British miniseries "Staged" / Staged, 2020. In the first season, the theme played out, then for the first time entered our lives, as now it turned out, for quite a long time - quarantine restrictions for any type of activity associated with direct communication of people, it is clear that the work of actors both in the cinema and in the theater is just such a type. Then came the second season of this series, in which the theme continued, however, it now looks rather sad places, because although it is all, of course, staged, as the name itself suggests, but I quite admit that in many respects written off from reality. Now the characters hope to break out somewhere - Tennant - to shoot Around the World in 80 Days, which takes from country to country and eventually they will take place in Britain itself, Sheen - to the wedding to an old friend in New York, where he is supposed to be the best man, which will eventually have to celebrate online. At the same time, an often-occurring phenomenon is played out when Americans want to remake a movie or series with other actors, as they say, better known in America than Sheen and Tennant, for example. The screenwriter and director himself is initially in America and involved in the process of recruiting actors, Sheen and Tennant must try to explain the characters to them, but in the end, none of this whole venture works. During these shootings, the actors had to move a little away from their habits - Tennant had to learn to communicate on the Internet, which he still avoided, unlike his wife. It was the first time they were allowed to play a married couple. From the interview they gave, "Nobody kind of wanted to let me do that," Georgia explains. At the audition for one role, the casting director told me I was an implausible partner for him. I'm like, "But we're married." And we have a fair number of children! (they have five children - one from a former Georgia relationship, whom David adopted, and four in common). So basically, I had to eliminate all the actors who could have played the part so I could play his wife. And we did it through Zoom and on mobile phones, so in terms of camera work, it's pretty much the same level that we see here, using Skype and different messengers. I cannot say that the series is outstanding (among the series there are not many outstanding works at all), but for fans of British cinema and these actors it is quite interesting. But the third season has almost made no impression, a little reminded of the famous joke about Murochka, stop in time - it is also necessary to be able to.
To be honest, I didn’t know that David Tennant and Michael Sheen were friends before this show. And if they are not as close as they have shown, then congratulations - they succeeded. Shouting at each other with a mate (watch this series only in the voiceover of "Cube to Cube"!), closing in, cheating and setting up - and all this is remote. Thank you so much, it was really good fun, although the third season confused things even more (but more on that later).
Two wealthy men (yes, I was haunted by this thought) with their wives and children are locked in their beautiful Anleese-Welsh-Scottish homes and literally languishing with boredom. It would be a dull sight if these people were not actors and just charming people.
This is a funny series - primarily due to the fact that the plot is really designed as such. I don’t remember any of these actors in a comedy role, but they definitely managed to make a fool of themselves and make thoughtful scenes that I want to review.
And if it will be difficult for us to empathize with people who experience lockdown in personal mansions, then everyone will be able to understand procrastination, despondency and fear of remaining unnecessary.
Plus, they pulled up a bunch of stars, so I think everyone had a good time.
As for the second season, they started breaking the fourth wall, which is good on the one hand and not good on the other (I think I’d rather have them rehearse their non-existent play). The third season they decided to “turn” in terms of the plot, catch up with more conflict and absurdity, which, in my opinion, did not benefit him. Gone is the lamp.
It is difficult to retell the subtlety of the series and its jokes, but, as they usually write in the recommendations, fans of British humor should definitely like it.
You turn on the series and fall into 15-minute waves of charisma, sarcasm and the atmosphere of some kind soulful night out with your best friend. Not to say that the thoughts raised here are new, but these are such seeds for conversations that are always pleasant to disperse yourself or listen from the outside.
Eternal themes of self-actualization, happiness, comfort and goals in life pass through both seasons of cute skirmishes like bites of a warm wool blanket. Under the plaid, you have another soft cape of witty humor, national color, sudden cameos and boring serving, which causes anesthesia. For me, it worked just like it did with any Grishkovets solo performance or Wes Anderson films. Some retrograde part of me just sits in the boat to the author, takes up his knees and, excitedly looking around, listens to stories to the peaceful sound of cheers, occasionally going down the thresholds and making stops for heating soup in mugs.
If we move away from moods and feelings, the script-technical series is also done perfectly. Quite creative implementation in lockdown conditions does not slide into a cheap cabbage with situations sucked out of the finger. Editing with webcams and text is often used as an additional narrative tool. The actors, though clearly cunning, acting out supposedly themselves, but behind all the layers of metairony there is no falsehood or conceit. Half of the series is based on the inner self-reflection of the characters. It’s hard to lie if you don’t feel it. Small series well beat small situations, very correctly putting a comma at the right moment, not allowing the series to slide into everyday life and the cluster. In humor and sound, too, a lot of measuredness and tact. Two major tunes - hitting 10. Conflicts are quite realistic, and comics are created by context and presentation rather than a stage prepared for laughs. In the second season, emotional reflection becomes the structure of the series, so I watched almost everyone with a smile on my face like a fool. And the ending -- I was happy. It's just a human pleasure.
As a result: Not many stories work as therapy. And not many therapies target nonspecific problems. And even though the series seems very narrow and situational, the most important thing for my taste is that it catches and knows how to just talk about the simple. Sometimes stupid, but no less important.
Surprisingly, the series is so simple and uncomplicated, so sincere and organic that it is almost not perceived as a series. The creators managed to guess so perfectly with the atmosphere that the viewer has no choice but to believe: there is really a rehearsal of the play (even though the rehearsal itself – sorry for the spoiler – will not begin – and the series is not a minute about it).
There's no deep moral here. She can't be. The first year of 2020 is to find yourself in new conditions. And in this search is not up to reflection and reflection. The main thing was not to go crazy.
This is a story about how people try to survive and not go crazy, how they remain people - and it is not art that helps them in this at all, but family, friendship and the desire to remain alive, real.
And in the end, suddenly, out of this simplicity and even some kind of almost everyday primitivism, something very alive emerged. It turned out simple – and in this simplicity is a very real comedy, in which there is nothing superfluous. Such a cute almost like a cabbage in the best traditions: when funny in a kind way, when there is nothing plausible.
Very accurately selected timing (each series for fifteen minutes) will not get bored. After all, screenlife - a format specific and continuous dialogue in the absence of any action - is always a challenge on the topic "how to keep the viewer at the screen."
Here decided to keep a great acting. Magnificent and clean - no makeup, no light, no close-ups. Michael Sheen and David Tennant (along with their wives) are so adept at juggling the public that they want to watch it over and over again. And periodically they are shaded by guest stars like Samuel L. Jescon, Judy Dench and others.
About this series you can tell no more than about “Black Square” Malevich. But like the Black Square, it is better to see it once.
8 out of 10
Actors in quarantine. Out of boredom, they decided to make a production with rehearsals in remote mode. They are very famous actors of themselves. Envy, dislike, intrigue, struggle for roles, etc. It's very funny in some places. Michael Sheen, Anna Lundberg, Simon Evans, Georgia Tennant and David Tennant, Kat Blanchett et al.
Since it has become an axiom that the pandemic has made changes (most likely forever) in almost all areas of life, it would be possible not to repeat it again. But now it will not be possible to avoid this, since the conversation will be about “Staging” (2020) from the Air Force.
Director Simon Evans may have made the most meaningful and valuable statement on the subject of lockdowns and creativity in an age of limitations. Putting each of the characters (primarily himself) in an ironic light, the director achieved a striking effect: everything that happens in the “Staging” is not just funny, but funny enough that laughter ceases to be an additional component to leisure – evening viewing of the series. Laughter becomes a form of thinking about reality and rethinking existing experiences in the light of new circumstances. In the same way, once laughed at contemporaries and the era of Giovanni Boccaccio, and funny since then we all, and not only because of the medieval double morality.
So, just as Boccaccio’s laughter taught humanity to calm down to imposed dogmas, so today we have to reassess the importance of some of the main pillars of modern human life: mobility, speed of interaction with others, individualism, etc. Separated by the screen, Michael Sheen and David Tennant (or "David Tennant and Michael Sheen?"), Simon Evans and successive Judy Dench, Samuel L. Jackson and other characters are trapped in the convenience of the modern world. What is left for them to do in this situation? Only to triple the homeric rolls - to laugh so that the sky goes by a walker.
The essence of "The Production" is that the director (Evans) and two artists (Sheen and Tennant) decide not to waste time in quarantine and start rehearsing for a new play. Online. Zuma. Not only does none of them like the play, but the conditions for the production are unsuitable. The three of them, as the creators of the film, still managed to treat each other with tenderness, which is perhaps the most important condition for maintaining peace of mind in this insane era. Here it is difficult to say whether it is the merit of the director and screenwriter or on the “set” really reigned such an atmosphere. By the way, isn’t it time to rename the film sets to the filming platforms?
The first season (six episodes of twenty minutes) was released in June 2020: Simon Evans (by the way, he did not indicate himself in the credits) worked as quickly as possible. It’s hard to say how much his real-life relationships with the actors are similar to those shown in the series, but it seems that the lockdown was his real inspiration. Judging by the casting of the second season (Kate Blanchett, Jim Parsons, Whoopi Goldberg, Christoph Waltz and others), world stars really dream of participating in this project.
But the phenomenon of “Staging” is made not only by references to Boccaccio (including situational), the actors’ play in themselves and a chain of paradoxically funny situations. In a very special phenomenon of the pandemic era, it is also transformed by reasoning (not always articulated) about the modern theater, about how it survives in new conditions. Of course, as Evans tells us, new challenges will require new approaches to theater and its forms of existence, and it may be something else altogether. But I don’t want to leave the old theater in the past. So Simon Evans, Michael Sheen and David Tennant (or "David Tennant and Michael Sheen?") are going to take him with them to the future, to the post-human world.
After watching Good Omens, we looked forward to the return of beloved duo Michael Sheen and David Tennant. Hopes were fulfilled!
This series was shot in the format of calls in Zoom.
Together with the actors playing themselves, their families, neighbors, dogs and children, the viewer spends several weeks preparing for the production of the play “Six characters looking for an author”.
Cons of this work: sometimes the spontaneity and realism of what is happening on the screen makes you feel as if you are really involved in a conference with Michael Sheen, who complains about a nightmare with David Tennant, and David, who claims that other people dream – usual for him. It is impossible to avoid the Spanish shame and awkwardness when watching a dialogue between Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Sheen, in which they both alternately put Tennant on speaker while David, trying to get out of an awkward situation, takes turns unflatteringly expressing his unflattering opinion about one of the interlocutors who, according to Tennant, is not involved in the conversation.
Pros: it is impossible to remain indifferent, looking at the sincerity of remorse, the naive egocentrism and charming smile of Tennant, the rage and close-ups of the nose and luxurious beard of Michael Sheen, the childlike spontaneity of the antics of the main characters and their troubled director (Simon Evans), who tries in vain to collect and coordinate castes for production.
The range of emotions you'll experience while watching will range from deep sadness and empathy for Michael Sheen's neighbour to unbearable delight sparked by witty Scottish-Welsh dialogue.
Even if this chamber format of a drama series is new to you, it is worth giving it a chance - the first twenty minutes (as long as the series lasts) are likely to be a revelation and a pleasant surprise, and it turns out that in 2020 there was still something very good.
Have a good time!
The global pandemic and mass isolation have made major adjustments to theatrical plans for the future. But some directors don't despair. Like Simon Evans, he decides to rehearse with the actors in a videoconference format. To do this, he enlists David Tennant, Michael Sheen and several other actors to rehearse the production 'Six characters in search of an author'. However, these rehearsals turn into something incredible. Incredibly hilarious!
Because of this whole situation in the world, I couldn’t think of how I could do anything new. But this ' production ' managed to surprise me a lot. It is like one famous saying that a real creator, despite any restrictions, will create another masterpiece. So the British directors, observing self-isolation and without leaving their homes, present us with a very funny production, which in places resembles a sitcom. And this is filmed very spectacularly - for example, switching between frames in particularly heated discussions of the scenario, when two tirelessly argue, and the third somewhat dullly watches it, unable to insert words into these skirmishes. Or when in particularly loud arguments people simply deviate from the screen, or even splash saliva ... All these are common elements of comedy series, which are very skillfully interpreted into a new format, and several new ones are added (frozen picture in Skype or sudden loss of signal).
And yet we came here to see the creative tandem - David Tennant and Michael Sheen. They have already starred in the popular series Good Signs. Here they play some fictional versions of themselves. Throughout all 6 episodes, they compare their drawings, argue about the order of their names in the credits, talk about neighbors, discuss their dreams, hairstyles and their hoodies (David wears his without taking off) reflect on their acting career, sometimes very clearly flirt, often very heatedly argue about pronunciation, mugs with photos, talk about and with their wives, play naval battle - in general, anything but the rehearsals themselves. And it was incredibly funny - Michael and David, even during the press tour of the Good Omens, who proved themselves as an amazing tandem, rekindle to the full program!
They are periodically joined by their wives - Georgia Moffett-Tennant, also acted as a producer of the series, and Anna Lundberg; director Simon Evans, who often escapes from rehearsals due to endless bickering of actors, his sister Lucy Eaton, a fan and just a positive person; a strict producer of Joe's production (she played Nina Sosanya), the only one who can attend the rehearsing of Jameson, and Lesayevitch).
In general, it was even a pity that there are only 6 episodes in the Production - everything looks like a binge and a jolt with incessant laughter and fun. Even at some point you forget that it was quarantined through a camera in the computer, and perceive it as an unusual and amazing comedy!
10 out of 10
This small and rather bold in its idea, the series will be an outlet for fans of British humor, ' British communal & #39; and a couple of Shin-Tennant in particular. Six small episodes filled with humor, irony and self-irony can not leave the viewer indifferent. It’s kind of like a cabbage for their own, but made with respect and love for the viewer. The chemistry between all the participants is something that can be felt through all the screens. That's what mastery means.
Another ' feature ' the series is its realism. All the action takes place against the background of isolation and quarantine. Harsh reality somehow breaks into the lives of self-isolating heroes. As a result, it turned out not only incredibly funny, but also acutely relevant work.
You put a semicolon in your emails! - Yeah, but I'm trying to get over it.
Shot in lockdown conditions, the series Staged - 'Staging' - made me laugh in my voice, and I realized how long I had not done it. Michael Sheen and David Tennant play David Tennant and Michael Sheen in their own homes.'Why don't we rehearse online?' the director suggested, and everyone agreed. In fact, of course, not all, not immediately, and about ' agreed ' there are also doubts.
Victims of British humor this time were the Welsh language and Scottish traditions, the classics of world literature and the tastes of readers of venerable age, home schooling and neighborly control, but the most sensitive blows fell on the ego of Glavheroes.
Attention: Fakes pour generously from the screen, and, I would say, directly proportional to the age and status of the speakers. There is a quiet bacchanalia in the credits. The guest stars came as a complete surprise to me because they were not named in the announcements.
Fans will find many references to the previous works of the actors and references to them. Yes, Tennant is so cool and/or narcissistic that he has a TARDIS in his backyard.
I probably shouldn’t have watched all 6 episodes at once, but it was impossible to come off.
To all the fans of David Tennant and Michael Sheen! Talented actors and friends are back in business, but not just in another series, but in a quarantine screenlife, where they, playing themselves, try to rehearse a theatrical play. But in the end, as you would expect, a simple venture along the way turns into mind-blowing adventures with funny situations.
These actors will also be joined by Georgia Moffett (David’s wife), Judy Dench, Andian Lester and, of course, the project’s director/plays Simon Evans.
Despite the simplicity of the production, the series looks with great pleasure. The actors are very organic, open and natural, as if everything that happens on the screen really happens in real time, and we are just casual witnesses of creative meetings and disagreements, as, for example, in the initial series, the actors argue about whose name should be the first on the poster.
All six episodes, each of which does not exceed 20 minutes, are already available for viewing. In general, this is a very good series for a good mood, which can be safely recommended to all fans of English comedies, especially actors, directors and just creative people. Have a good time.