Don't forget to watch tonight

A modern adaptation of Ira Levin's novel to a four hours NBC miniseries. Jason Isaacs plays Roman Castevet.

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Marie
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Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by Marie » Sun May 11, 2014 2:46 pm

I can't wait - finally a new JI project to watch! Wish the reviews were better but at least they all say Jason's performance was good!

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thunder
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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by thunder » Sun May 11, 2014 4:24 pm

And I hope you write your thoughts here afterwards. :D

Don't know when/if I'll get to watch, have to find a way...

fruitbat
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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by fruitbat » Sun May 11, 2014 7:05 pm

Oh, I would help if I could but I haven't a clue what to do or what is needed.

My lead in to Rosemary's Baby is Call the Midwife. Fitting, isn't it? :uhoh

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LadySekhmet
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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by LadySekhmet » Sun May 11, 2014 7:39 pm

*screams silently* SO MANY Shows tonight! Turn! Game of Thrones! Rosemary's Baby! How is a girl to decide? Oh, wait...Jason is going to be delicously evil. Never mind. Rosemary's Baby it is! I'll watch those others later... bwhahahah!

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amy223
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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by amy223 » Sun May 11, 2014 10:38 pm

I have it DVRing (that's possibly not a word), because I tend to fall asleep about 10 pm. But I was able to watch it tonight. And that says a LOT, because I so rarely stay up to watch television. Actually, I so rarely watch TV, period. Were I a Los Angeles resident, I would have dragged my daughter to that one park Jason tweeted about for Bring Back Our Girls (I tried to go to one here in Atlanta yesterday, but the weather refused to cooperate. And also I had exactly 200 million grades to import before the last day of school 9 days from now.) What the heck, Nigerian crazy guys???? What the heck.

At any rate, one thumb up from me (they get the other thumb up after Thursday's airing). I had to turn away from the screen a couple of times--I'm not a graphic gore kind of gal, but I think that's actually good! Because I'm certain there ARE graphic gore kind of gals (and guys) out there who'll be pleased by the amount of blood in this. So, thus far: luscious cinematography of Paris (for gals like me), blood and guts (for gals like my one friend W. who really missed her calling as a forensic pathologist or something). For the most part I thought it's doing interesting things with the story and I think it's well-made. I'm cool with what they've done here. (I've heard tell some out there aren't; but then, some out there aren't cool with much of anything, and maybe some out there need to calm down and try positive meditation.) I haven't read the book, but I saw the original movie years ago...from what I saw tonight, I think this version is different enough that I feel safe saying a lot of people will say it's a remake, but it doesn't feel all that remake-y (I know what I mean; I hope you will, too). And I think they did a brilliant job with the cast--I'm really enjoying the lady who plays Margaux. She's beautiful and yet so sinister.

So yes. So far, hooray! Hooray for YOU, NBC! And I like that NBC is doing the mini-series storytelling thing. That works out so well for people like me, with short attention spans. Get in, do the job, get the heck out of there. I hope they do more of it. :)

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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by revenante » Mon May 12, 2014 7:46 am

Nice thoughts, amy223 - like thunder (and presumably all the other LGs who don't see US TV), I have no idea when I might get to watch this so it's good to hear views from those who have. :hug

ln419

Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by ln419 » Mon May 12, 2014 8:13 am

This was supposed to be the highlight of my Mother's Day...enormous fail :-( . So I tried Comcast on Demand. Yeah! They had RB (the one with Mia Farrow, which I've seen a few times and had no intention of paying $3.00 for thanksverymuch!). So I tried TV by alphabetical order, again Yeah! RB, tee hee...crap! Two teaser trailers, really? Yesterday was just NOT my day. Maybe today I'll fair better. To better days :yip (I have to buy a DVR or tivo or SOME such device, it doesn't seem like they're putting out DVDs anymore, if Awake is any indicator) ~ellen

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thunder
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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by thunder » Mon May 12, 2014 10:47 am

:ninja I just finished it...

It was all right, didn't have the urge to fast forward or anything. I could have saved myself the worries hat it would be too scary to watch, because this wasn't scary at all, I thought. And it was like they tried to be shocking, but it was really nothing compared to what people today are used to. A bit gory, though...

I have a feeling Jason will come more to his rights in the next episode: But he did well with the"obviously nice, but probably not so nice after all" - approach.

It looks like NBC hasn't gotten it up first, because I checked there first. Friday it's back to
:ninja again.

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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by fruitbat » Mon May 12, 2014 11:06 am

From NBC's website The first episode might be found here. I got got a voice-over saying "This content is currently unavailable" This might be because I'm in Canada.

My mini-review of episode one.
I saw the movie when I was a child and can't remember much, not even being scared. I assume this was because, as a lot of the fear is psychological, it went over my head. I like the way making it as a miniseries allows time to tell the story and build Rosemary's fears.

As for Rosemary, if you don't like Zoe, you won't like this. It is very much her miniseries. I did like her, and didn't mind too much that she was the focus. I have to say that Patrick J. Adams (who I have just learned is from my very own Toronto :D ) had some huge, very handsome shoes to fill. I remember having a crush on John Cassavetes before I knew what a crush was. Patrick did not disappoint. (See my point about his and Roman's relationship, below.)

The rest of the cast I liked as well. Amy, I agree abut the actress who plays Margaux; she was excellent. As you put it,"beautiful and yet so sinister". There was a good deal of Jason, looking beautiful and sinister.

In this way the mini is superior to (my memory of) the movie as you can more easily believe the young couple could be seduced by the Castevets. I can't imagine how the older couple in the movie were able to influence the Woodhouse's so much. One of the few things I do remember about the movie is how annoying Ruth Gordon's character was. She seemed like an interfering old biddy.

I also like that this format has the extra time to show how Roman seduces/influences Guy, although we don't see all of that. I remember thinking what an a**h*** Cassavetes' Guy was, without having much of a chance to see what he was like before. I think Patrick's Guy appears to be more innocent initially; we still haven't really seen an evil side to him.

I hope I haven't spent too much time comparing it to the original, especially as I clearly don't remember it very well. :oops: But I do think the mini can hold its own against the movie.

In short, I'm very much looking forward to the second part.

(You might have noticed that I haven't actually said much about Jason. I think this is a good thing. We all know that he is usually the best thing in whatever he appears in. The fact that the rest of it gets two thumbs up reflects on the quality of this mini.)

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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by marilaine » Tue May 13, 2014 2:36 pm

:adore Loved it. Jason is so good at being bad, he just rolls right into a dark character. :twisted: So much fun to watch. :wheee
The scene where Rosemary is chasing the young purse snatcher, and he nearly is hit by a driver (BMW, no less), all the driver cares about is if the car is dented. "You cannot kill a cockroach." :lol
Or, at the party, when Roman's wife insists everyone speak in English, and a party guest says something about Americans. She retorts with (I think) "And the French are arrogant pricks." :finger: :oops:

~ML :loco :brows :cool:

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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by amy223 » Tue May 13, 2014 8:20 pm

Revenate--you're welcome! Man, I really hate that some times some countries can only see certain shows & films and others have to wait for it. Storytelling is the way to unite peoples; can't we all just share our stories?? If only the G7,8,12, whatever-number-it-is-this-time countries could agree on THAT.

I agree, fruitbat, about the niceness of having the luxury of telling a really GOOD story over a two night period. Nobody gets to do that--I remember watching the HBO mini-series on John Adams and loving how much time they took to really tell that story. It's what makes mini-series nice, and lots of everyone else in the world does them (here, I'm thinking specifically of Spanish speaking television's telenovelas, which I think are just marvelous pieces of awesome ham acting with wildly outrageous story lines; highly recommend! also: if you need to brush up on your Spanish comprehension skills).

I read a review somewhere (?) of Rosemary's Baby in which the reviewer didn't like this format, and said something about the 1st episode dragging. (But she was also anti-remake of this movie anyway. *sigh* Critics--it's all just opinion, isn't it?) At any rate, I disagreed with that. I felt like the 1st episode wasn't draggy at all--it was sort of slow, but slow isn't necessarily always bad...it gave the story time to establish who was who and let the audience have some time to care (one way or another) about the characters, but specifically Rosemary (who is the focus of this particular story, so that's okay). Which, as a writer/storyteller, I think is THE most important part of any story--does your audience care about your characters? If not, you'd better start thinking about telling a different story.

And I thought it ended on a good cliffhanger-y kind of note. The images from the last scenes stuck with me for awhile, in a sort of disturbing way. For me, that's always a good sign--if I can't get something out of my mind, like if I'm still thinking about it 20 minutes after I've finished it, it had a some kind of an impact. I know he's supposed to be on the Dark Side, but I was really sad for Guy, actually--did anyone notice the tear as he prepared Rosemary for what was about to happen to her? I thought that was a nice touch. And I also thought it was disturbing that she was drugged--a really ucky, reprehensible thing to do to someone. (But then, we ARE dealing with the Satanic. It's what they tend to do.)

And, of course, Jason did a great job with making his character at times both likeable and yet uncomfortably sinister--the scene where you catch a brief glimpse of him staring somberly at Guy as they cart off the dead Sorbonne competition was disturbing; now there's a person whose bad side you don't want to be on. I expect no less than awesome from him. He's an expert in his field. :D

(And I apologize for the length and frequency of these postings of mine--I'm just! so! excited! to talk about stories I like with other human beings. I have a 5 year old who only likes to watch Peppa Pig and a husband who watches ESPN 24/7...y'all are all I HAVE for this. Bless you for putting up with me. ;-) )

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Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by servalan » Wed May 14, 2014 4:33 am

Thanks to everyone for their reviews - they can never be too long for me. Please keep them coming if you've seen RB.

Who knows if it will ever be exported so I can see it? :???:

It does seem a very odd choice for Mother's Day! But here in the UK the TV schedulers tend to forget completely to put anything appropriate on ever for our Mother's Day (which is during Lent and so is a moveable feast). There are complaints every year, and they never listen - it's often a day they choose to show a violent war film or something.

CeliaBeck

Re: Don't forget to watch tonight

Post by CeliaBeck » Wed May 14, 2014 5:18 pm

fruitbat wrote:From NBC's website The first episode might be found here. I got got a voice-over saying "This content is currently unavailable" This might be because I'm in Canada.

My mini-review of episode one.
I saw the movie when I was a child and can't remember much, not even being scared. I assume this was because, as a lot of the fear is psychological, it went over my head. I like the way making it as a miniseries allows time to tell the story and build Rosemary's fears.

As for Rosemary, if you don't like Zoe, you won't like this. It is very much her miniseries. I did like her, and didn't mind too much that she was the focus. I have to say that Patrick J. Adams (who I have just learned is from my very own Toronto :D ) had some huge, very handsome shoes to fill. I remember having a crush on John Cassavetes before I knew what a crush was. Patrick did not disappoint. (See my point about his and Roman's relationship, below.)

The rest of the cast I liked as well. Amy, I agree abut the actress who plays Margaux; she was excellent. As you put it,"beautiful and yet so sinister". There was a good deal of Jason, looking beautiful and sinister.

In this way the mini is superior to (my memory of) the movie as you can more easily believe the young couple could be seduced by the Castevets. I can't imagine how the older couple in the movie were able to influence the Woodhouse's so much. One of the few things I do remember about the movie is how annoying Ruth Gordon's character was. She seemed like an interfering old biddy.

I also like that this format has the extra time to show how Roman seduces/influences Guy, although we don't see all of that. I remember thinking what an a**h*** Cassavetes' Guy was, without having much of a chance to see what he was like before. I think Patrick's Guy appears to be more innocent initially; we still haven't really seen an evil side to him.

I hope I haven't spent too much time comparing it to the original, especially as I clearly don't remember it very well. :oops: But I do think the mini can hold its own against the movie.

In short, I'm very much looking forward to the second part.

(You might have noticed that I haven't actually said much about Jason. I think this is a good thing. We all know that he is usually the best thing in whatever he appears in. The fact that the rest of it gets two thumbs up reflects on the quality of this mini.)
Yes too the same review from me fruitbat. The Film is not my, but the mini is a fantastic serie and i hope for the Germany TV or DVD.
I can´t waiting for morning night, i see Rosemary´s 3-5 in the morning, child to school and i´m to bed. :D

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