![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hestia8I am reserving judgement on Life of Crime (a show which started with an episode set during the Brixton Riots which then did not have anything to do with the Brixton Riots) until it finishes (next week I think) but it's been a very strange show so far.
In the meantime, there's recently been a two-parter on ITV called Murder on the Home Front, based on the memoir of Molly Lefebure, a journalist who became the secretary of a forensic pathologist during WW2. I haven't read the book yet but I'm hoping to get hold of it in the next couple of weeks, partly because I want to see how much of the show is directly from the memoir.
Overall, I'd recommend the show if you've not got much on and you want something a bit fluffy and not too taxing. It's glossier than Foyle's War or Bletchley Circle (partly, I think, because it's set in London during the Blitz, so there's a different attitude at play), but the main female characters (Molly and photographer Issy) are engaging and the story bounces along pretty quickly. Oh, and it does have clips from the ITMA radio show on the soundtrack, which is a very nice touch.
Now for the spoilery rambling:
There were some very odd elements to this show. I mean, I *want* to give it points for including black actors because goodness knows 99% of 1940s based dramas don't, but the black actors were playing Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson and other band members, and they had no lines, so... yeah, no points. One of the suspects (Danny Hastings) was a guy who was supposed to be half-Asian (they didn't specify where in Asia, and he's a fictional character as far as I can tell), but I think the guy who played him was white. They'd sort of made efforts towards having a show set in London in the war be diverse, but they didn't really get very far, basically.
(also Ken Johnson and the West Indian Orchestra died in the Cafe de Paris in March 1941, so possibly the timings in this show were a bit off as it is also set in 1941*)
The whole thing felt curiously superficial. Before I knew it was based on Molly Lefebure's memoirs I thought that it was a generic pathologist drama that had been turned into a WW2 drama because that's what ITV were looking for or something. Despite the, um, murder and bodies and stuff, it has a breezier tone than Foyle's War, and I think that's what makes it feel slightly inauthentic. Then again, I haven't read the book yet so there may have been a lot of dramatic licence (I read something earlier that suggested some of Lefebure's turns of phrase had been given to Issy).
I found the climax of the story frustrating as well. I don't want to give too much away (although I don't think you'll be terribly shocked if you've watched enough crime shows) but the last half-hour or so was a whole barrel of cliches and there was a lot of unnecessary running about in the tunnels below Aldwych tube station (I appreciate that it's a good set but there was a lot of running).
I think possibly the show would have benefited from being a three or even six episode series - the story could have been less generic with more time to breathe and explore the London that Molly lived in. Hopefully it'll get a series and there will be more development - Molly's relationship with Danny Hastings was particularly interesting.
* I know this from the Rivers of London series, so thanks to Ben Aaronvitch for that knowledge \o/
In the meantime, there's recently been a two-parter on ITV called Murder on the Home Front, based on the memoir of Molly Lefebure, a journalist who became the secretary of a forensic pathologist during WW2. I haven't read the book yet but I'm hoping to get hold of it in the next couple of weeks, partly because I want to see how much of the show is directly from the memoir.
Overall, I'd recommend the show if you've not got much on and you want something a bit fluffy and not too taxing. It's glossier than Foyle's War or Bletchley Circle (partly, I think, because it's set in London during the Blitz, so there's a different attitude at play), but the main female characters (Molly and photographer Issy) are engaging and the story bounces along pretty quickly. Oh, and it does have clips from the ITMA radio show on the soundtrack, which is a very nice touch.
Now for the spoilery rambling:
There were some very odd elements to this show. I mean, I *want* to give it points for including black actors because goodness knows 99% of 1940s based dramas don't, but the black actors were playing Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson and other band members, and they had no lines, so... yeah, no points. One of the suspects (Danny Hastings) was a guy who was supposed to be half-Asian (they didn't specify where in Asia, and he's a fictional character as far as I can tell), but I think the guy who played him was white. They'd sort of made efforts towards having a show set in London in the war be diverse, but they didn't really get very far, basically.
(also Ken Johnson and the West Indian Orchestra died in the Cafe de Paris in March 1941, so possibly the timings in this show were a bit off as it is also set in 1941*)
The whole thing felt curiously superficial. Before I knew it was based on Molly Lefebure's memoirs I thought that it was a generic pathologist drama that had been turned into a WW2 drama because that's what ITV were looking for or something. Despite the, um, murder and bodies and stuff, it has a breezier tone than Foyle's War, and I think that's what makes it feel slightly inauthentic. Then again, I haven't read the book yet so there may have been a lot of dramatic licence (I read something earlier that suggested some of Lefebure's turns of phrase had been given to Issy).
I found the climax of the story frustrating as well. I don't want to give too much away (although I don't think you'll be terribly shocked if you've watched enough crime shows) but the last half-hour or so was a whole barrel of cliches and there was a lot of unnecessary running about in the tunnels below Aldwych tube station (I appreciate that it's a good set but there was a lot of running).
I think possibly the show would have benefited from being a three or even six episode series - the story could have been less generic with more time to breathe and explore the London that Molly lived in. Hopefully it'll get a series and there will be more development - Molly's relationship with Danny Hastings was particularly interesting.
* I know this from the Rivers of London series, so thanks to Ben Aaronvitch for that knowledge \o/
