The Acting The Acting
Whenever my grandmother, who was from Lithuania originally, went to the theatre, we asked her what she'd thought of it.
"Ahhh," she would sigh in rapture. "The acting! The acting!"
I had the television on recently with the sound turned down, and actually, I wasn't very impressed with the acting. It was a supposedly-realistic police series and, as I watched, I wondered whether there was any way this could be mistaken for a documentary.
And there wasn't. Everyone was just overdoing it that bit much. With the sound turned up, you are drawn into the plot and don't tend to notice: but with the sound down everyone appeared to be pulling faces.
It's a game I rather enjoy - turn the telly on with the sound down and then guess. Drama or documentary? Of course it's not just the acting that makes the difference. But when it's a drama that's supposed to look like a documentary, and it doesn't, that's not good.
Not all television drama is realistic of course. If you watch Coronation Street, which is the King - or more likely Queen - of British soaps, with the sound turned down, it doesn't look natural at all. But then again, it was never meant to. The Corrie acting style is slightly heightened - there is lots of broad comedy, for example.
Just occasionally you get a very subtle tragic scene which can be very moving. Some people are very disparaging of "only a soap" but Corrie has the pick of the actors and in general they're excellent.
The other telly game that's good to play is watching the commercials with the sound turned down and looking at them all as if they're advertising contraceptives. I find that most of them seem to be.
"Ahhh," she would sigh in rapture. "The acting! The acting!"
I had the television on recently with the sound turned down, and actually, I wasn't very impressed with the acting. It was a supposedly-realistic police series and, as I watched, I wondered whether there was any way this could be mistaken for a documentary.
And there wasn't. Everyone was just overdoing it that bit much. With the sound turned up, you are drawn into the plot and don't tend to notice: but with the sound down everyone appeared to be pulling faces.
It's a game I rather enjoy - turn the telly on with the sound down and then guess. Drama or documentary? Of course it's not just the acting that makes the difference. But when it's a drama that's supposed to look like a documentary, and it doesn't, that's not good.
Not all television drama is realistic of course. If you watch Coronation Street, which is the King - or more likely Queen - of British soaps, with the sound turned down, it doesn't look natural at all. But then again, it was never meant to. The Corrie acting style is slightly heightened - there is lots of broad comedy, for example.
Just occasionally you get a very subtle tragic scene which can be very moving. Some people are very disparaging of "only a soap" but Corrie has the pick of the actors and in general they're excellent.
The other telly game that's good to play is watching the commercials with the sound turned down and looking at them all as if they're advertising contraceptives. I find that most of them seem to be.
posted by Daphne at 7:36 pm
1 Comments:
Forget "Corrie" - "EastEnders" is the Emperor of the soaps! But I agree with you about how easy it is to disparage soaps. It's usually intellectual snobs who are guilty of this and clearly they very rarely watch soaps. To appreciate a soap you have to ride with it over a long period of time, observing character development and the intricate weaving of plots, the building of histories. I hate it when idiots who never watch "EastEnders" dismiss it as morbid or pessimistic. There are many laughs in it though obviously not as many as in "Corrie" which seems to so often be tongue-in-cheek... mind you I shouldn't be talking about "Corrie" as I never watch it.
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