Strike

[Hepzibar]

Liking it.
Casting excellent.

Quite enjoying this and saves the bother of reading it, friends told me it was pretty turgid. (Maybe the series gets better as it goes on, I don't know). Like the hero, like Robin and expect there will be a slow burn attraction between Strike and Robin.

futuristic, you are right about the location and so on - it was in the first book that he lived with Charlotte in Mayfair ( or somewhere swanky) so i guess he just choose a place easy to get to on the tube and she wouldnt have moved with him as it was her place they shared, until she threw him out. I guessed that he had some compensation too which helped with the start up and he also took out a loan ( which he was being chased for) Robin also agrees to work well under her expected salary as a secretary as she wants to get into that line of work herself, something that Matthew is very against her doing all along ( because is a control freak and wanted her to work in a naice office with water coolers) I suppose there is always poetic licence with many stories, he often muses on his life and his choices in the book at times, but he is a fighter and tends to not let him get him down too much. This is a high profile case for him and does bring him a bit of kudos by book 2 ( as lula was so famous etc) The books are very good - but then i am a fan of JK!!

I don't know if I'm misremembering (very possible) but in the books wasn't the flat concierge away from the desk at the time to attend to, erm, toileting needs, not swimming? Seems a random change to make?

yes, the concierge was in the toilet as he had a stomach bug - it is an odd thing to change to him swimming whilst it all kicked off - especially as it was the middle of the night and freezing cold!

People on tv don't go to the toilet!!! Shocking suggestion. 😂

Loved the books. Can't wait for the next one to come out. I think the casting has been very good. Tom Burke is better looking, less physically imposing, and has better hair than my mental image of Strike from the books but he seems to have got the essence of the character & tbh I can't think of any potential leading actors with 'pube hair'. The shots with the false leg are well-done. I wondered how they would film that. Holliday Grainger is exactly how I pictured Robin, pretty in an everyday way. I haven't seen her in anything before.
The book does make things clearer but there's obviously a limit as to how much of the book they can put in a 3 hour drama. The back story was subtly covered in a few 'blink and you'd miss it' shots and a couple of throw-away lines. I had to keep pausing the TV to explain the relevance of bits to DH and let him read the text on the internet pages.
Strike is close to being broke. He can't afford an assistant & thought he'd cancelled the agency placement when Robin turned up. She clears up a stack of 'final demand' paperwork and takes a phone message about 'court proceedings' so she's aware that this case is providing a financial lifeline for the business.
I think in the books the old cage lift to the office is broken, so he didn't chose a top floor office out of masochism and the central London location close to the Tube made sense as he was living fairly centrally with his flaky rich girlfriend until she kicked him out.

I don't think Hollida Grainger's looks could be described as 'everyday' beauty - she's quite exceptional really.

He believes he has cancelled her placement but then keeps her on - he doesn't call the agency and argue the toss - he is not that broke really.
Isn't she worried she won't get paid when she sees the final demands?
Doesn't hold together plotwise.

It's all very well explaining the story by referring to the books now - but this is a stand-alone TV drama - it should stand alone - it doesn't, in my view.

There is a limit to how much of a novel the makers could fit in a 3 hour drama but the solution ot that is not to waste 40 minutes of the 3 hours showing repeated lingering shots of the same one-legged man walking around the same London streets.

I felt there wasn't much to the story as shown on TV.

It felt flimsy and lightweight - lots of padding.

Certainly scope to include more but they obviously didn't see the point/value.

I like Holliday Grainger, but I agree she has pleasantly attractive looks, no more, which fits in well with the book description.

futuristic

I agree actually without the book, it doesn't make much sence. Which is a shame, as the books are so good.

I'm sure I read somewhere that J K Rowling had been heavily involved in the production of the tv series. But maybe being the author and being so familiar with characters she maybe over looked the little things that give them substance?

He is broke, but lula's brother is so keen to prove the police wrong he throws money at strike! He just gets by on the loan and so on I think to pay for things and cuts back on other stuff! In real life you couldn't I guess, but it sort of works in the books!

I think the tv show is better than the book. The book was turgid. I figured out who did it within a few chapters of meeting the murderer, it was that obvious. I ended up giving up after half the book ( after checking I was right). And I read a lot of crime fiction. Maybe that's the problem!

Because this isn't overwritten and a lot of the dialogue that gives everything away is left out, this is at least a bit less obvious and some of the cinematography is good. I'm watching because the lead actor is pretty good, but the actual plot idea still stinks. It's like a rubbish Kate Atkinson.

i liked the first book - by books 2 and 3 i think she learnt not to be as talky - still a lot of characters in both, but there is more action.
i read a lot of thrillers too and i can sometimes pinpoint the murderer but i couldnt in this book.

mmmm I think Strike is too young and attractive. it's nicely done though, very filmic! only halfway through ep 1 i've been rewatching Dr Foster.

Tom Burke is too lush to play the odd pubic haired Strike, but it works!!
although JK doesnt describe him as 'handsome' in the books, his charm is in his personality i think - quick thinking, intelligent , dry sense of humour, imposing , not to be messed with.
thats how i 'saw' him anyway. His ex just used him for her own ends.

i've got a thing about men with tiny buttoned up baby noses. i love to hate them. ok i've got a general nose fixation and I like a man with a proper nose. that big rough man with that little angel nose makes me feel unsettled. like he was made in a gorgeous man factory, it's too much. they've overdone the gorgeous man on him. seriously i don't like it!

I hadnt seen Tom Burke in anything before - a quick look at his profile on wiki and he has been in loads of things of course, its just that i;m not up on the new breed of actor and i didnt watch the Musketeers when that was on. Same for the actress that plays Robin, she has been in lots of dramas too that i;ve never seen.
I did read that he was born with a cleft lip , i did wonder why he has an odd shaped mouth. He is very good looking i think.

Oh I'd thought his upper lip was supposed to be scarred due to ex girlfriend thumbing him. Thought make up where really good at their job.

Loved this - to the poster up thread -living in Peckham, can honestly say it wouldn't have had the same feel!!

Was amazed to find out who it was and am loving the developing professional (?who knows what by book 4) relationship between Robin and Strike.

Not read the books so had no preconceptions, and think Tom Burke is fab (& a little yummy!) as Strike.

Tom Burke as Strike grew on me. Very laconic.

Never heard of this Tom chap nor read the books but have fallen a bit in love totally into the brooding and smoking and shagging and the cleft pallet and missing leg, oh and the disheveled office and open necked shirts and his coat and everything

Really enjoyed it.

Even my ridiculously hard to please, TV snob dh thought it was good!

Neither of us had read the books.

The one bit they didn't explain was why the brother tried to get the death investigated, when it was being treated as suicide, meaning he had got away with it. Why would he do that?

Clawdy it was to frame the half brother, as he was the beneficiary to Lula's will.

I liked the book a lot ( well it's written by my heroine), and I liked this adaptation too.

I am not terribly plot driven I like characters, and the dynamic between them, both of which jk excels at. And they got both main characters and their dynamic right for me. Yes i imagined strike as hulking, but Tom made a great version.

Robin seemed to be more attracted to Strike than ever happened in the book. I suppose it makes for better TV, and more ambiguity, but she falls in love with the job, not Strike.
I loved the casting, though didn't see robin as so stunning. She rivaled the super models!
Looking forward to Silk worm.

WishingCarrot Sun 03-Sep-17 23:08:48
Clawdy it was to frame the half brother, as he was the beneficiary to Lula's will.

John Bristow underestimated Strike for two reasons.
he assumed that what happened to him in Helmand would have affected him psychologically so much that he would be a crap PI.