TV recommendation: Staged
May. 31st, 2021 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjI got turned on to this show through a mention in the podcast Writers Drinking Coffee (which is a fun local "writers talking about / with / to other writers about all manner of things" show). The premise is a fun little meta-story about actors David Tennant and Martin Sheen being roped into trying to do zoom rehearsals for a play by their director Simon Evans (all playing themselves -- with their real-life spouses also playing themselves and all manner of minor parts also self-played by some highly recognizable names). They are not dealing with lock-down well and much hilarity (and bits of pathos) ensue. If theater people doing theater-peoply things dialed up to eleven, leavened with the inherent comedy value in zoom communications during lock-down sounds like your thing, I think you'll love this.
A couple of content notes. Plot thread about a medical crisis for a minor off-screen character in whom you will have become emotionally invested. And much more prominently, the show relies heavily on the trope of "men are incompetent and helpless in their everyday lives and rely on the women in their lives to pick up all the pieces and do all the household and emotional labor while still managing to have creative careers of their own." It's the sort of motif that simultaneously pokes fun at and normalizes gender imbalances in interpersonal relationships, while never managing to sincerely critique them. Another minor content note for embarrassment humor based on character lying to each other and getting found out. (I know some of my friends have a hard stop on that trope.)
Ok, so all the content notes don't negate my personal enjoyment of the show. But this is humor, and humor can be very individual in taste. It's a BBC production. IMDB says there are 14 episodes. I've watched the 6 episodes of season 1, which are currently available through Apple. It looks like both seasons are available through Hulu.
A couple of content notes. Plot thread about a medical crisis for a minor off-screen character in whom you will have become emotionally invested. And much more prominently, the show relies heavily on the trope of "men are incompetent and helpless in their everyday lives and rely on the women in their lives to pick up all the pieces and do all the household and emotional labor while still managing to have creative careers of their own." It's the sort of motif that simultaneously pokes fun at and normalizes gender imbalances in interpersonal relationships, while never managing to sincerely critique them. Another minor content note for embarrassment humor based on character lying to each other and getting found out. (I know some of my friends have a hard stop on that trope.)
Ok, so all the content notes don't negate my personal enjoyment of the show. But this is humor, and humor can be very individual in taste. It's a BBC production. IMDB says there are 14 episodes. I've watched the 6 episodes of season 1, which are currently available through Apple. It looks like both seasons are available through Hulu.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-01 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 10:51 am (UTC)