Njs2016

There are many reviews here of this version of Amadeus, and it seems that the consensus is mixed. I know the play well, I know the movie well, and this I approached with a sense of trepidation. However, unlike some here I really enjoyed every episode. In the movie, the music serves as an extra character but I have always felt that the play was more about art, jealousy and the mania that Antonio descends into. Every version of Amadeus speaks to its times and as a piece every performance and every adaptation has strengths. Here, in the Tv series we see a fully rounded Mozart, less 'punk' than Hulce's in the movie and less manic than Tim Curry's virtuoso performance on Broadway.

This version also gives a rounder and more intersting assessment of Constanze, with her story being the spine of a few episodes.

I really like it and it's worth watching on its own terms and just to enjoy the story, the performances.

Of course it isn't historically accurate. It is a fantasia, and as such it's always been brilliant and a gateway into a time and to music that forever captures imaginations and feeds the soul.

Let's take a moment also to look at the criticism of the the casting. Many on here, I note, are talking about ethnicity and the diversity in the casting. Most offering up the old chestnut that Mozart what as white man. That's true, but I'd also note that when we look at the history of film we should be aware that Jesus more than likely wasn't a blue eyed blonde, all of those Roman epics weren't populated by happy go lucky American accented gladiators. Even the original movie of Amadeus which I adore makes me suffer through a putrid mid-Atlantic accent and the entire court in Vienna seem to have taken a crash course in American vowels and syntax. It's just the way of things. It's art, not history. It's drama not documentary and the best actors should do the job.

Also if you are looking for authenticity I probably wouldn't start with Amadeus. It's always been just a good story and absorbing drama. It's quite painful when anything the reaches beyond 'standard' casting automatically gets a low score on IMDb. I'd say we are better than that - but I think evidence shows us we aren't. In the end music transcends those divisions, Mozart and his music bring people together and encourage a shared experience of what it is to be alive and human. So open up your heart and enjoy the ride.

I watched the first season and enjoyed it, I think it was a little uneven and almost gave up on the episode where the American delegation visited the Foreign Secretary, which seemed very uneven. BUT and it is a big BUT the production just gets better and better from there on in, the plot arc becomes clear and it becomes a really absorbing, if utterly implausible, political drama.

Keri Russell is as always perfection, in season 4 I hope they can throttle back on the amount of times we see her kick off her shoes in her bedroom in an exhausted way and flop on the bed, and the directors seem to have an obsession with her stripping off to her black pants every other episode, enough already - she's a phenomenal actress - just get on with the drama!

Brilliant support from Celia Imrie and manic Rory Kinear.

If you aren't too sure in the first season I would say plough on - especially for old die hard fans of the West Wing - like me - if you ever wondered what would have happened if CJ and Josh got together. Just wait :)

This is one of those movies that many of us who enjoyed the books had been looking forward to. Of course, no adaptation can ever be 100% faithful to its source material, but this one feels especially uneven. The first part of the film drags, weighed down with clunky "Netflix-style" exposition. What made the novel so charming-the eccentric details, the quirks and foibles, back stories, and the very British sense of humor-has largely been flattened out. It should have felt like the Famous Five all grown up, retired, and solving murders. Instead, we get a cast of very talented, well-known actors working with a limp script that strips away everything that was unique about the book.

There are no standout performances as the script doesn't dwell on any character development , but the real problem here lies with Chris Columbus. The film lacks both direction and any real understanding of, or sympathy for, the novel and what made it so successful. Sadly, it feels like another case of Netflix snapping up the rights and running the story through an algorithm to produce the blandest version possible. Perhaps it would have worked better as a series. Perhaps, for those who love the books, it's best to let the characters remain on the page.

The film plays more like an overproduced episode of Midsomer Murders. At times, it even reminded me of The Boys in Blue with Cannon and Ball-though if you haven't seen that, consider yourself lucky.

Aside from the directorial tone, the script has serious problems. The ending feels rushed, and the shifts in pacing from the novel make it anticlimactic. Worse still, the writing often undercuts itself. At one moment, the film invites us to appreciate that age is no barrier to knowledge, but in the next it asks us to laugh at "old phones" and the characters' supposed confusion with technology. A painfully unfunny gag about a PDF file is followed just minutes later by Elizabeth effortlessly collating and printing photos from multiple smartphones.

It's a feeble mess, which is a shame, because the novel-while cozy and a little corny-also carried a real undercurrent of darkness and menace. Here, that edge is completely absent. Columbus directs it as though he borrowed drones from Downton Abbey and the twee set design of The Vicar of Dibley.

The result is the kind of movie you make when you don't trust your audience to follow a plot, or to understand England well enough to appreciate a more authentic setting and cultural nuance.

A real missed opportunity for what could have been a cracking film. No wonder Netflix burried it at the end of August and didn't give it a theatrical wide release.