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Post by Slinger on Nov 23, 2024 16:09:37 GMT
Is anyone watching, or has anyone watched, "Moonflower Murders" on BBC1 / iPlayer? It's very "English" and quite fun. It's the follow-up to "Magpie Murders," and both are based on Anthony Horowitz's books Horowitz also wrote the TV versions, so they come over as, I imagine, the author intended.
If Horowitz's name rings bells it's probably because he also wrote the young adult-targeted Alex Rider books as well as scripting several Hercule Poirot stories for ITV's "Agatha Christie's Poirot", many of the original Midsummer Murders episodes, as well as creating the series Foyle's War.
If you fancy it, I'd recommend watching Magpie Murders first, as it sets up Moonflower Murders in many ways.
Lesley Manville stars and the cast includes Timothy McMullan, Conleth Hill, Matthew Beard, and a particularly nasty Mark Gatiss. Sanjeev Kohli (Shopkeeper Navid Harrid in the excellent BBC sitcom Still Game) also turns up. Many of the cast play two different characters, but you'll need to watch it to find out why.
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Post by Slinger on Nov 23, 2024 21:39:30 GMT
Tim Robbins ...Ber NARRRD, what a slimy little toad he is.
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Post by MartinT on Nov 23, 2024 21:48:13 GMT
Tim Robbins ...Ber NARRRD, what a slimy little toad he is. Yes, but is 'The Judge' going to keep him under control while 'shadowing' him? |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 23, 2024 23:21:35 GMT
Is anyone watching, or has anyone watched, " Moonflower Murders" on BBC1 / iPlayer? No. |
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Post by Slinger on Nov 23, 2024 23:52:39 GMT
Is anyone watching, or has anyone watched, " Moonflower Murders" on BBC1 / iPlayer? No. Thank heavens you not only know everyone, but also asked them on my behalf, Jules.  Much appreciated. |
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Post by petea on Nov 24, 2024 9:04:21 GMT
Is anyone watching, or has anyone watched, " Moonflower Murders" on BBC1 / iPlayer? It's very " English" and quite fun. It's the follow-up to " Magpie Murders," and both are based on Anthony Horowitz's books Horowitz also wrote the TV versions, so they come over as, I imagine, the author intended. If Horowitz's name rings bells it's probably because he also wrote the young adult-targeted Alex Rider books as well as scripting several Hercule Poirot stories for ITV's "Agatha Christie's Poirot", many of the original Midsummer Murders episodes, as well as creating the series Foyle's War. If you fancy it, I'd recommend watching Magpie Murders first, as it sets up Moonflower Murders in many ways. Lesley Manville stars and the cast includes Timothy McMullan, Conleth Hill, Matthew Beard, and a particularly nasty Mark Gatiss. Sanjeev Kohli (Shopkeeper Navid Harrid in the excellent BBC sitcom Still Game) also turns up. Many of the cast play two different characters, but you'll need to watch it to find out why. Yes, we enjoyed (and the previous one too). It was interesting to see her in this having just watched her as ‘Nancy’ in “Disclaimer” on AppleTV+. |
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Post by mikeyb on Nov 24, 2024 16:37:56 GMT
OK, time to own up. I've just watched the final episode of "Cross" and if there's another series I'll watch that too. Once I'd fought my past my prejudices (justified prejudies) and made peace with the fact that he wasn't actually Alex Cross, no matter what they called him on screen, it was a decent, slick, and gritty slice of American telly; sort of Bosch meets John Shaft in Washington. Why is it so dark all the time though 🙄 |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 24, 2024 17:11:32 GMT
Thank heavens you not only know everyone, but also asked them on my behalf, Jules. Much appreciated. That's quite alright Paul, I only undertook this mammoth task because I respect and admire you so much ... |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 24, 2024 17:13:09 GMT
OK, time to own up. I've just watched the final episode of "Cross" and if there's another series I'll watch that too. Once I'd fought my past my prejudices (justified prejudies) and made peace with the fact that he wasn't actually Alex Cross, no matter what they called him on screen, it was a decent, slick, and gritty slice of American telly; sort of Bosch meets John Shaft in Washington. Why is it so dark all the time though 🙄 Do you mean the TV picture? |
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Post by Slinger on Nov 24, 2024 17:30:20 GMT
Thank heavens you not only know everyone, but also asked them on my behalf, Jules. Much appreciated. That's quite alright Paul, I only undertook this mammoth task because I respect and admire you so much ... I sense a hint of the piss-take about that comment, but do you know what? I'm going to ignore it, and take the compliment.  |
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Post by mikeyb on Nov 24, 2024 18:58:44 GMT
Why is it so dark all the time though 🙄 Do you mean the TV picture? Yeah, all the scenes are in dimly lit rooms, which lets be honest is stupid when most of the characters are black and you can't make out their faces. I'm not really paying attention to it as it's my wife that's watching it but it looks decidedly average. It's been made to come across as gritty though, I've heard "f***" several times, but it's not really. I've come to the opinion that as long as you live somewhere that's gloomy with very little sun, then your chance of dying by serial killer is very high. Mind you, they're very easy to spot 😉 |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 24, 2024 20:15:52 GMT
Do you mean the TV picture? Yeah, all the scenes are in dimly lit rooms, which lets be honest is stupid when most of the characters are black and you can't make out their faces. Well I can shine a bit of light on this.
It became a bit of a trend in recent years to shoot this kind of drama using as little extra light as possible and using "available light" whenever possible. This has the added benefit of being quicker and cheaper to shoot. These very dark scenes with heavy shadows are graded in post production using hyper accurate state of the art monitors. Two problems with this - at home most people watch with poorly set up, uncalibrated TVs; also unless you have one of the very latest and best quality 4K TVs, it is very unlikely that your TV will be able to cope with portraying the shadow detail or cope with huge dynamic range. The vast majority of punters will inevitably take to social media to complain that the picture is too dark.
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Post by mikeyb on Nov 24, 2024 21:41:03 GMT
Top of the range Panasonic 4k OLED here.
Even the outside scenes are dark. They're trying to create a mood, as you say it's deliberate, that was the point I was making, why do that, it's almost as bad as camera shake that they add in as well 🙁
Even their living rooms are poorly lit ffs.
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Post by mikeyb on Nov 24, 2024 21:56:38 GMT
The darkness in Cross reminds me of a scene in the Man Bites Dog movie.
Guy breaks into a yard I think it is and he gets jumped by the black security guards, he kills them and then talks to the camera cursing the yard owners for using black guards at night as your can only see them by the whites of their eyes or if they smile.
A movie well worth searching out, but be warned it's not for the faint hearted!
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 25, 2024 8:59:00 GMT
Top of the range Panasonic 4k OLED here. Even the outside scenes are dark. They're trying to create a mood, as you say it's deliberate, that was the point I was making, why do that, it's almost as bad as camera shake that they add in as well 🙁 Even their living rooms are poorly lit ffs. LOL - apart from being cheaper and quicker to film, the trend to use "available light" is all about supposedly being more realistic and gritty. It's a reaction against old shows like CSI where inventive lighting with lots of saturated colour is part of the heavily stylised look. |
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Much appreciated.
