Wuthering Heights...

Late on the uptake with this one...

Memory Keeper's Daughter

Rarely do I tune into a Lifetime flick, but I gave this one about an hour of my time since I'd read the book by Kim Edwards over Christmas-time. Seemed like a faithful telling, from the parts I saw (I was flipping back and forth between The Hills, I'm ashamed to admit.)

A few pieces of commentary:
1) Emily Watson...inspired casting as Phoebe's adoptive mom, Caroline Gill. I love everything she does, although I will never watch that stupid Loch Ness movie.

2) Dermot Mulroney was a snore. He always kind of looked constipated. I turned back to LC and the gang anytime he was on-screen.

3) Gretchen Moll. Remember her? She was on the cover of Vanity Fair once and now you rarely see the woman. I've decided it's because she resembles Kate Hudson too much and any role she might get goes to Kate Hudson instead.

My Boy Jack...

Daniel Radcliffe has always sort of bothered me, and he does so even more when sporting a 'stache, thereby giving me pause about whether or not to tune in to this week's Masterpiece "Classic" to see an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's My Boy Jack, which I'm unfamiliar with anyway. But it does star over-sexed Samantha Jones, a.k.a. Kim Cattrall, and that could be interesting to behold.

Here's the preview.

By the way, am I the only one completely mesmerized by Gillian Anderson's lips in those introductions? They are like an entity unto themselves. Makes me want to reach for the nearest syringe full of collagen. But what's up with her being in Maxim? Ewww. The pics aren't too skanked-out, but still... Russell Baker and Alistair Cooke would never have resorted to using their sex appeal like that.

New A&E Adaptation

On May 27th, A&E will premiere its miniseries adaptation of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. Unless it stars Ioan Gruffudd in breeches and a tri-corn hat fighting a deadly new viral strain with nothing more than a cutlass and the British navy behind him, I care not.

For those more excited than I am, know that it stars Benjamin Bratt, Eric McCormack, Andre Braugher and...what's this????? Ricky Shroeder? MY Ricky Schroeder? Okay, maybe I'll tune in, just for a looksee. "To learn all about those things you just can't buuuuuyyyyyy. We're silver spoons together - he and I."

Oh No He DIH-N'T!!!!

Andrew Davies did NOT just pull an Atonement on me!!!!! (For those of you who have yet to watch PBS's new adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, I won't give it away, but I will leave you with one word to describe a fabricated plot twist: APPALLING!

(And what's with the hint of a hook-up at the end??? No grazie.)

Thank god for separated-at-birth-from-Joan-Cusack Sophie Thompson as Charlotte Bartlett and Elizabeth McGovern as Mrs. Honeychurch (whom I LOVED as Marguerite Blakeney in A&E's The Scarlet Pimpernel and was thrilled to see again.) Besides being predictably picturesque, I was unimpressed. I liked Lucy, but her chemistry with George was nonexistent. Besides which, George was weird-weird, not SEXY-weird like his predecessor, Julian Sands.) Cecil wasn't nearly enough of an annoying dandy, although really, who could live up to Daniel Day-Lewis?

Remember in the definitive Helena Bonham Carter version when George Emerson holds up the plate with the question mark on it? That's sort of how I felt after watching this version. Skip it and read the novel again, instead.

Oh Andrew Davies, for shame! (I will forgive you if Brideshead Revisited doesn't bore me to tears when it's released this fall.) And I heard his version of Sense & Sensibility, still on my DVR, is excellent. Will watch that later this week.

Who Shot Cardinal Wolsey?

I have a confession to make... I've secretly been downloading season 1 of Showtime's The Tudors via iTunes all weekend. Basically a sexy soap like Dallas or Dynasty, The Tudors is of course set in the 16th century. It's not witty like the first season of The OC and it doesn't hold a candle to The Sopranos or Six Feet Under, but the costumes are to die for and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is really fantastically watchable as Henry VIII. Bottom line though, it's a guilty pleasure at best. As my penance, I'm reading the Lisle Letters which are just full of juicy contemporary gossip and political intrigue from the period. One wonders why, with all the fabulous material to plunder, the show's writers would choose to wreak such havoc with the facts. Well, I must dash--episode 7 just finished downloading. --Kim

Other Boleyn Girl Not So Hot

Sadly, The Other Boleyn Girl adaptation has received less than enthusiastic reviews from the critics, but I'm still planning to see it anyway for the costumes if nothing else (though I'll probably wait for the dvd). If you happened to see it we'd love to get your take. --Kim