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The Promise
David Waine
Posts: 3,413 Forum Member
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I looked for a thread on this and was surprised not to find one. Please forgive me if I have missed it.
Is anyone else watching it, or am I the only one? I know it clashes with Dancing on Ice, but that is why God invented video recorders.
In case this is the first thread, I will air my views. I have been a fan of Claire Foy ever since Little Dorrit, and I like her in this. I can imagine her character taking a bit of stick for being downright insensitive, stupid and foolhardy - blundering into Palestinian hotspots the way she does and so forth, and she is a little too free with her affections to be regarded as a typically 'nice' girl.
That, however, is just the point, at least in my opinion. She isn't a typically 'nice' girl. She is a spoiled, headstrong teenager. Her heart seems to be in the right place, but her head is anywhere but, and that is compounded by her epilepsy. She is a flawed character, which makes a refreshing change. If she survives the final episode (and that seems to be quite a big 'if' at the moment) it is likely to be a very different Erin who emerges.
Another aspect is the way that the Israeli Jews are shown treating the Palestinians. It has uncomfortable echoes of how the Nazis treated them. I don't know how accurate it is (you certainly don't see much of that sort of thing in the news broadcasts) but it is food for thought. The writer has tried to balance things by not depicting all of the Jews as oppressors, but the Palestinians we have met so far seem to be decent enough sorts, by and large, and that may be also be a biased viewpoint.
I also like the deployment of two parallel stories, linked by the diary, with the Jews of 1948 behaving not unlike the Palestinians of today.
All in all, I am finding it an engrossing and thought-provoking series. What does anybody else think?
Is anyone else watching it, or am I the only one? I know it clashes with Dancing on Ice, but that is why God invented video recorders.
In case this is the first thread, I will air my views. I have been a fan of Claire Foy ever since Little Dorrit, and I like her in this. I can imagine her character taking a bit of stick for being downright insensitive, stupid and foolhardy - blundering into Palestinian hotspots the way she does and so forth, and she is a little too free with her affections to be regarded as a typically 'nice' girl.
That, however, is just the point, at least in my opinion. She isn't a typically 'nice' girl. She is a spoiled, headstrong teenager. Her heart seems to be in the right place, but her head is anywhere but, and that is compounded by her epilepsy. She is a flawed character, which makes a refreshing change. If she survives the final episode (and that seems to be quite a big 'if' at the moment) it is likely to be a very different Erin who emerges.
Another aspect is the way that the Israeli Jews are shown treating the Palestinians. It has uncomfortable echoes of how the Nazis treated them. I don't know how accurate it is (you certainly don't see much of that sort of thing in the news broadcasts) but it is food for thought. The writer has tried to balance things by not depicting all of the Jews as oppressors, but the Palestinians we have met so far seem to be decent enough sorts, by and large, and that may be also be a biased viewpoint.
I also like the deployment of two parallel stories, linked by the diary, with the Jews of 1948 behaving not unlike the Palestinians of today.
All in all, I am finding it an engrossing and thought-provoking series. What does anybody else think?
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http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1434115&highlight=the+promise
I'm enjoying it too, it's well written, well acted and and had some money spent on the production. I prefer the grandfather's story though, that's far more engrossing.