The end of Little Dorrit
Apr. 6th, 2009 09:48 amI finished watching Little Dorrit the other night, and wow, did that ending fly past? Part of which can be blamed on Dickens Himself, who traps his protagonist in a small room and then lets all the other characters run around between locations, but mostly I think the adaptation dropped the ball. The Big Revelation happens about three times, and all kinds of characters are just dropped.
YES, I AM BITTER BECAUSE TATTYCORAM DIDN'T GET HER BIG VINDICATION SPEECH. Although, even Miss Wade's vindication/self-justification speech was cut down and un-queered, which is kind of ironic when you consider how much they were pursuing the lesbian subtext. But seriously, I smell a cut scene: we go straight from Tatty leaving Miss Wade with The Box Of Secrets, to her leaving the Marshalsea, and Clennam having the Box.
Also lost: Tattycoram's reunion with the Meagles. Which is disappointing, because I'd really been hoping the script would change it slightly from the original, so that Tatty's not just returning to the status quo and begging forgiveness for her frustration with servitude. Instead, we get more tedious exposition about John Chivery's romantic angst, and you know, I hate Russell Tovey with a passion, so I can't think of anything worse than watching him snivel his Nice Guy snivel.
I can't find any info regarding cut scenes on the DVD, but I'm hopeful. Otherwise, the only conclusion I can reach is that Andrew Davies failed at the script, and I quite like Davies and don't want to believe he could stuff up on such a scale.
Finally, and in conclusion, the most important thing: Tattycoram's hair in the final episodes:
You rock that wig, Freema.
YES, I AM BITTER BECAUSE TATTYCORAM DIDN'T GET HER BIG VINDICATION SPEECH. Although, even Miss Wade's vindication/self-justification speech was cut down and un-queered, which is kind of ironic when you consider how much they were pursuing the lesbian subtext. But seriously, I smell a cut scene: we go straight from Tatty leaving Miss Wade with The Box Of Secrets, to her leaving the Marshalsea, and Clennam having the Box.
Also lost: Tattycoram's reunion with the Meagles. Which is disappointing, because I'd really been hoping the script would change it slightly from the original, so that Tatty's not just returning to the status quo and begging forgiveness for her frustration with servitude. Instead, we get more tedious exposition about John Chivery's romantic angst, and you know, I hate Russell Tovey with a passion, so I can't think of anything worse than watching him snivel his Nice Guy snivel.
I can't find any info regarding cut scenes on the DVD, but I'm hopeful. Otherwise, the only conclusion I can reach is that Andrew Davies failed at the script, and I quite like Davies and don't want to believe he could stuff up on such a scale.
Finally, and in conclusion, the most important thing: Tattycoram's hair in the final episodes:
You rock that wig, Freema.

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Date: 2009-04-06 12:53 am (UTC)Awww, that is annoying. Although it sounds like they wanted to avoid the whole 'Meagles graciously forgive Tatty for having a personality' scenario. Which is inevitable in the story as written, but when you make her black there's just no way it can happen, and I'm kind of grateful they didn't try.
Also, agreed to the Nth level of agreement on John Chivery, though I only know him via the book as yet. Classic case of a character being a lot less appealing that the author thinks.
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Date: 2009-04-06 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 02:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 06:53 am (UTC)