Gunpowder"? Is Harrington as cute in real life?
But listen, Hon, I have a friendly suggestion. The next time you do a historical role give the facial work a few months to settle minium, and tone down the lipstick. Ladies of that period didn't wear any, so only light, naturalistic shades, and NO overdrawn lip lines. You're beautiful enough to get away with it, and not many are.