So I spent two days lying on my couch this week, lapsing in and out of feverish sleep waiting for the antibiotics to kick in.The first day, I watched an entire HBO series available on TMN on Demand called Tell Me You Love Me. Well that was quite something, let me tell you. Remember thirtysomething? It was like that, but with extremely explicit sex scenes. I mean EXTREMELY explicit sex scenes. There were scrotal sacks and bare breasts and even erect penises, and some flaccid ones, on full display, and I honestly cannot see how some of those sex scenes were not actual sex scenes. I mean I just don't know where the thrusting actor would have stuck the thing if not ... well ... in the welcoming petunia of the actress lying spread-eagled beneath him. It was really quite something.
But once you get past the sex scenes, the show was actually enthralling in other ways. Three relationships, all of them in trouble, all centred around the same couples counsellor. The first a young couple in the first blush of young love with major trust issues. The other a married couple trying desperately to get pregnant and having sex constantly, but not always terribly joyously. The third couple is the most heartbreaking -- they are totally in synch on the children and family front, both good and kind people who clearly love one another, but have stopped having sex and just cannot get it back on. They were the most compelling and the couple you were rooting for with the most intensity. Just do it, Dave and Katie! Get drunk if you must and get it on!!!
If you like shows about the vagaries of romantic love, and you don't mind the odd wild sex scene breaking out, you should check it out.
The second day, I watched two of last year's best-reviewed films: Little Children and Notes on a Scandal. The first one was at least a half-hour too long at more than two hours and I found it disturbing at times because it was all about adultery and how selfish and narcissistic it really is, when you get right down to it. The adults in the movie, in fact, were the children. But the acting was great and Patrick Wilson might have the most astonishing physique I have ever seen on a man. Kate Winslet, as always, was luminous and wonderful.
Notes on a Scandal was fantastic, fast-paced and well-written. Judi Dench is brilliant as a nasty, hateful old crone and Cate Blanchett is almost sympathetic as the schoolteacher who embarks upon a doomed affair with a 15-year-old student.
Sick days .... even when you're wishing someone would come over and snuff the life out of you, you can at least catch up on your television and movie-viewing.
15 comments:
I remember putting 'Tell Me You Love Me' on one afternoon and falling asleep in front of the tv only to wake up to balls balls everywhere! Shocking!
Notes on a Scandal was just delicious no? Loved everything about it from start to finish.
Get well soon slacker.
I've never seen so many balls on my television set unless of course it's the TMN weekend porno. And then, you know, you kind of expect it.
And the rack on that Carolyn woman! Sweet Jesus! Those are some spectacular melons.
Really loved Notes on a Scandal. Every minute of it, even when I got uncomfortable during the dancing scene and really felt Dame Judy's pain.
The moment when Judi's soaking in the tub with the voiceover about being lonely will always stay with me. The whole thing was powerful.
Oh, I know. There but for the grace of God ....
Loved Notes on a Scandal. Book was good, but Dame Judi's brilliance made that flick a rare thing: better than the book.
What channel is Tell me you love me on? Or maybe I should get the box set and then get six. Jacy can you send me some throat swabs?
Hey, why won't they let us non-Blogger users put in our web address any more?
I enjoyed Notes on a Scandal. Did those two have fun playing those roles or what!
I read Little Children a few years ago, so I caught the movie when it hit OnDemand. Patrick Wilson was so worth the $3.99.
Hope you're feeling better soon, doll.
Tell Me You Love Me was an HBO show available on TMN. If you have TMN on Demand, you can watch them all this weekend!
But make sure the kids aren't around!
My pal T-Wizzle has been telling me to watch "Tell Me You Love Me" for over a month now. Once I manifest the money for HBO or On Demand, I'll catch up.
Loved Little Children, and I agree that it was a bit too long in parts. I have the biggest girl crush on Kate Winslet. Still haven't seen Notes on a Scandal but will add it to my Netflix queue.
I love her too but the only thing I didn't like about her character was the way she treated her kid. That little girl was so cute and she treated her like dirt most of the time, except at the very end.
I felt the mother/daughter relationship in this film was a sad but well done portrayal of a parent who hasn't really bonded with her child.
What is it about the hardcore sexy times in TV series recently? I'm male and in my early 30s. Of course I enjoy seeing women without their clothes on! But wtf?
I stopped watching Six Feet Under because it seemed like two thirds of the show was Nate and whatsherface humping. It got tired in a hurry. I'd start shouting at the TV, demanding to know how this was advancing the plot.
The gratuitous business time in Rome and The Tudors was arousing, but ultimately distracting. Enough already. If I want to see people in period costume doing the nasty, I can rent a porno.
You won't like Tell Me You Love Me then. Sex breaks out all over the place, even between the grey-haired marriage counsellor and her grey-haired husband, for no reason at all and in ways that have nothing to do with advancing the plot.
Nonetheless, it makes me feel all schwingy inside, because there is something more erotic about it than porn, because there are no gynecological closeups.
Hey, whatever waters your petunia!
Hope you're feeling better.
Really like Notes on a Scandal and still mean to read the book. Enjoyed Little Children well enough at the time but found it unmemorable.
On a less positve note, just rented Waitress last night and found it overall awful. There were a few interesting things about it, but the characters and plot were amateurish beyond belief. anyone else sen it?
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