Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Monday, May 1, 2017

An off day...

I needed to cleanse my brain, for a bit, so today I gorged on episodes of Vera, a murder mystery series set in and around Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, almost to the border of Scotland. I'd been watching episodes here and there, but now I'm done with 5 full "sets", as they call them...and I'm not as fond of the last set. David Leon is gone and in his place is a sharp-lipped Kenny Dogherty, who has none of the presence or empathy of Leon's Joe Ashworth.

Something else that's changed is how the episodes are shot and put together. Lots of unnecessary set-ups and music that expands on the term portentous. The editing is more MTV quick-stuff and the directors keep jumping the axis as if it means nothing. Not sure what happened between set 4 and set 5, but whatever it was, it was not for the better.

The mysteries are generally well-written, and Brenda Blethyn is consistently good as the irascible Vera Stanhope, but a lot of these differences seem like change for the sake of change and that rankles me. I don't mind change for the better or even trying out something different to add to the story-lines, but for it to happen for no good reason is just wrong. It's like the producers are saying, "I'm bored so you must be bored, so we're going to mix things up to keep from being bored...even if you aren't."

Well...at least I'm feeling much more like getting back onto A65, now.

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