Best enemies forever!

A pretty standard ST episode, I thought. Also, is Disco the modern Trek with the most DS9 references?

( Spoilers are starting to want a prequel miniseries featuring a Romulan, a Trill and...? ) This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1576275.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.

Background: It's been decades, but I actually did read the Ripley novels. I am also familiar with the two previous adaptations of the first one (i.e. Purple Noon/En Plain Soleil, the 1960s French one, starring Alain Delon as Ripley, and the 1990s The Talented Mr. Ripley directed by Anthony Minghella and with Matt Damon as Ripley, and with the two film versions of the third novel, Ripley's Game, one of which was retitled The American Friend, directed by Wim Wenders, starring Dennis Hopper as Ripley and Bruno Ganz as that story's object of Ripley's attentions, and the other one. directed by Liliana Cavani, had John Malkovich as Ripley and Dougray Scott in the Bruno Ganz role. Now that Andrew Scott has thrown his hat in the ring, I think we're soon having as many Ripleys as there are James Bonds? There are basis for comparisons, is what I'm saying.

So, the new miniseries, based on the first novel. Without beating around the bush: acting wise, Andrew Scott is superb, but he's also too old. His age would not matter in any of the other Ripley stories, but the first one is the story of a young man in his 20s. Not least because he and Dickie Greenleaf need to be at least roughly of the same age for the later part of the plot to work, and even American millionaires would presumably not send someone after their wayward expat son if the guy is already in his 40s. Now the miniseries doesn't name the exact age of either Tom or Dickie, but at one point they're described as "maybe 30", and sorry, but no. All this being said, I can see why the production people and the director went with Andrew Scott anyway, since he is very very good in the part. (Self and Andrew Scott: I thought his Moriarty in Sherlock was like chalk on a drawing board, and then I saw him in a completely different role as one of the characters in the movie Pride and thought, wow, I take it all back, you're a superb actor, Scott.) You can see his version of Ripley turn into the one from the later novels in a way which isn't true for either Delon or Damon. ( In fact, I do wish the miniseries had adapted one of the later novels, then I wouldn't have been jolted out of my suspension of disbelief every now and then due to the age factor.)

Looks-wise, this is a very stylish adaptation, shot in black and white, and completely in love iwth stairs. You could subtitle it "Tom Ripley vs Italian Stairs" and be correct. It's something of a running gag on the one hand that there are so many (and no or no working elevators), but the cinematogrpahy also milks the resulting shadows for all they're worth. It's very consciously film noir as a tv miniseries. With the coldest depiction of Italy you've seen in a long while as a result, not just because it's black and white but because the streets and squares and buldings are so empty that I wondered whether they shot this under Covid lockdown conditions. I mean, it works with other people being not quite real to Ripley - in one episode we hear a lot of chatter in the background, but we don't see anyone, so I do suspect this was an intentional effect.

Now, while the miniseries sticks closer to Highsmith's novel than the previous two aadaptations, not least because it has far more screen time to do so, it does what the others did and adds something als well. Purple Noon had all the heavy homoerotic subtext from the book but presumably because it was still of its time felt the need to let Ripley be sexually interested in Marge and vice versa, which, no, really not, from neither side. Also, of course, the changed ending. The Talented Mr. Ripley added the entire Peter subplot and also a changed ending. Both serving the same need. ( Which is spoilery. ) In addition to offering a slightly changed ending of its own, the miniseries also offers us scenes not in Ripley's pov - which the entire novel is - involving Inspector Carvini trying to solve the murders, developing the Inspector into a worthy antagonist, and some more fleshing out Marge, so much so that I thought in the last episode ( she'd do something spoilery ), but no. The other thing it adds is Ripley developing not just a fascination with Dickie Greenleaf's life but with Caravaggio, so much so that he visits Caravaggio paintings in the various Italian cities the series offers as locations, and that the last episode offers actual in costume Caravaggio flashbacks as the culmination of its Ripley/Caravaggio parallels. Given Tom Ripley's main source of income in the later novels is connected to the art forgery business, good choice. It also means John Malkovich (that was him, right?) can cameo as a character from the later novels for the finale. (Since Malkovich was the most recent screen Ripley - the adaptation of Ripley's Game starring him is from 2002 - it's a nice nod.)

The series has some neat dark humor - I already mentioned the stairs, but there's also the cat of Ripley's Roman land lady, and lots of unimpressed people working in the bank -, and while moving slowly and leisurely really brings the suspense all those times Ripley is in danger of being found out. Other than Scott, the most impressive actor for me was Maurizio Lombardi as Inspector Ravini. Both Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf and Eliot Summer as Freddie Miles had the misfortune of being overshadowed by peak performances from previous actors in my mind. In fairness to Johnny Flynn, it's also that Dickie in this tv series is made nicer and blander. The trick to pull off with Dickie Greenleaf is that on the one hand, he's the embodiment of arrogant privilege, and on the other hand, it needs to be plausible his friends are crazy about him beyond his money, and that young Tom Ripley is torn between wanting to be him and wanting him. Late 1990s Jude Law was that. (In fact, since I loathed Dickie when first reading the book and in his incarnation as Philippe in the French movie, he was the first to make me realize what everyone saw in Dickie.) And Freddie Miles was played by Philip Seymour Hoffmann. Enough said. Woe to thee, oh actor, if you have to follow up PSH. Dakota Fanning as Marge is good, as was Gwynneth Paltrow, but while her Marge had more screen time, Marge still is something of a frustrating part ( because of spoilery things. )

All in all: I liked but didn't love it. (And could have done with a few less stairs, but then, so could Tom Ripley.) This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1576038.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.

Three Bodies Problem (Netflix): Background: I haven't read the trilogy, though I did listen to a (German) radio adaptation three years ago, which I had mixed feelings about. Otoh, I stopped watching Game of Thrones around season 5 or 6, so know the things Benioff & Weiss did to infuriate a great many of their viewers in the eigth and final season only via osmosis. Which perhaps is one reason why the duo's existence as producers of the Netflix adaptation didn't keep me from watching. Also: Benedict Wong!

Having now finished the first season, I found I liked it without feeling passionate about it. My big problem with the story as told in the radio adaptiation (as I hadn't read the actual books) was ( something spoilery. ) Now, in the Netflix version ( something spoilery still happens, but now it works for me. )

So I'll certainly keep watching if they get to film the rest of the trilogy as well (never something granted with Netflix).

In the last week, I also indulged myself by buying two Barbara Hamblys, a novella - "Hagar", and a novel "Crimson Angel". Hagar is set during His Man Friday, when Ben is off to Washington with Dominique, Chloe and Henri, and shows us Rose investigating a case of her own during that time... with the dubiious assistance of her mother-in-law. The Rose and Livia combination was what convinced me that I needed to buy that novella right now. I mean, Ben is a wonderful pov and main character for the series, but it is fascinating to read how these two very differnt women interact when he's not around. I was also deeply intrigued by the fact Livia did with Rose what she refused to do with her own children throughout the books of the series I've read, i.e. talk about Ben's father and her relationship with him.

Crimsom Angel was a regular novel of the series, in which Barbara Hambly found an excuse to actually send off Ben to Haiti (in the last third, he refuses to go before that for all the sensible reasons, but the plot is constructed in a way that means his family's lives are on the line) and thus to incorporate some of the tragic and complicated history of the first black Republic. Cast-wise, it's a Ben-Rose-Hannibal centric book, which uses, not for the first time, the fact that Rose, while a woman of colour, never was a slave, thus does not share one key experience that formed her husband, and gives us some background on her white relations that's pure Gothic with a 21st century twist. The evil backstory villain was so dastardly that I was wondering whether, like the villainess of the novel Fever Season, he actually existed, but google didn't help me here. Mind you, even if he didn't, what he does is exactly the kind of thing that can happen if you give a group of people complete power over another group, as the actual history of Haiti both in its Sainte Domingue colonial past and after amply demonstrates. I also appreciated that Hambly gave Ben an actual moral dilemma tailored for his personality. We all know he'd never be tempted by blood money. But the spoilery thing? That's different. This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1575730.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.

My current favourite ST show is back! (For the last time, sniff.) The first two episodes have been released on Paramount +, and sorry, Apple +, but you're off for me now for as long as Disco runs its final course, I really have to limit my streaming services.

( Spoilers conclude Disco is the current winner of best and most original use of Romulans in the modern era Trek incarnations ) This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1575453.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.