TV Show Meme! Day 17!
Jul. 2nd, 2010 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
algDay 17 - Favorite mini series
Easy! Anne of Green Gables
!! I love the Anne books
by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and always have. When the CBC miniseries aired on PBS in the 80s, my grandpa taped it and gave it to me, and I watched it over and over and over again.
This is one of the only movie adaptations of a book that I've seen that really gets it right. It doesn't try to be a page-by-page, shot-by-shot reproduction of the book, but it also doesn't deviate in any major way from the characterization, plot, or story. The miniseries also gets the feel of the books right, the wonderful dreamy quality that Anne's whimiscal and melodramatic narration gave the story.
I recently recommended this miniseries to a friend of mine, actually, because the female friendships in the books are so well reproduced that they are probably some of the best female friendships I've ever seen on TV. Anne and Diana! (Bosom friends!) Anne and Miss Stacy! Anne and Marilla! Marilla and Rachel! Anne and Aunt Josephine! (She used up all her imagination on her house!) Oh, and Anne and Katherine!!
(Most of the Anne fans I know love Anne's relationship with Gilbert -- and yeah, it is great. It's great in the books, and even better in the miniseries. But I didn't buy it when I was a kid, and I don't buy it now; I think Anne's heart will always belong to Diana -- and maybe one or two of her other lady friends. No one will ever convince me differently, not even if Lucy Maud Montgomery herself rose from her grave to wag the finger of authorial intent at me.)
Anne is not for everyone. She is totally melodramatic and uses (especially in the books) an awful lot of italics. She's way more tolerable for me as an adult in the miniseries, because Megan Follows tempers her delightfully in the performance, and makes her melodrama and flights of fancy seem much more organic. I still read and love the books, but with the distance that a six year old can't have, I get how Anne is a total pain in the ass for a lot of the people around her -- not to mention that, you know, she is beautiful, has a wonderful imagination, is a fantastic writer, even her enemies grow to love her, most things go her way, and she usually gets what she wants in the end.
At the same time that I can recognize how silly that is, as a kid for whom lots of things went wrong, it was pretty comforting to read about someone with whom I could so strongly relate who, in the end, had it pretty good. And she got to live on Prince Edward Island.
Uh, I'm pretty sure these books, and this miniseries, is what kicked off my obsession with Canada, by the way.
If you never sit down and watch the entirety of the movie, perhaps you'll be interested in these two scenes. This first one is the beginning, in which Anne is wandering through the woods, reading Tennyson to herself, reciting "The Lady of Shalott":
(Later in the movie, Anne floats in a boat, pretending to be the Lady of Shalott -- until her boat sinks! The clip cuts off before she is saved by the charming Gilbert, and rowed to shore.)
And here, the second scene, is Anne reciting "The Highwayman" at a gathering, in a terrible dress with awful hair. Megan Follows is pretty amazing, and I remember watching this for the first time at age seven, totally riveted, suddenly understanding how it was that people could bear to read poetry.
Other days...
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
Easy! Anne of Green Gables
!! I love the Anne books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and always have. When the CBC miniseries aired on PBS in the 80s, my grandpa taped it and gave it to me, and I watched it over and over and over again. This is one of the only movie adaptations of a book that I've seen that really gets it right. It doesn't try to be a page-by-page, shot-by-shot reproduction of the book, but it also doesn't deviate in any major way from the characterization, plot, or story. The miniseries also gets the feel of the books right, the wonderful dreamy quality that Anne's whimiscal and melodramatic narration gave the story.
I recently recommended this miniseries to a friend of mine, actually, because the female friendships in the books are so well reproduced that they are probably some of the best female friendships I've ever seen on TV. Anne and Diana! (Bosom friends!) Anne and Miss Stacy! Anne and Marilla! Marilla and Rachel! Anne and Aunt Josephine! (She used up all her imagination on her house!) Oh, and Anne and Katherine!!
(Most of the Anne fans I know love Anne's relationship with Gilbert -- and yeah, it is great. It's great in the books, and even better in the miniseries. But I didn't buy it when I was a kid, and I don't buy it now; I think Anne's heart will always belong to Diana -- and maybe one or two of her other lady friends. No one will ever convince me differently, not even if Lucy Maud Montgomery herself rose from her grave to wag the finger of authorial intent at me.)
Anne is not for everyone. She is totally melodramatic and uses (especially in the books) an awful lot of italics. She's way more tolerable for me as an adult in the miniseries, because Megan Follows tempers her delightfully in the performance, and makes her melodrama and flights of fancy seem much more organic. I still read and love the books, but with the distance that a six year old can't have, I get how Anne is a total pain in the ass for a lot of the people around her -- not to mention that, you know, she is beautiful, has a wonderful imagination, is a fantastic writer, even her enemies grow to love her, most things go her way, and she usually gets what she wants in the end.
At the same time that I can recognize how silly that is, as a kid for whom lots of things went wrong, it was pretty comforting to read about someone with whom I could so strongly relate who, in the end, had it pretty good. And she got to live on Prince Edward Island.
Uh, I'm pretty sure these books, and this miniseries, is what kicked off my obsession with Canada, by the way.
If you never sit down and watch the entirety of the movie, perhaps you'll be interested in these two scenes. This first one is the beginning, in which Anne is wandering through the woods, reading Tennyson to herself, reciting "The Lady of Shalott":
(Later in the movie, Anne floats in a boat, pretending to be the Lady of Shalott -- until her boat sinks! The clip cuts off before she is saved by the charming Gilbert, and rowed to shore.)
And here, the second scene, is Anne reciting "The Highwayman" at a gathering, in a terrible dress with awful hair. Megan Follows is pretty amazing, and I remember watching this for the first time at age seven, totally riveted, suddenly understanding how it was that people could bear to read poetry.
Other days...
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death