Thursday, January 10, 2008

Plain Jane

AA Gill on the latest TV adaptation of Sense and Sensibility:

"It’s about – well, you know what it’s about. It’s what they’re all always about: selling teenage virginity for cash and crenellations. The most astute deconstruction of every plot nuance and character trait in the Austen or Brontë novel can be found in Noel Edmonds’s Deal or No Deal."

Which might be the appropriate time to admit that I've never actually seen Deal or No Deal.

12 comments:

Annie said...

Neither have I, but I tell you what I HAVE seen: JUDGE JUDY. I am staying at my parents' house for a week and would you believe it's on for 2.5 hours every evening? FANTASTIC.

Sorry about all caps and everything. My parents aren't annoying me at all.

Geoff said...

There are no teenage virgins on Deal Or No Deal.

They've all got the hots for Noel, though.

Billy said...

He does have a point, although he's wrong about the Brontes though.

Rog said...

Don't waste a second of your life on it Tim!
It's a load of bollocks where people have to open their boxes and worry what everybody will say. Nothing like Austin ...

Annie said...

Yersss... I do like AA Gill, & not really a big fan of Jane Austen, but this is a bit sound-bitey - if it must be summed up so glibly, she's all about what it's like being a teenage virgin with no options, and how to negotiate some kind of a life for yourself from such a powerless position...

(See Mrs Richards? I WAS listening during A Level Eng Lit, not just doodling the Velvet Underground lyrics on my notebook...)

Rimshot said...

The US Deal or No Deal has Howie Mandell as the host. His aversion/phobia regarding hand-shaking makes for some mildly interesting greetings of guests (didn't the bumping knuckles thing go out in the 80's?). The 'Case Girls', however, are worth the price of admission.

Tim F said...

Get Judge J to bust their asses, Annie R. Be like that boy who called 999 because his parents made him go to bed too early.

There are very few teenage virgins, full stop, Geoff.

Yes, he's utterly wrong about the Brontes, isn't he Billy? He should stick to restaurants.

Northwanger Abbey, Murph? Manfeel Park? Pride and Protruberance?

I bet AA doesn't really understand the VU either, Annie.

An OCD gameshow host, Rimshot? Cool! What about Howard Hughes fronting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

patroclus said...

Never mind all that - Tim, your country (that's the UK, btw) needs you! Critics and viewers alike are struggling to make sense of all the Baudrillardian layers in 'Echo Beach' and 'Moving Wallpaper'. I think you're the only person in the world who can deconstruct it/them adequately. Please help.

Tim F said...

Haven't yet seen the thing although, as with any such high-concept undertaking, that needn't matter (it's possible to review the concept while ignoring the execution, after all). My immediate reaction is that it's the reductio ad absurdum of the "It's so bad it's good" notion that underpinned the mid-90s cheesy-MOR revival. People watch soaps because they know they're bad: but will they watch a soap that's so bad, the makers create a whole other programme to point out its badness?

Will this do for the moment?

Unknown said...

i just saw my first episode last night. the indonesian version. call me stupid, it takes me a while for me to get it.

actually,my girl had to explain it for me.

Valerie said...

Argh. I think I'll go watch some Buñuel instead.

How is Jane Austen anything like the Brontës? One wrote comedies of manners gussied up in poor-girl-gets-good apparel, and the others — well, you can't really lump them together, but Charlotte and Emily wrote (melo)dramas with poor-girl-goes-through-hell themes.

I'm a big Jane Austen fan — as I similarly love the Anthony Villiers books, Walter Jon Williams' Drake Maijstral books, etc. Comedies of manners are brilliant. But I suspect many modern interpreters don't realize Austen writes comedies.

I haven't seen Deal or No Deal either, though, so I'm just randomly talking out of my ass here.

Tim F said...

Indonesian po-mo soap, Treespotter? A genre all of its own.

Talking out of one's ass, Valerie? Why do I suspect that's exactly what AA Gill was doing?