Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 365778" data-attributes="member: 23">Now I've read your comments about Brookie playing its stories out in real time over long periods I can't help tying this in with that and wonder if changing perspective was partly to keep the story live without burnout (or would that be too close to following the soap rules?).I really did enjoy the perspective of seeing the funeral objectively through the eyes of people who are mostly removed from the situation and tied to Petra only through happening to live on the same street. It helped drive home the disparate, isolated pockets of characters contained within the series at that point. Five or six months down the line and the dynamics have changed already, as I'm sure they will continue to do. But we're still seeing  a good number of scenes through net curtains, sometimes with commentary.This week I watched a scene where Karen and Ducksie were sat enjoying the sun on the muddy grass in front of the Grants' house. Lucy walked by, followed by Paul.  Polite exchanges were made in both cases ("Hiya.", "Nice day", "Yeah", etc.) but they all had their own stuff going on (Karen and Ducksie were nattering about teen stuff. Lucy had just stormed out of the house after an angry exchange with her parents) which each neighbour was oblivious to. As well as giving the sense of distance that's still there between neighbours - with exchanges differing depending on whether they're public (in front of neighbours) or private (behind closed doors with immediate family) -  I've realised it's also a nice example of the continuing scenes you were saying about. There was no sense of cutting away - we simply saw the same thing from a different perspective. Just as we had with Gavin's funeral. I can't wait! There's so little I remember about early Brookie that it mostly feels brand new to me, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this sustained showdown, how this comes about and the fallout.As I watched, I wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. Objectively it seemed a little cheesy, but in the moment it made its point perfectly. I also found it weirdly meta that Michelle later described what Petra had experienced as being "like a flashback in a film". Which, bizarrely, gave more depth to the situation and made it feel even more truthful.I quite like that I'm not quite sure about it. But if it was engineered, I also find it psychologically interesting to think that Petra was possibly as unaware of this as anyone.Oh yes. I neglected to mention it, I think, but that was a lovely sequence that practically had me squirming with the awkwardness.Interesting.Weirdly, as I read this, four affairs in 350 episodes sounded a lot. Then I realised it's probably something like three-and-a-half years. And as I write, I'm realising that this is about the same number as episodes that Dallas or Knots had in their entirety, and it really doesn't sound like a lot.I think you're spot on, James. It's a bit of a curse to rewatch a series knowing where a characters' journey takes them long term, but I completely agree that Gordon is far more interesting as a teen with idiosyncrasies without explanation.I don't know (or at least remember) much of the background. Somewhere at the back of my mind I'm remembering (or imagining)  that part of the reason for the recast was to age Gordon up a bit to make the coming out story more palatable to audiences of the time (or perhaps to give the meatier story to a more experienced actor), but I'm also thinking that for Brookie's first few years there was no plan for Gordon to be gay and I'm enjoying it on this level.The Chandler reference has made me wonder if there was ever any speculation about Gordon's sexuality from viewers in the early years?Yes, and I suppose both have that Colonel Blimp quality as well, which frequently seems to come with a wired-in tendency to look back on the good old days.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?

Poison your name this Hallowe'en

There's plenty of time to choose your spooky October username

Click here for more details

Reply to thread