The plans for National ID cards were quite far advanced here when they were abandoned. So in this case it was true.

I will try and watch this series but, if as you say, his OCD behaviours disappeared I too would find that a weakness in the role portrayal - or at least certainly in the scriptwriting/ direction. You would think that an actor would point out something like that...perhaps Benedict did? If anything, when times got more stressful you might well expect to see an increase in such behaviours, not a decrease or disappearance of them.

Directors have a powerful influence on  the quality of work actors produce. As a favourite actor of mine once said 'a bad director can get a poor performance from a talented actor whereas a good director can get a brilliant performance from a mediocre actor.'

Nextflix for us had subtitles that were quite distracting mainly because they were in some other language. I've no idea what language though.

I am thinking that the writing must be a big part of the disconnect. I used to love the TV show Numb3rs. That was also about a mathematical genius. Now when Charlie (from Numb3rs) talked about mathematical concepts it was incredibly genuine. It made me believe that the actor, who apparently can't add 2+2, sound and look absolutely credible. Where as the scene with higher mathematics in this series fell flat. That is in the writing.

Once again the bit that I bought about that particular scene in this show was Lesard's reaction to one of the execs trying to help explain his mathematical theory to the other exec by comparing ti to music. Stephan Lesard objected to that defense of his theory because it wasn't at all like music. When the defending exec tried to explain to Lessard why he was using that anaology, Lesard stubbornly insisted that it isn't like music. Now that bit was quite genuine.

The fact that the national identification cards nearly happened in the UK is a bit frightening. I wonder if mini-series like this one had anything to do with its failure.

Last edited by AliceI (February 27, 2013 11:04 am)

Resurrecting an old thread because I just finished watching this on DVD (more of my Sherlock Xmas).

I thought it was a very interesting series that dealt with some surprisingly topical subjects (even though it was made a few years back in 2007-8).  It wasn't as good by any means as Parade's End or To The Ends of the Earth but still it held my interest throughout. 

I do think the story was a bit too convoluted for its own good and I agree some of the character behaviour of Stephen Ezard became forgotten near the end.  But I don't really have a big problem with that (it is a weakness in a story-telling sense but it didn't ruin my overall interest in what was happening plot-wise to the characters and it didn't weaken my interest in Stephen). 

I thought Cumberbatch did a great job.  I wish they had kept the one romantic scene they cut with Stephen and Yasim after they had sex and Stephen is blowing bubbles and explaining the mathematical beauty in a bubble to her.  I saw it in the deleted scenes on the DVD and thought it really explained a lot about the mind of Stephen.  And besides BC did an incredible job in that scene. 

I was greatly saddened by the ending but felt that it couldn't end any other way really so I was kind of glad they stuck to what was right for the story - anything else other than a dystopic ending would have felt too "merry sunshine" and that wouldn't have been right at all.  Poor Stephen.  I was left with this distinct impression that he might even commit suicide.  I just couldn't see him living in such a controlled world barren of everything he had discovered that mattered to him. 

Has anyone else seen the DVD outtakes?  They are hilarious and Cumberbatch is so funny in some of them!! 

The spider on his face in one scene really cracked me (and him) up.  He almost was able to continue but then broke into laughter after he swept it away from one of his now famous cheek bones.

-Val

Lucky "thpider"!

Until it got swept away, that is.


-Val

Hah!   That's a good one!

Thwept away indeed.

Still, lucky, lucky, little spider to be so close to those eyes and those cheekbones.

-Val