Punk and New Wave thread.

Watched the first three episodes of Pistol today.

Awful so far.

Firstly, it’s overly didactic, in the sense that cast members insist on telling you about the situationist/anarchist philosophy and motivations behind the band at every possible juncture. The effect of this is rather like a bad PowerPoint presentation where someone just reads out what’s on the slides they have made.

Secondly, the characterisations are cartoonish and superficial in pretty much every case, and the banter that goes on between those characters is neither memorable or funny.

The acting isn’t too bad, and the strikingly beautiful Sydney Chandler is particularly good as Chrissie Hynde. But that’s about it.

My recommendation would be to give this series a miss. It’s nowhere near as good as, say, the movies 24 Hour Party People or Control. Sid and Nancy is also a lot better.
 
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ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
Watched the first three episodes of Pistol today.

Awful so far.

Firstly, it’s overly didactic, in the sense that cast members insist on telling you about the situationist/anarchist philosophy and motivations behind the band at every possible juncture. The effect of this is rather like a bad PowerPoint presentation where someone just reads out what’s on the slides they have made.

Secondly, the characterisations are cartoonish and superficial in pretty much every case, and the banter that goes on between those characters is neither memorable or funny.

The acting isn’t too bad, and the strikingly beautiful Sydney Chandler is particularly good as Chrissie Hynde. But that’s about it.

My recommendation would be to give this series a miss. It’s nowhere near as good as, say, the movies 24 Hour Party People or Control. Sid and Nancy is also a lot better.
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Sounds fucking wank. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Barcon said:
Sounds fucking wank. Thanks for the heads up.
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Have now seen episodes 4 and 5, and to be fair they were quite a bit better. So maybe it will turn out to be a Curate's egg.

Still can't get over the fact that the actor playing McLaren looks younger than the band (not sure how old he actually is), and that jars a bit.

Though I am not related to Nadine Dorries (thank fuck) am getting to see this series for free, but understand that it is available through Disney + in the UK. Think membership costs £8.99 per month.

If so, a useful compromise might be to join for a month in order to see the superlative series Dopesick rather than this one. Dopesick is a Barry Levinson project but it reminds me a lot of David Simon's best shows, like The Wire, Show Me A Hero and Treme.

Pistol could then be a kind of support act.

What this has left me thinking is that there is, perhaps, scope for TV adaptations of other memoirs, like the brilliant one by Andy Blade, or maybe Viv Albertine's first autobiography.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
Watched the first three episodes of Pistol today.

Awful so far.

Firstly, it’s overly didactic, in the sense that cast members insist on telling you about the situationist/anarchist philosophy and motivations behind the band at every possible juncture. The effect of this is rather like a bad PowerPoint presentation where someone just reads out what’s on the slides they have made.

Secondly, the characterisations are cartoonish and superficial in pretty much every case, and the banter that goes on between those characters is neither memorable or funny.

The acting isn’t too bad, and the strikingly beautiful Sydney Chandler is particularly good as Chrissie Hynde. But that’s about it.

My recommendation would be to give this series a miss. It’s nowhere near as good as, say, the movies 24 Hour Party People or Control. Sid and Nancy is also a lot better.
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You are the 2nd person that's said the first few episodes are not good but it does get better and also that Chrissie Hynde character is good.
Is Siouxsie in it?
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
You are the 2nd person that's said the first few episodes are not good but it does get better and also that Chrissie Hynde character is good.
Is Siouxsie in it?
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Yes. The actress who plays her looks the part and features in quite a few scenes in a couple of episodes but does not have a large speaking role.

As for the earlier episodes, the worst one focuses on ‘Pauline’ who, of course, inspired the song ‘Bodies’. Not having read Jones’s autobiography, I don’t know whether the series plays fast and loose with what actually went on but it was an execrable piece of drama that nearly made me give up on the whole series.

Thankfully, things got better after that.

One episode to go.
 
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