Strike - The JKR TV series

[OnceUponACat]

Apologies if it has been discussed before, I could not find it anywhere.

I am enjoying watching it for but I am annoyed and irked too. For someone like Rawling so many years after HP and still so many cliches: the ugly male detective with the clever cute female sidekick who is happy to work for pittance; Robin’s overgroomed doll look; Cormoran being seen as an appealing partner even though drinks himself to a stupor and is clearly not commitment friendly, etc etc.

Is it me or we could do better than that?

I watched the first episode of The Silkworm yesterday in which Robin demonstrates her off road driving skills and objects to being overlooked for promotion.
Yes Holliday Grainger is very pretty indeed, but that’s just the reality of tv in which women are rarely allowed the good parts if they’re not attractive, rather than being JKR’s fault or something she has written into the books.

Tom Burke is hot as!!

In most of the books the agency doesn't make any money - that is why Strike lives in the office. There is no money to be paid.

Because this is fiction, JKR can give Strike a very rich but absent rock star father who can inject funds when necessary, keeping the action in central London and sometimes giving the characters access to a more glamorous world.

In real life the agency would have gone bust long ago and they would both be doing more lucrative but boring work, but that would be a completely different book written my a different author.

written BY a different author.

Jesus, Tom Burke is BEAUTIFUL.

@IamEarthymama

Obviously you just want to dig at JKR, this is not a review of the series, but a chance to make a tired attack on the author personally.

To anyone who hasn't read the books, listen to them on Audible for a really enjoyable experience. Robert Glenister is a fantastic narrator. He really brings the characters to life.
He also has a part in the TV adaptation of Lethal White. 😊

I don't always agree with JKR's class and party politics, but I think she is amazingly brave to speak out for women's rights.

Your dismissal of Robin leads me to believe that you don't share my admiration.

Agree the audio books are fantastic!

I think Robin being paid a pittance is deliberate. It creates more tension between her and the horrible Matthew who is very money-motivated, wants an Audi, and would rather she work a boring, well-paid job. Strike is also shown as having money problems, I think, so it's not a case of exploitation. He pays her more as soon as he can afford to - though the amount of pub lunches that man gets through is obscene.

Robin is paid initially to do a temp secretary job, he says he has no money because he has no money which is why he is sleeping in his office. She later chooses to turn down a well paid job and works out what Strike can afford and basically tells him she will stay for that amount after he says he can’t afford her at what he thinks she is worth.

Fair enough. I take all your comments on board and will def rethink my attitude and thoughts.

In the rush to write it however I possibly not have chosen the right words. I do not think that TB is ugly and in the series he certainly comes across as very sexy and likable and charming. But that is exactly my point, that it is always the man that can be all that with scars, disabilities etc etc. The clever girl is always the side kick and very beautiful, and very stylish.

My “overgroomed doll” was unfortunate and I accept it. But gosh if you look at the shots and the make up, she is certainly made to look very sexy all the time. Although beautiful the acttress, nor anyone else, does look like that all the time. And I am comparing it to, for example, scandi series where women detectives (and not) are not portrayed in a similar fashion but more like the women we see and are irl.

That is the point I was trying to make. And I apoloIogise if I have offended anyone.

I haven’t read the books, which I am sure have more depth to it as usual in term of characterisation, so can’t comment on that.
And, to be extremely clear, no it wasn’t a dig at JKR as a person.

“Obviously you just want to dig at JKR, this is not a review of the series, but a chance to make a tired attack on the author personally.“

Not at all. Do not assume. I have no strong opinion for or against JKR. I admire her and always have and think she is great for many reasons actually. But she is no god and so I was expressing my opinion and my somewhat surprise BECAUSE it is her work.

I would have not been surprised or annoyed if it was written by someone else.
Like I said it was about the TV series NOT the books. Although why oh why could not have bern Robin the main detective ownner running the agency and a man the intern?

This is basically my point.

Surely we can discuss this series in the same way as we could discuss for example The Bridge or Likkeland or Montalbano, or is JKR above and beyond any criticism?

I think you have a very peculiar and judgemental attitude towards young woman OP.

Holliday Grainger is pretty, but so are many, many young woman of her age in real life. She is certainly not made up to look "sexy" all the time.

I wonder if part of the reason she wrote Strike as the main character was also because she was writing under a male pseudonym, freedom to not be JK for a change.

But she is a writer and she is entitled to write whoever she feels inspired by, in this case soldiers who are injured and what happens to them.

And regarding her being paid a pittance etc etc. I get the plot. I get the story. It all makes sense within the story. That is ok.

I am talking at a level where women are often paid less, having to accept lower paid jobs, having to prove a million times over that they are good enough for what men get more easily etc etc and here again this is portrayed.

It is a dream job and great she is willing to do it for little money because she loves it etc but does not teach young women to value their worth and demand what they deserve. (I am not talking now of Robin and Cormoran). Not sure how a real life Robin could live on that but ok.

And if I was cheap and simple in my doll comment (true) surely the depiction of Robin’s husband and his audi and his corporate job is equally basic.

(I didn’t know that the agency is kept alive by Cormoran’s dad - it makes sense).

Also, not sure why some felt so angey to as if I had insulted one of your best friends. No I could not write like JKR, nor write a screenplay, nor direct a tv series nor apply make up on someone to make them look even more gorgeous than she is. Many here can’t but can surely everyone can voice an opinion.

Robin is written as an attractive, head turning woman in the books.

Holliday Grainger is well cast.

Surely we can discuss this series in the same way as we could discuss for example The Bridge or Likkeland or Montalbano, or is JKR above and beyond any criticism?

Yes, and it is being discussed on the Telly Addicts page.

Some of my reluctance to discuss this on a feminist page is that JKR is constantly being purity tested as though she has to meet a higher standard. Her books are very, very popular, but fundamentally she just wrote a series about wizards and some crime novels. Should PD James have made Adam Dalgleish female?

Could she have switched the characters? Perhaps she could have made Robin a woman who had lost her leg after being a member of the military police, and was also the rarely acknowledged daughter of a very famous rock star, but that would have been a different book.

My criticism of your posts has nothing to do with JKR but entirely to do with your warped views of the Robin character.

I have noticed criticism levelled at JK at whatever she writes, “not enough BAME characters” and then when she writes BAME characters “Not written well enough” (I am BAME, I think this is nonsense) and then “She’s sexist!” No she isn’t, and my favourite recently “She describes the places in London too much”

You can’t make everyone happy as a writer and nor should you.

Dido I didn’t think I had. But I’ll certainly think about it as it is the last thing I’d want to have.
When I watched Likkeland, plenty of young and pretty girls there too for example, I had not this thoughts at all.
And when I am at work I am not judging girls because they wear make up and are beautiful. Imo it was done in a way that didn’t sit right with me. I wasn’t judging Robin for being beautiful and groomed I was judging the way it was done and who it was done for and whom it would benefit ifswim.

But maybe I am overthinking it.

I agree we should be able to discuss JK Rowling's writing without being accused of having an agenda against her.

I've only read the first book and, while I enjoyed it, I didn't rush out to buy the others. There are other female crime writers whom I've found more compelling.

I find the TV series quite confusing. I can't keep up with all the characters and I'm starting to find the flashbacks clunky and annoying.

But I think one point you're missing about Robin is that she's not a professional cop. She starts off as a temp - as I remember she was also applying for jobs in PR. For me this actually makes her more interesting than a lot of conventional maverick-with-a-touch-of-genius-but-a-messy-personal-life creations (both male and female).

I am going to take on board all your comments. Thank you.

Why is this thread in feminism?

It is a dream job and great she is willing to do it for little money because she loves it etc but does not teach young women to value their worth and demand what they deserve.

I think that is something JKR will have to address in future books. (Next one out next week!!!!!) Neither of them are making any money, and without Matthew its not clear how Robin is going to support herself. (Unless I have forgotten something about the ending of the last book).

However, JKR might just introduce a McGuffin to temporarily give them some money, because fundamentally the books aren't particularly realistic.

I suspect the agency will continue to lurch from one financial crisis to another because that creates more plot opportunities.

@merrymouse

Surely we can discuss this series in the same way as we could discuss for example The Bridge or Likkeland or Montalbano, or is JKR above and beyond any criticism?

Yes, and it is being discussed on the Telly Addicts page.

Some of my reluctance to discuss this on a feminist page is that JKR is constantly being purity tested as though she has to meet a higher standard. Her books are very, very popular, but fundamentally she just wrote a series about wizards and some crime novels. Should PD James have made Adam Dalgleish female?

Could she have switched the characters? Perhaps she could have made Robin a woman who had lost her leg after being a member of the military police, and was also the rarely acknowledged daughter of a very famous rock star, but that would have been a different book.

Exactly this. JKR as you say is constantly being purity tested in a way that Male writers rarely are. She and her daughter were also photographed in their swimming costumes, harassed when pregnant, phone tapped and generally harassed constantly for writing kids books. Anyone else would have thrown it in by now. She can write what she wants.

But who ever said she CAN’T write what she wants?! My gosh to compare an opinion on a TV series to taking pictures of her and her family on a beach is a bit much!

But who ever said she CAN’T write what she wants?!

I think you imply she can’t when you say ‘could we do better than that?’.

You seem to be making a general point about television and arguing that JKR hasn’t met a particular standard.

JKR might not shy away from expressing her views, but Strike is not ‘Succession’ or ‘The Wire’ and it isn’t trying to be, and I think that’s fine.