Without seeing a frame, if you’d heard Julian Fellowes, the creative force behind Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and lots of Conservative Party speeches had turned his robust pen to the story of Titanic, what would you expect? Probably this.
From the first shot, there’s no messing, we’re straight in, with the ship looming in port, a man rushing home to his wife with tickets for the much-heralded maiden voyage, and one of those ominous conversations that always takes place at the start of disaster movies:
“Steerage?” she says. “It won’t be so bad,” he replies. I guess it’s all relative.
From there, we skip around, being introduced to lots of people very quickly, and a lot relies on us knowing the basic framework of the plot, something Fellowes rightfully doesn’t worry about – most people over 30 have always known, and James Cameron took care of the rest.
In the big screen blockbuster, we had a cowardly captain with a big villain’s arrow pointing at him from the outset. Here, it’s some posh bloke insisting too many lifeboats will interfere with the look of his ship: “I will not have the promenade deck ruined or the ladies terrified out of their wits.” So that’s the looming disaster aspect covered then? Tick.
From there it’s a swift return to Fellowes doing what Fellowes does best – beautiful people in bushy hats falling out with each other over sherry. All his trademarks are fully accounted for. Bashful glances between the servants as they go about their business, while the upper classes remain troubled by more worldly concerns – references to suffragette struggles and the Irish Problem abound. And of course, there are the confines of a rocking ship to throw everyone, quite literally, together against the rail, where who knows what attachments may ensue.
But if Fellowes’ flicks of the pen verge on cliché, it’s because they work. The writer is at his best with the intricacies, awkwardnesses, betrayals and opportunities presented by marvellous group set pieces, where the impending doom feels kind of incidental. When everyone’s dancing, this series feels like one that could go on and on – if the ship wasn’t about to hit an iceberg.
And thereby lies the rub. It’s all beautifully shot, definitely comparable with Cameron’s epic in terms of scope and design, and deeper in character, but...
There are just too many characters for the length of time we have to invest in them. This series is only four episodes long in total, we’re already a quarter of the way through, and with the iceberg already making its presence known, there’s no real incentive to get too attached to anyone either. With Fellowes’ skills, it could have been 26 episodes long and really provide a generation-defining tableau of society instead of these strangely arbitrary brushstrokes.
Can everyone be issued a name badge along with a life-jacket for episode two, I wonder? The only one I could remember by the time the credits rolled was Lady Georgiana, and that was only because, let’s be honest, she was the nearest we had to Kate Winslet’s Rose.
Enough people cared about the fates of Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio to make Titanic the highest-grossing film of all time. Fellowes has set himself the almost impossible task of making us bothered about the fates of too many others in less screen time, even something about an indiscretion with a prostitute in Greenwich, bizarrely, which seemed a bit superfluous bearing in mind the boat was sinking. It was at this point I gave up and decided just to enjoy the hats.
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Without seeing a frame, if you’d heard Julian Fellowes, the creative force behind Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and lots of Conservative Party speeches had turned his robust pen to the story of Titani...
Without seeing a frame, if you’d heard Julian Fellowes, the creative force behind Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and lots of Conservative Party speeches had turned his robust pen to the story of Titani...
Well at least no-one will have to sit through a second series about the return voyage to southampton. Very wooden and shallow characters and I wanted to drown half the cast before they even saw an iceberg. I will resume watching Hawaii-five-o next week.
vermithrax: Well at least no-one will have to sit through a
Missed it, and by the sound of it, glad! Always bothers me anyway that one of the main contributing factors to the disaster is either glossed over or missed out completely. The fact that no officer on board would lend the lookouts in the crows nest a pair of binoculars - had they spotted the iceberg 15 metres sooner, disaster could have been averted!
minimemo: Missed it, and by the sound of it, glad! Always
Hi Caroline,
I thought much the same - so many characters and none of them are fleshed out at all. I actually thought Lady Georgiana was not only the closest approximation to James Cameron's Rose, but also a carbon copy of Sybil from Downton Abbey.
In response to Alex7777 - I'm not American either but if I was I'd be pretty upset at my portrayal in this - they're not all arrogant, ill-mannered and shallow, Lord Fellowes.
hp_blogger_Richard Berry: Hi Caroline, I thought much the same - so many
Give it a chance, I wonder if it is American reviewers criticising this drama. Well theres a surprise.
They don't stop to think about all the shallow rubbish they pump out.
Alex7777: Give it a chance, I wonder if it is American
Its a work of fiction, but as a Southampton resident, one that I can't let go considering that out of 700 crew from Southampton on the Titanic, 548 of them died in the disaster including my great great grandfather. In some schools in the city, over half of the children were made orphans overnight. There is a genuine moving story there to be told, but why bother when you can throw some lazy stereotypes about posh & irish people eh?
Soton_Docker: Its a work of fiction, but as a Southampton resident,
1964. "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Debbie Reynolds, as Molly Brown, was on the Titanic. When it (off camera) hit the iceberg, the special effects budget allowed for a bucket of ice to be thrown at Debbie's feet.
That cheesy bucket of ice was more entertaining than the entire snooze-fest I just witnessed. More effort was placed into the construction of really big and really ugly hats than character development.
Then there is all the "selective hearing" bits. Woman that doesn't want to be Irish and Husband enter cabin and speak as though Maid and Butler are not there. Maid and Butler pretend not to hear. Then Husband tells Butler to do something - without saying his name - and Butler hears. So Maid and Butler ARE listening all the time? All that money and you still haven't figured that part out yet? Oh... the class system. I forgot.
I guess this is what happens when you look forward to something. Perhaps the reverse is true - I had little expectation going into "The Artist" last December.. and absolutely loved it.
Have a nice day. Well, women and children first of course.
AlamoSexual: 1964. "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Debbie Reynolds, as Molly Brown,
I turned the programme off after the first few minutes. It was obvious there wasn't going to be much about the Titanic, it was just another Upstairs Downstairs with a slightly different background. Yet, Channel 5's "Inside the Titanic" (last Thursday) had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the whole programme. It consisted mostly of known and perhaps unknown facts with perhaps a little personal drama thrown in like the mother searching for her lost child or the romance between the young society man and his mistress or one heroic rescue, all which probably happened. But, there the human fiction ended and it dealt mostly with the technical details of what really affected the ship itself. It was the factual way programmes should be when dealing with historical events, not a load of fairy stories woven in.
bellsheil: I turned the programme off after the first few minutes.
There was a drama dcumentary on the other night called inside the titanic it was baed on urvivors testimony and was really good. William Murdock came from my home town and his family donated an annual prize in his name. there are a number of events planned to commemorate the disaster.
ajairley: There was a drama dcumentary on the other night called
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Posted: 25/03/2012 22:36 Updated: 25/03/2012 23:30