Moxie
Joined May 1999
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Reviews18
Moxie's rating
What gripped me about this show was the authenticity and three-dimensionality of _all_ of HUFF's characters. No one-note stereotypes. Conflicted. Mixing irritating irrationality and perversity with endearing and respectworthy qualities.
I _cared_ about these people!! I wanted to know more about them, and what happened to them next.
Their lives were a revelation to me. Probably, for artistic license, each individual character was packed with somewhat more complexity than any one person you'd usually come across in daily life. But for me, that was a bonus.
Finding ways to "decode" others' behavior and internal workings has always been an urgent need in my several decades of life beleaguered with Attention Deficit Disorder (especially long before ADD was "discovered" and validated). Thus, for me the show has provided not only engaging entertainment but also an education in some of the many conditions the fellow humans I meet may be living through.
For this I want to especially praise Andy Comeau. For me his contribution is the most significant in the show. Through insight and skill he managed to convey the _humanness_ of a character the average viewer would see only as "some kinda nut".
Huff's brother Teddy is one of the few in the show identified with a specific mental disorder in his case, schizophrenia. Comeau acquaints us (superbly!) with not only the dysfunctionality but more importantly,I think additionally with the _normality_ and _commonality_ that is ALSO part of Teddy's makeup.
He shows that Teddy is not "merely a nut case" but is also _a human being_. Like we ALL are, in one way or another -- as we can se, IF we care to LOOK.
Most people divide the world into two camps the normals (themselves and people they like) and the crazies (people they don't understand and therefore put down). Comeau's brilliant and sensitive performance helps us see that EVERYONE is a mixture of, or somewhere on a continuum between, these two endpoints.
When more people understand that, the world will be a much better place -- for ALL of us.
I _cared_ about these people!! I wanted to know more about them, and what happened to them next.
Their lives were a revelation to me. Probably, for artistic license, each individual character was packed with somewhat more complexity than any one person you'd usually come across in daily life. But for me, that was a bonus.
Finding ways to "decode" others' behavior and internal workings has always been an urgent need in my several decades of life beleaguered with Attention Deficit Disorder (especially long before ADD was "discovered" and validated). Thus, for me the show has provided not only engaging entertainment but also an education in some of the many conditions the fellow humans I meet may be living through.
For this I want to especially praise Andy Comeau. For me his contribution is the most significant in the show. Through insight and skill he managed to convey the _humanness_ of a character the average viewer would see only as "some kinda nut".
Huff's brother Teddy is one of the few in the show identified with a specific mental disorder in his case, schizophrenia. Comeau acquaints us (superbly!) with not only the dysfunctionality but more importantly,I think additionally with the _normality_ and _commonality_ that is ALSO part of Teddy's makeup.
He shows that Teddy is not "merely a nut case" but is also _a human being_. Like we ALL are, in one way or another -- as we can se, IF we care to LOOK.
Most people divide the world into two camps the normals (themselves and people they like) and the crazies (people they don't understand and therefore put down). Comeau's brilliant and sensitive performance helps us see that EVERYONE is a mixture of, or somewhere on a continuum between, these two endpoints.
When more people understand that, the world will be a much better place -- for ALL of us.
Seeing this miniseries on American public TV (late 70s/early 80s) made Lord Louis Mountbatten one of my heroes. I recall that the miniseries was excellently produced and interesting overall. Nowadays I remember clearly only two anecdotes, both of which show Lord Louis' inborn genius for handling people.
In one (at a formal public event outdoors (possibly re the independence of India and creation of Pakistan), attended by thousands of standees, word came to him that riot was imminent from a faction. Immediately he urged the crowd, "Sit down! Sit down!" What a simple yet brilliant insight! Rioting is near-impossible when most everyone is sitting...
The other moving story was told by a seaman who'd been aboard Mountbatten's battleship when it was sunk by enemy fire. In a lifeboat, Mountbatten and crew members watched as the ship began to sink. As it disappeared, Mountbatten shouted something like "The Kelly, God bless her!" and started a hip-hip-hooray. At first the crew's response was half-hearted, but it grew.
Then -- and this is the extraordinary part -- he started _singing!_ "Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun..." --How bizarre!! But the dazed crewmen, following their leader, began to join in -- weakly, raggedly at first, then stronger... and (according to the eyewitness crewman) finished with renewed hope and strength.
I've heard some were critical of Mountbatten's career, specifically about his handling of the independence of India and separation of Pakistan. For all I know, they may be correct. But I say, the world needs more Louis Mountbattens...
In one (at a formal public event outdoors (possibly re the independence of India and creation of Pakistan), attended by thousands of standees, word came to him that riot was imminent from a faction. Immediately he urged the crowd, "Sit down! Sit down!" What a simple yet brilliant insight! Rioting is near-impossible when most everyone is sitting...
The other moving story was told by a seaman who'd been aboard Mountbatten's battleship when it was sunk by enemy fire. In a lifeboat, Mountbatten and crew members watched as the ship began to sink. As it disappeared, Mountbatten shouted something like "The Kelly, God bless her!" and started a hip-hip-hooray. At first the crew's response was half-hearted, but it grew.
Then -- and this is the extraordinary part -- he started _singing!_ "Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun..." --How bizarre!! But the dazed crewmen, following their leader, began to join in -- weakly, raggedly at first, then stronger... and (according to the eyewitness crewman) finished with renewed hope and strength.
I've heard some were critical of Mountbatten's career, specifically about his handling of the independence of India and separation of Pakistan. For all I know, they may be correct. But I say, the world needs more Louis Mountbattens...