Lost interest in Mr Selfridge

[PenelopePisstop]

and the rest of them to be honest. Can't say I like any of the characters and I think the acting is EIT wooden or obvious in an amateur dramatic way.

[Boomeringue]

I know what you mean. It looked so promising,but I don't much care what happens to any of them. Downton,it aint.

[wildfig]

I know - I'm the same. And yet it was so promising - the hats! The shops! The magnificent hair! The hats again! The shots of Oxford Street with no buses on!

I think part of the problem, for me anyway, is that it feels rather cynically made for the US export market. The Brits are all either stiff upper lip idiots or Gawd 'Elp Us Diamond Geezers, or - shock horror - bohemian artists who don't give a damn for society's attitudes. And the writing couldn't be more signposted if it had little indents saying 'Coming up Next: Harry's Meaningful Flashback' or 'Next: Agnes Will Have to Choose' in the top corner.

I read the book it's based on a while ago, and I know what's going to happen next. Well, what happens next in Real Life. I think I can probably guess what's going to happen next with the made-up characters too.

[TomArchersSausage]

Lol at your post Wildfig and agree with all you've said.

There's nothing nicer than a la-di-dah Sunday night drama (I'm agog at the hats/hair too) But it's becoming a bit of a chore to watch and the clanging great hints at things are becoming somewhat deafening. It does have a made for US tv vibe to it. I couldn't put my finger on it but yes that's what it is alright. There's no subtlety to it at all.

I'm finding the bloke who plays Harry - that roll up, roll up expansive showman style - very grating and his portrayal last night of getting drunk terribly unconvincing.

And Mrs Selfridge's hair is always slightly messy and falling down compared to the other women's hair. Another clanging great hint that she's a bit arty and runs with the bohemian set I assume

I must say that Katherine Kelly as Lady Loxley is good though. She can't hold it together all alone though.

[TomArchersSausage]

And sorry but that painting was just dreadful. If I'dve been Harry the quality of that painting would have upset me 10x more than any shenanigans Mrs S might've been up to.

[wildfig]

Every time Harry strides purposefully down those stairs in Selfridges, followed by his four main henchmen, and all the staff spread out around him in perfect arcs, I keep expecting him to burst out into a chorus of 'It's a Hard Knock Life' or similar.

[TomArchersSausage]

Actually this thread may have improved my enjoyment of the series no end and not for the right reasons. I'll now be watching out for the unintentionally awful/funny bits!

[wildfig]

Don't. I find myself drawn to it every Sunday while I do the ironing, even though the ironing is more textured and intriguing than the acting onscreen. I play a game with myself about guessing where the ad break will come - you can almost hear the silent 'dun dun DER!' in your head beforehand.

What I don't understand is that Rose Selfridge was actually a pretty successful property developer in her own right before she married Harry, so presumably wasn't the wilty, easily tousled martyr she's being portrayed as here. Ironically, that's the sort of apparently anachronistic characteristic most dramatists would have made up to create a more interesting dynamic.

You can only imagine what the script development meetings were like.

[poozlepants]

We have been watching it for a laugh. Jeremy Piven seems to think acting consists of jazz hands, shouting and squinting your eyes a lot when you need to convey emotion. It's hilarious. There are good actors in this but they are woefully underused because the script is so painfully plodding.

[GetOrf]

wildfig you are making me laugh.

I only watched one episode before I gave up in exasperation but wish I had kept up with it now just for the larfs.

I loathe Downton as well, so perhaps this kind of crap show will never work with me.

I can't stand those TV tricks they use to convey emotion or whatever. It's like in the Killing (Danish one) - one of the best TV shows I have ever seen but i hated the clinky piano music which came one whenever Sarah Lund made some amazing connection/spotted something no other cop had seen/solved some element of the crime.

[GetOrf]

Nothing will ever top the House of Eliott though for sheer mind numbing plot development.

"Oh my goodness Evie, we have lost that shipment of morocco leather buttons, the Duchess of Caernarvon's ballgown will never be finished we're ruined"

[TomArchersSausage]

House oF Elliott was so bad it was brilliant topped only by The House of Idiot (French and Saunders)

[LesBOFerables]

Oh, I loved HoE. Good call, Gerroff.

[bootsycollins]

I'm loving it!. Rose is coming into her own now, hope she decides to 'ave it 'orf with the young bohemian artist who reminds me of that rich Russian bloke Roman Abromovich. We call Mr Selfridge Harry the bastard in our house, loved his speech about being a Selfridges employee. I love Downton too . Sunday evenings were invented for period dramas!. Piven is hammy as fuck though, when he does that billion watt smile he reminds me of a cartoon cat and I did a bit of sick in my mouth when I saw him in a tv mag leaning on a sports car trying to be cool as fuck

[LesBOFerables]

His life was pretty amazing, from what I've read. I'm wondering if they'll show you the nudie twin showgirls who fleeced him for $5 million?

[TomArchersSausage]

Ooh do tell more...

[LesBOFerables]

DM link- all very salacious...

[TomArchersSausage]

Aah thanks for the link!

[limitedperiodonly]

Nudie is one of my favourite words Le Bof. No other word comes close for some things. I worked with someone who kept nudie playing cards in his desk and a nudie pen where all the dollybird's clothes fell off when you wrote with it. Not that I ever touched it.

I've got last night's episode of Mr Selfridge to watch on iplayer. It's shit but I'm going to watch it until the bitter end. I've a weird compulsion to finish things.

I nearly contributed to a thread on another board about which series you'd watched every episode of until I realised I'd have to say nearly all of them, no matter how bad.

Vegas, The Defenders, Royal Pains, that thing with Ted Danson and Jason Swartzmann.

I have no quality control.

[atthewelles]

Its definitely not up to the standard of Downton Abbey or that other great Sunday night programme Call the Midwives.
It's hard to care about any of the characters. I assume we're all supposed to be cheerleading and empathising with Agnes Towler but there's something very bland and dead behind the eyes about her. Mr Selfridge himself is like a caricature and it really is hard to care about any of the characters.
It's just not really working.

[wildfig]

Mr Selfridge literally has a pair of nudie Dolly birds coming up...

I wish I could put my finger on what it is about the writing that has made me take agin nearly every single character so badly. It might be that every time any of them do anything, there's a script/camera/background music explosion of significance like your mother nudging you in the ribs. Eg, that driving scarf last night - Henri couldn't just give it to St Agnes, and let the audience draw their own conclusions about how Victor might feel/where she might wear it, he had to bellow over his shoulder, 'Don't worry, Agnes, I'll definitely pay for it tomorrow' just so we know There Will Be Consequences.

I think maybe the difference between this and Downton Abbey is that Downton knows it's being written for Americans to swoon over, but retains a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour for the home market, whereas this... doesn't.

[limitedperiodonly]

I've said it before and by God, I'll keep saying droning on about it. My most despised actor is Katharine Kelly for that awful pantomime gurning she does in lieu of acting arch.

She went to Rada, you know. I might have made that bit up.

[limitedperiodonly]

No, I've checked and I didn't make the Rada thing up.

They'll have anyone these days

[Fiderer]

Another one with a compulsion to finish no matter how awful. Enjoying it at the same time

KK's "You brought quail into my sitting room?" line must rank amongst the series' rottenest of lines.

And every time some illicit touching or snogging happens, there's Someone Watching Yooooouuu.

We should play a drinking game next Sunday

[wildfig]

All it's missing is the French and Saunders Mandatory Penny Farthing in the back of each shot.

[limitedperiodonly]

Drinking game, fiderer? Any excuse round this house