He has probably spent that on cleaning things, and that is how he is experiencing his "housekeeper" ie cleaning=housekeeping. thus the money will be gone.
Or she could just be his live housekeeper. I reckon so.
I think the funny parts were intentional. Like when he asked why Alex was now wearing lipstick.
I really think that this role shows the limitations of Reece Shearsmith as an actor. He can only do one thing at a time so his characters come over as one-dimensional. We needed someone who could be annoying but also vulnerable and sympathetic.
This role could have been played like Monk, or like Saga in The Bridge, if they had cast an actor as good as Tony Shalhoub or Sofia Helin.
I think it's a bit early to judge a performance as one dimensional, only one episode in. If anything Reece Shearsmith, as well as Alex Kingston, were limited to being fairly "one dimensional" characters because that's all the script has given them so far. What scenes gave them anything else to work with? I thought Shearsmith did a nice bit of vulnerability with the scene with the housekeeper, where all the brusque bravado fell away and he was plaintively asking if he'd done it wrong, so if there's more scenes like that in upcoming episodes, I can imagine he will be shown more vulnerably, and thus more sympathetically. The same happened in The Bridge (though I agree it was a better written show with better written characters), a lot of viewers didn't like Saga much to begin with, but as it went on and we saw her vulnerabilities, she made more sense and people warmed to her.
Anyway, I thought Shearsmith did crotchety yet vulnerable very well in the episode of Inside No. 9 where his character allows a homeless man into his flat. I disagree he can only play one thing at a time. Just like Alex Kingston can play more than cheery mumsy warmth, if given the material!
Well, it wasn't very suspenseful. It was cute but there wasn't a lot to it. I also don't understand how he holds down a good job but needs a housekeeper/carer at home.
Shearsmith's character does feel very similar to The Widower but I think in general he's a good actor. Some of his performances in The League of Gentlemen were really moving and emotional as well as being funny. Maybe he doesn't feel as comfortable acting in something that he hasn't written and therefore created.
I think Gatiss and Pemberton are both good actors. Maybe people don't find them believable because they've seen TLOG but that's not their fault.
I know that all the public services nowadays have to support 'equal opportunities and diversity' and I applaud that (as long as people don't take the proverbial).
But I do think that, even with the above mandate, it would still have been extremely difficult for Shearsmith's character to have risen in the ranks to DS.
Okay, in the opening moments, we were shown how difficult it was for him to deal with the politics of presenting the police in a good light and the consequences of this, but surely he would never have got far enough to have that opportunity in the first place? I think he would have been placed in an admin job instead.
I recorded the first episode as I watched it yesterday evening, but was doing other things while watching. I was, however, irritated that 'the autistic spectrum' detective was being used....again. Shearsmith plays him okay, but it's not new and that grates a little.
I need to watch it again I guess, because I thought it was okay, but not really that gripping and a little predictable. And sorry if I was supposed to jump before the end, I thought we all would have seen that coming .
Having said all that, though, I will keep watching. I'm often wrong about the first episode of a series and am hoping to be proved wrong this time too and that it will turn out very worth watching.
Shearsmith's character is too self-consciously "Saga with a dick", with, so far, none of the subtlety or charm of Helin's performance.
Maybe it is the distancing efect of having to 'read' the character through subtitles, or simply that she's a woman, but where Saga was frequently brusque and cold in her social interactions, Sean seems somehow much more deliberately rude and even angry, particularly where he confronts both Taylor's school firend and the older lad about their lying.
I tuned in after reading praise for Reese Shearsmith's "The Widower" program but like clm2071, I'm not gripped by Chasing Shadows. The plot's run-of-the-mill.
And that the problem, he seems to only be able to act in a low key sort of way, in both, not impressed with him at all as a actor, shame as the other two main actors are brilliant.
I like Alex Kingston and I liked Reece Shearsmith in The Widow.
But - watching this now and it really is not very good. You can really see them "acting" which is a big no no in my book. And her interaction with her son is actually quite painful to watch.
And it does give the impression of hanging on the coat tails of The Bridge, which was brilliant.
Well, it wasn't very suspenseful. It was cute but there wasn't a lot to it. I also don't understand how he holds down a good job but needs a housekeeper/carer at home.
Shearsmith's character does feel very similar to The Widower but I think in general he's a good actor. Some of his performances in The League of Gentlemen were really moving and emotional as well as being funny. Maybe he doesn't feel as comfortable acting in something that he hasn't written and therefore created.
I think Gatiss and Pemberton are both good actors. Maybe people don't find them believable because they've seen TLOG but that's not their fault.
I don't think she's a carer - just a domestic cleaner/housekeeper. If he's working long hours and dislikes housework, it's not strange at all that he would have a cleaner/housekeeper. Loads of people with demanding jobs have cleaners because they don't have the time or inclination to do their own cleaning. There was no indication that it was anything to do with his autism (or whatever his particular cliché cop weirdness is supposed to be).
Generally I thought it was OKish and I'll keep watching, but I agree with all the criticisms - it's very much a hotchpotch of ideas stolen from other shows. Certainly nothing to write home about.
The acting is quite often ropey in the first episode of a new series - it might improve.
Having the top shirt button done up, but not wearing a tie = "must be a savant" in the Script Writers Cliché Handbook.
And it ticked just about every box in that handbook.
Didn't Rupert Penry Jones have something like OCD in his Whitechapel days? But hasn't it always been so? It used to be that the flawed cops were mostly hopeless drunks who, to their credit and to everyone else's surprise, were better cops than their sober, incompetent colleagues, but who in reality would have had their arse kicked out the force long ago.
They're going to have to up the ante. A drunk's been done to death. OcD's now been checked. There was also a piece of crap several years ago called Midnight Man with James Nesbitt about an investigative journalist who helped the cops, but who suffered from a disease that meant he couldn't go out in the daylight, until of course the script called for it, which was basically all the time as the people he had to investigate functioned in the normal world and not throughout the night. But he solved this problem by putting on a floppy hat and merrily strolled about all day. It should have been a comedy, but it died a death, and Autistic Savant will go the same way pretty shortly if the acting and writing in this doesn't get any better.
So what's next? Attention Deficiency Disorder? S/he screws up every case because they haven't been paying the slightest bit of notice to what's going on around them.
................So what's next? Attention Deficiency Disorder? S/he screws up every case because they haven't been paying the slightest bit of notice to what's going on around them.
Many years ago there was a detective with one arm (Sabre?); we've had a fat detective (Cannon), we've even had a dead detective (Hopkirk). In fiction there's been a blind detective (Max Caradoc?) and even a cat detective (Felicae?)
Let's be grateful that we haven't been down the american route and had psychic detectives. Well, apart from tony hill.
Puzzled because of all the negative reactions to Shearsmith. Do none of you
know that he he is a multi award winning, Olivier nominated actor and writer
of 15 years of startlingly original television? Not versatile?! In the League of Gentlemen
ALONE he played over 60 characters! And most recently in "Inside No 9" he was utterly
brilliant and different in six distinctive roles. The worst person in this is Alex Kingston -
who is huge (far too theatrical) and really unsubtle next to the others. I'm not a big fan of the saturated detective show. But couldn't stand by and read these ludicrous comments about a fantastic actor getting a real disservice from these ignorant comments. "All he seems to be able to do is low key acting" -a) what an idiotic comment and b) tell that to Alex Kingston!
Puzzled because of all the negative reactions to Shearsmith. Do none of you
know that he he is a multi award winning, Olivier nominated actor and writer
of 15 years of startlingly original television? Not versatile?! In the League of Gentlemen
ALONE he played over 60 characters! And most recently in "Inside No 9" he was utterly
brilliant and different in six distinctive roles. The worst person in this is Alex Kingston -
who is huge (far too theatrical) and really unsubtle next to the others. I'm not a big fan of the saturated detective show. But couldn't stand by and read these ludicrous comments about a fantastic actor getting a real disservice from these ignorant comments. "All he seems to be able to do is low key acting" -a) what an idiotic comment and b) tell that to Alex Kingston!
Is that you Reece?
I thought you and Pemberton were absolutely brilliant in Psychoville, and I would even go as far as to say that, in my opinion, it was better than LOG, the writing, the plotting, the acting, everything. .
So don't let the comments get to you. It's the mediocre writing that's letting you down in this cliched, formulaic piece of instantly forgettable television. You should have written it yourself, or at the very least rewrote it.
Puzzled because of all the negative reactions to Shearsmith. Do none of you
know that he he is a multi award winning, Olivier nominated actor and writer
of 15 years of startlingly original television? Not versatile?! In the League of Gentlemen
ALONE he played over 60 characters! And most recently in "Inside No 9" he was utterly
brilliant and different in six distinctive roles. The worst person in this is Alex Kingston -
who is huge (far too theatrical) and really unsubtle next to the others. I'm not a big fan of the saturated detective show. But couldn't stand by and read these ludicrous comments about a fantastic actor getting a real disservice from these ignorant comments. "All he seems to be able to do is low key acting" -a) what an idiotic comment and b) tell that to Alex Kingston!
You seem to be confusing make-up, silly voices and different accents with versatility. Of all of them I think Steve Pemberton is the most versatile but still not great.
Puzzled because of all the negative reactions to Shearsmith. Do none of you
know that he he is a multi award winning, Olivier nominated actor and writer
of 15 years of startlingly original television? Not versatile?! In the League of Gentlemen
ALONE he played over 60 characters! And most recently in "Inside No 9" he was utterly
brilliant and different in six distinctive roles. The worst person in this is Alex Kingston -
who is huge (far too theatrical) and really unsubtle next to the others. I'm not a big fan of the saturated detective show. But couldn't stand by and read these ludicrous comments about a fantastic actor getting a real disservice from these ignorant comments. "All he seems to be able to do is low key acting" -a) what an idiotic comment and b) tell that to Alex Kingston!
i will give you he can play the over the top 'League of Gentlemen' parts, and yes all the cast in that was ground-breaking. But having watched this and the last few major parts, sorry no he can't act that deep, the actress in 'The Tunnel' got this sort of part perfect, for me he was just not right, But as for Steve Pemberton, he can act as has been brill is everything he has done since.
i enjoyed it more than i thought.
My fiance ended up getting up early & happened to be sitting on the sofa while i was watching it. He ended up watching it with me & he likes it.
He rarely watches tv so it cant be that bad
Wow he is just like my BIL and my SIL has always said she thinks he has aspergers but no one ever seems to take her seriously. I hope my MIL has watched this and seen a connection. Its just how he is in everyway.
Anyway it was watchable but nothing to get excited about. Not gripping in any way.
You seem to be confusing make-up, silly voices and different accents with versatility. Of all of them I think Steve Pemberton is the most versatile but still not great.
Haha. Ok I think there's no arguing with that rather simplistic reply. Good luck to you.
i will give you he can play the over the top 'League of Gentlemen' parts, and yes all the cast in that was ground-breaking. But having watched this and the last few major parts, sorry no he can't act that deep, the actress in 'The Tunnel' got this sort of part perfect, for me he was just not right, But as for Steve Pemberton, he can act as has been brill is everything he has done since.
I'll see you here next May, when Shearsmith is nominated for a Best Actor BAFTA for "The Widower". Pemberton on the other hand - is always camp and dreadful. No difference between him in Beniidorm and Whitechapel, both ghastly over the top shows.
I thought you and Pemberton were absolutely brilliant in Psychoville, and I would even go as far as to say that, in my opinion, it was better than LOG, the writing, the plotting, the acting, everything. .
So don't let the comments get to you. It's the mediocre writing that's letting you down in this cliched, formulaic piece of instantly forgettable television. You should have written it yourself, or at the very least rewrote it.
Yes, I think Psychoville is the best work they have done together. It could have stretched to another series with a resurrected Maureen
Comments
Or she could just be his live housekeeper. I reckon so.
I think the funny parts were intentional. Like when he asked why Alex was now wearing lipstick.
I think it's a bit early to judge a performance as one dimensional, only one episode in. If anything Reece Shearsmith, as well as Alex Kingston, were limited to being fairly "one dimensional" characters because that's all the script has given them so far. What scenes gave them anything else to work with? I thought Shearsmith did a nice bit of vulnerability with the scene with the housekeeper, where all the brusque bravado fell away and he was plaintively asking if he'd done it wrong, so if there's more scenes like that in upcoming episodes, I can imagine he will be shown more vulnerably, and thus more sympathetically. The same happened in The Bridge (though I agree it was a better written show with better written characters), a lot of viewers didn't like Saga much to begin with, but as it went on and we saw her vulnerabilities, she made more sense and people warmed to her.
Anyway, I thought Shearsmith did crotchety yet vulnerable very well in the episode of Inside No. 9 where his character allows a homeless man into his flat. I disagree he can only play one thing at a time. Just like Alex Kingston can play more than cheery mumsy warmth, if given the material!
Shearsmith's character does feel very similar to The Widower but I think in general he's a good actor. Some of his performances in The League of Gentlemen were really moving and emotional as well as being funny. Maybe he doesn't feel as comfortable acting in something that he hasn't written and therefore created.
I think Gatiss and Pemberton are both good actors. Maybe people don't find them believable because they've seen TLOG but that's not their fault.
TBH at this point I'm hoping his fascination with serial killers is a huge F-Off flag that he's going to come to a sticky end in parts 3 & 4!!
But I do think that, even with the above mandate, it would still have been extremely difficult for Shearsmith's character to have risen in the ranks to DS.
Okay, in the opening moments, we were shown how difficult it was for him to deal with the politics of presenting the police in a good light and the consequences of this, but surely he would never have got far enough to have that opportunity in the first place? I think he would have been placed in an admin job instead.
I recorded the first episode as I watched it yesterday evening, but was doing other things while watching. I was, however, irritated that 'the autistic spectrum' detective was being used....again. Shearsmith plays him okay, but it's not new and that grates a little.
I need to watch it again I guess, because I thought it was okay, but not really that gripping and a little predictable. And sorry if I was supposed to jump before the end, I thought we all would have seen that coming
Having said all that, though, I will keep watching. I'm often wrong about the first episode of a series and am hoping to be proved wrong this time too and that it will turn out very worth watching.
Maybe it is the distancing efect of having to 'read' the character through subtitles, or simply that she's a woman, but where Saga was frequently brusque and cold in her social interactions, Sean seems somehow much more deliberately rude and even angry, particularly where he confronts both Taylor's school firend and the older lad about their lying.
I'm not sure it entirely works.
And that the problem, he seems to only be able to act in a low key sort of way, in both, not impressed with him at all as a actor, shame as the other two main actors are brilliant.
Not great but will stick with it in the hope it improves.
But - watching this now and it really is not very good. You can really see them "acting" which is a big no no in my book. And her interaction with her son is actually quite painful to watch.
And it does give the impression of hanging on the coat tails of The Bridge, which was brilliant.
I will give it a chance though - might improve.
I don't think she's a carer - just a domestic cleaner/housekeeper. If he's working long hours and dislikes housework, it's not strange at all that he would have a cleaner/housekeeper. Loads of people with demanding jobs have cleaners because they don't have the time or inclination to do their own cleaning. There was no indication that it was anything to do with his autism (or whatever his particular cliché cop weirdness is supposed to be).
Generally I thought it was OKish and I'll keep watching, but I agree with all the criticisms - it's very much a hotchpotch of ideas stolen from other shows. Certainly nothing to write home about.
The acting is quite often ropey in the first episode of a new series - it might improve.
And it ticked just about every box in that handbook.
Didn't Rupert Penry Jones have something like OCD in his Whitechapel days? But hasn't it always been so? It used to be that the flawed cops were mostly hopeless drunks who, to their credit and to everyone else's surprise, were better cops than their sober, incompetent colleagues, but who in reality would have had their arse kicked out the force long ago.
They're going to have to up the ante. A drunk's been done to death. OcD's now been checked. There was also a piece of crap several years ago called Midnight Man with James Nesbitt about an investigative journalist who helped the cops, but who suffered from a disease that meant he couldn't go out in the daylight, until of course the script called for it, which was basically all the time as the people he had to investigate functioned in the normal world and not throughout the night. But he solved this problem by putting on a floppy hat and merrily strolled about all day. It should have been a comedy, but it died a death, and Autistic Savant will go the same way pretty shortly if the acting and writing in this doesn't get any better.
So what's next? Attention Deficiency Disorder? S/he screws up every case because they haven't been paying the slightest bit of notice to what's going on around them.
Hmm, I could possibly be interested, if I knew what the hell you/this thread was about, channel, when it was due to air, some clue to the content.
Aggressive much?
Many years ago there was a detective with one arm (Sabre?); we've had a fat detective (Cannon), we've even had a dead detective (Hopkirk). In fiction there's been a blind detective (Max Caradoc?) and even a cat detective (Felicae?)
Let's be grateful that we haven't been down the american route and had psychic detectives. Well, apart from tony hill.
know that he he is a multi award winning, Olivier nominated actor and writer
of 15 years of startlingly original television? Not versatile?! In the League of Gentlemen
ALONE he played over 60 characters! And most recently in "Inside No 9" he was utterly
brilliant and different in six distinctive roles. The worst person in this is Alex Kingston -
who is huge (far too theatrical) and really unsubtle next to the others. I'm not a big fan of the saturated detective show. But couldn't stand by and read these ludicrous comments about a fantastic actor getting a real disservice from these ignorant comments. "All he seems to be able to do is low key acting" -a) what an idiotic comment and b) tell that to Alex Kingston!
Is that you Reece?
I thought you and Pemberton were absolutely brilliant in Psychoville, and I would even go as far as to say that, in my opinion, it was better than LOG, the writing, the plotting, the acting, everything. .
So don't let the comments get to you. It's the mediocre writing that's letting you down in this cliched, formulaic piece of instantly forgettable television. You should have written it yourself, or at the very least rewrote it.
You seem to be confusing make-up, silly voices and different accents with versatility. Of all of them I think Steve Pemberton is the most versatile but still not great.
i will give you he can play the over the top 'League of Gentlemen' parts, and yes all the cast in that was ground-breaking. But having watched this and the last few major parts, sorry no he can't act that deep, the actress in 'The Tunnel' got this sort of part perfect, for me he was just not right, But as for Steve Pemberton, he can act as has been brill is everything he has done since.
My fiance ended up getting up early & happened to be sitting on the sofa while i was watching it. He ended up watching it with me & he likes it.
He rarely watches tv so it cant be that bad
Anyway it was watchable but nothing to get excited about. Not gripping in any way.
Haha. Ok I think there's no arguing with that rather simplistic reply. Good luck to you.
I'll see you here next May, when Shearsmith is nominated for a Best Actor BAFTA for "The Widower". Pemberton on the other hand - is always camp and dreadful. No difference between him in Beniidorm and Whitechapel, both ghastly over the top shows.
Yes, I think Psychoville is the best work they have done together. It could have stretched to another series with a resurrected Maureen