The Casual Vacancy...anyone watching?

[Selks]

If so, thoughts so far?

I couldn't get on with the book but I'm enjoying this so far...a cast of fallible and largely unpleasant characters; plot pleasantly complex(ish), good filming - bucolic pretty England with a claustrophobic feel....

Will be interested to see how it develops.

Am a little disappointed at how little time has been given to Sukhvinder - she has such an important role in the book, but she's not being developed at all in the adaptation so far. There's been nothing at all of her problems (only a blink and you'll miss it nod to her being bullied), nothing much of her parents' relationship with her and nothing at all of her relationship with Krystal, Gaia and Fats.

I wonder if I'm missing the point a bit , or is it really just about such trivial lives. Is Robbie Krystal's brother or son and why is she such a tart? Why is Keeley Hawes' character at loggerheads with her pils and her daughters so vile?

I might have missed something (and haven't read the book) but has the relationship between Krystal/her mom and Barry been explained in the tv version? I had to google how they came to know each other in the book and it still seems a bit unlikely.

In the book, I think Krystal played sports and Barry believed in her. (Barry was also from the rough side of town)

Here, I thought replacing that with 'was giving her a job' was really good - and made his death so much the more devastating for her.

I loved Krystal last night. Why is she such a tart? I don't think she's a tart at all - I think she's turning out pretty lovely for a young girl with a junkie parent, care of a baby brother and no future to hope for.

I thought Keelly Hawes was awful to her Dh when he said, "I'm drowning" and she was...like..."oh lets have a dinner party."

It's all a bit unrelentingly miserable though. I feel quite anxious about next week...

Why do you think she is a tart LIZS? Because she had sex with someone? Doesn't that make him a tart?

In the book she's a tart as she allows all the boys to squeeze her breasts at the beginning. I think the sex with a boy the first time you go out with him would have been classed as tarty behaviour when I was at school. Agree that this is just as tarty for the boy but being a tart isn't regarded as negatively for boys as it is for girls.
Have started reading the book and it's better than the TV series, agree Howard needed a fat costume as you wonder wtf his GP is ranting on about when he's just a bit obese. It's a shame they couldn't have had more characters from the book and more episodes. They've not clarified why the town folk hate the schemies as much in the TV series either.

I have read the book and I liked it. It was billed as a modern day Middlemarch.

Where is Gavin, where are the Dr's other children?

I imagined Howard as more Fred Elliott than Dumbledore.

And Miles is not that weak in the book.

I feel that with the glimpses of fight we've seen in her she wouldn't then allow herself to be so used. The sex seems to be so cold and the greasy teen who is just out to hack off his parents by being with her makes my skin crawl!

In the book Howard's attitudes are understandable as he came from a poor working class background much like my grandparents but a poor striving background where you tried to help yourself by growing veg in the garden doing your utmost to get a job and you kept your house clean and disciplined your kids.
He doesn't see why poor has to mean living in idle squalor with feral kids. he also enjoyed the arguments with Saint Barry.

I totally agree about the Sukhvinder character. Her story was heartbreaking in the book and added so much more to an understanding of her mum.

I also do not see Crystal as a tart but as someone who has very little attention in her life so takes it. fats' mum is right, she is a vulnerable character really who has made the best of the crap life she has been handed.

keeley Hawes character married her husband (if I remember rightly) because she got pregnant and were definitely not her PIlL's ideal choice. They have far more say in the family life than they should (for instance in deciding which school the daughters should go to) She is a desperately bored and unforfilled character with a failed business.

I said no real life Asian doctor would dress like that or talk like that upthread and I still think so. I know thousands of female Asian doctors: not one of them would dress or talk like that. The actress who plays the part just isn't believable for me: she's like a bit part from 'eastenders' or 'goodness gracious me'. The female Asian doctor in the UK either has an Indian accent and mild manner or a well-spoken UK medical school accent and well trained manner which believe me is not even remotely as crass as the actress in the show, even these days and definitely not in the seventies or eighties or even nineties.

I see funny so your point re asian, female medics involves class stereotypes rather than purely racial ones? That's ok then

I'm agog as to where you might be if you have never met a BME professional with a twang of MLE or Brum, though.

Why is everything always so sweeping around here?

It's much more than a twang, though.

Yes the character has more than a twang. Funny won't even concede that any of "thousnads" of asian doctors she has supposedly met have a hint of regional accent, though

Maybe we need to go and haul a med school admissions tutor into telly addicts from higher ed for another opinion

Personally it's Keeley Hawes who is grating me.

I found the bit where Fats says how much his mum would look after Krystal if she had a baby really quite moving - he didn't know what he was saying and what a chord it might strike.

I like the boy very much - is it Andrew? - he has a lovely peaceful face. His Dad is such a pig.

Oh I know, JohnFarleys. I found that bit very moving. You could see Krystal feeling very emotional (but trying to hide it) as she imagined having a mother who showed love for her like that. Krystal was very touching in that episode. I liked the bit where she was sat having tea with her Mum, who for a change was well enough to have a bit of food, and together enough (temporarily) to give Krystal a compliment.

I have met lots of young people like Krystal in my line of work, and I have a real soft spot for them.

I loved the book, was surprised by just how much. Have now downloaded this to watch later!

Our Indian GP wears a Sari and gives out sweeties to the children not 30 something grownups though

I quite enjoyed the second episode but not sure what I'd have made of it if I hadn't read the book. It's the big problem with adapting a book like that: there are lots of characters, each with their own little story, but they're also all linked to each other as part of one larger over-arching story. I don't think it's really possible to do justice to that in three hours.

I loved the book and am following the series mainly just to look at Parminders husband Vikram, although I would watch Michael Gambon recite the phone book

I think some of the characters in the TV adaptation lack some of the complexity of the characters on the book, like Sukhvinder (shudderingly poignant...real shame it is not explored). Having said that, the relationship between Krystal and Fats is realistic and that moment when Fats' mother warns him about Krystal (and you think she's protecting her PFB from the riff raff) and she just says.. 'She's vulnerable', that is pure gold...

Unexpectedly enjoyed this! Looked a bit naff and heard snooty Front Row view which slated it, but interesting female characters, especially and entertaining.