We watched The Dig at the weekend. Started out promisingly, then turned laughable in that way UK period dramas seem to do in an effort to appeal to the US market's love of British cliches and stereotypes. Big country house - check. Lots of posh people, including closeted gay bloke, and smart woman with career ambitions checked by the chauvinism of the time - check. Annoying precocious kid who can't act for fuck - check. Gruff working class types who occasionally say something profound - check. Thwarted love plot - check. Ultimately consummated love plot - check. And most of all, the Great Awkward British Moment - check several times over. When characters want to or mean to say something to another character, but they're just too jolly awkward and British to say it, so they don't quite manage it, or someone else comes in just at the wrong moment (and somehow, there's never ever a possible right moment in the whole great future ahead of them, at least not until the ultimately consummated love scene), or something drops or explodes or crashes or just happens nearby to distract them. (I know you all love him, but Hugh Grant built his cinematic career around the Great Awkward British Moment).
Good performance by Ralph Fiennes, I thought. That aside, I'd much rather have watched a decent 60-minute documentary about the dig itself without the banal soap opera.
Good performance by Ralph Fiennes, I thought. That aside, I'd much rather have watched a decent 60-minute documentary about the dig itself without the banal soap opera.
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