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I really love Arnott's novels (with the exception of truecrime, which I only kind of like - it's good enough but it's trying too hard to extend the franchise into a trilogy when really the first two books said it all...) so my perspective is, I'm guessing, slightly diff from those of y'all who've been exposed to 'Arry for the first time...
I thought the opening of the Thursby episode was incredibly clumsy - in the book it actually occurs about midway through, after Harry has been built up a bit as a character, so I felt the writers were trying too hard to shoehorn in an introduction to the story before getting to the meat of the thing. My theory is that they maybe made this episode third but were instructed by the management to show it first, because Jacobi is reckoned to be a bigger draw - in which case, fair enough, but a bit confusing pour moi. After ten minutes it was pure gangland bliss again anyway, so hey, who's counting?
Tonight's eppy I actually thought was a bit stronger because it's more in keeping with the rest of the book. The Nigeria episode is an interesting one and shows up Harry's wannabe Laurence streak well, but like all gangsters he is, of course, a territorial animal, and works better on home turf as a character. I also thought the gradual decline and fall of the Stardust was a better way of displaying Harry's status as a second-string gangster (crucial to understanding his character - essentially, Harry desperately wants to be Ronnie Kray but never quite makes it...this lack of success is what makes him more sympathetic).
Thought the convo between Harry and his dad in this ep was a bit forced, mind. A bit too much like the Monty Python 'playwrightin's too good for thee' sketch...In the novel Harry's dad is a much more interesting character, a Jewish communist who nevertheless ran a 'spieler' (a type of drinking/gambling den) during the war - the tension between Harry and his dad is as much political as sexual.
Interesting also to see that, from the trailer after this eppy, they're going to shoehorn the Jack the Hat material and the Torso in a Trunk plotline into one instalment, presumably leading,
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to a denuement in which Harry winds up arrested by Mooney and thrust into prison, from whence he can make his glorious sociology-assisted resurgence in episode four and give Mooney what-for, good-style. Except that - unless they really pull the stops out next episode - Mooney hasn't been built up into nearly enough of a bastard to make that satisfying (the actor playing him is making him almost too human; in the books Mooney is an absolute slimeball, a corrupt, perverted mason with an unhealthy interest in his vice division job; like William Gull with a badge...) And, unless this series is successful enough to commission an adaptation of He Kills Coppers we're never gonna see Thursby get his for the torso in a trunk case...
Actually, that's my problem with Jacobi as Thursby - he's too damn charismatic. In the books, Thursby is a total shit, and with Our Derek that never really comes across - he looks too vulnerable compared to Mark Strong as Harry. He's gonna have to work very hard to get across the true nasty essence of Thursby in next week's eppy...then again, the man has played Francis Bacon, so he may just be able to.
Hmmm. |
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