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Feb. 3rd, 2013 09:50 amI started watching the new House Of Cards on Netflix this morning. The original is a fantastic BBC miniseries not so much "based upon" as "inspired by" Macbeth, about the rise to power of an amoral sociopath and what he does to keep power once he's there.
It's deeply weird to me to watch the show be transposed to American culture, and to see how they've rearranged things and how conscious they are of the original. Mainly I keep expecting a parliamentary structure, because that's so intrinsic to the way the first part of the series unfolds. But the American political structure is working well. They've dusted off and polished up the characters without messing them around too much. It's most noticeable in Zoe the young journalist -- she no longer faces so much overt sexism, but the spirit is still there. She's the new age facing an old guard, this time over the internet instead of gender concerns. (The sexism is still there too, but it's not the major battle.) Plus they've managed to keep all the creepy class warfare intact.
What concerned me most is that in the original, there was a certain sense of unfolding -- Francis faced some fairly stiff opposition late in the series, but in the early parts it's more like watching someone arrange things to their satisfaction than battle for their desire. I liked that, I liked watching Francis conduct the orchestra as it were -- the conflict was in the people he manipulated, not in the actions he himself took. I was worried that with the new adaptation we'd have more direct confrontation, but at least after seeing the pilot it's looking pretty promisingly...orchestral.
I also put the Tony Throwdown fics up on Dreamwidth and AO3!
See You In Homeroom
Dreamwidth | AO3
The Tongues Of Men And Angels
Dreamwidth | AO3
Enjoy. :)
It's deeply weird to me to watch the show be transposed to American culture, and to see how they've rearranged things and how conscious they are of the original. Mainly I keep expecting a parliamentary structure, because that's so intrinsic to the way the first part of the series unfolds. But the American political structure is working well. They've dusted off and polished up the characters without messing them around too much. It's most noticeable in Zoe the young journalist -- she no longer faces so much overt sexism, but the spirit is still there. She's the new age facing an old guard, this time over the internet instead of gender concerns. (The sexism is still there too, but it's not the major battle.) Plus they've managed to keep all the creepy class warfare intact.
What concerned me most is that in the original, there was a certain sense of unfolding -- Francis faced some fairly stiff opposition late in the series, but in the early parts it's more like watching someone arrange things to their satisfaction than battle for their desire. I liked that, I liked watching Francis conduct the orchestra as it were -- the conflict was in the people he manipulated, not in the actions he himself took. I was worried that with the new adaptation we'd have more direct confrontation, but at least after seeing the pilot it's looking pretty promisingly...orchestral.
I also put the Tony Throwdown fics up on Dreamwidth and AO3!
See You In Homeroom
Dreamwidth | AO3
The Tongues Of Men And Angels
Dreamwidth | AO3
Enjoy. :)
