Roder51

That's right: The Gilded Age, HBO's glittering period drama that looks as if it cost as much to make as an Upper East Side mansion, is back for a second season more than 18 months after its debut left me and countless others interminably bored. The first season of the series, which promised to be an even more extravagant version of Fellowes' masterpiece Downton Abbey-only this time chronicling the lives of the uber-rich (and their servants) in 1880s New York City, rather than post-Edwardian England-should have been a slam-dunk. With a stacked cast that felt like a gay man's fever dream-Carrie Coon! Christine Baranski! Cynthia Nixon! Audra McDonald! Nathan Lane! Jeanne Tripplehorn! Debra Monk! Donna Murphy! Celia Keenan-Bolger!-The Gilded Age was supposed to be a juicy soap opera about the fierce battle between New York's old money and its new. But to call it a soap opera would be to suggest that something-anything-happened. It was, to put it rudely, a total snooze. (Emmy voters evidently agreed with this assessment, largely snubbing the series save for a singular nomination for production design.)

Like all movies ,with the exception of "Angela's Ashes", the book is always more accurate and details are more thorough than the film. The problem a lot of the time is the dialects in some of these films. Fanny for example was played by native Sarah Power who should have known better and researched the bayman dialect which she didn't do for lack of talent. An uptown St. John's dialect cannot be compared to the dialects of Bonavista Bay. Had they taken veterans like Amy House and Ross Goldsworthy the film might of had a chance although Coln Meaney was quite wonderful in the role of Thomas Hutchings. I noticed many in this historical piece struggled with their roles when they spoke but that is to be expected when time outweighs research. To capture an era is wonderful but if the dialects are off course it becomes nothing more than a movie about Newfoundland. Like you all I thought it was a great film but some of the casting was unforgivable. What would an Englishman know about casting Newfoundland based characters? Nothing at all apparently and it is so very noticeable. As one lady from Newfoundland so perfectly coined it..." Youse don't sound like way!"

After watching "Young Triffie" for the first time on CBC's late night yesterday I can safely say that I did not miss a hellova lot when the film debuted back in 2005.From her crusading stint on CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes as Marg, Princess Warrior, to the way she put a certain highly-placed Nova Scotia MP in his place for mistaking Halifax for Hogtown, it seems there's nothing that Mary Walsh can't do -- and do brilliantly. Then again, having endured Young Triffie, the movie that marks Walsh's feature-film directorial debut, maybe we should make that "almost nothing she can't do." Turns out, when it comes to directing movies, Martin Scorsese and John Ford need not lose much sleep over competition from Walsh. As a movie, Young Triffie no doubt made a damn fine play, which is precisely how it started out.

Written by Ray Guy under the title "Young Triffie's Been Made Away With," it seems to have enjoyed quite a success among discerning theatre goers on The Rock during its stage incarnation. As a film though it could have read "Young Triffie has been made away with by Mary Walsh." And nobody with a sense of the film entertainment would have noticed. Mr. Guy may never sleep the same after seeing one of his great masterpieces being thrown to the dogs. But then that's where Young Triffie, both play and subsequent movie, is set, specifically in Swyers Harbour -- a small, fictional Newfoundland out port, circa 1947.

It is to Swyers Harbour that an inept Newfoundland Ranger (Corner Gas' Fred Ewanuick) is sent packing to investigate what appears to be the ritual sacrifice of a sheep. This being 1947 Newfoundland, and the Ranger being particularly inept, he arrives in town blissfully unaware that circumstances have outstripped him. He will now be investigating the murder of young Triffie herself, she being the unfortunate and simple young daughter of a local crackpot evangelist (sadly played by Andy Jones). Adapted from the stage play by Christian Murray, Young Tiffie boasts a plot that embraces not only murder but paedophilia, incest, drug addiction, religious zealotry and a host of other societal ills. All serve as comic fodder for a cast that also includes Remy Girard (as the local doctor) and Andrea Martin (always miscast; as his meddling wife), Colin Mochrie (as Ewaniuck's commanding officer), Cathy Jones (as a local busy-body) and Walsh herself, cast as post mistress and purveyor of red herring, which in this case is a darn sight more prevalent than cod.

In short, it's the kind of comedy that a more experienced director might mind from a cast of dramatic actors, as opposed to a clutch of comedians. With the comics in control there is no bit of comic business too picayune, no characterization too over-the-top, to allow it to go to waste, even at the expense of paltry considerations such as dramatic arc and storyline. So instead of a cracking good yarn with comedic overtones, viewers are treated to Ewaniuk's best impersonation of Mr. Bean does Buena Vista, while Martin does her best to keep up with the tightly wound Joneses. How long I wonder will Miss Jones have to answer for the inadequate acting ability of her talentless brother.In the end, almost everybody -- except perhaps Newfoundland itself -- comes off looking totally daft.

God forbid that Mr. Guy would allow anyone from this friendly circus to touch "That Far Greater Bay." As a film director, Walsh still needs to learn what she apparently already knows as an actor: Concentrate on telling the story, and trust your audience to find the humour. Talk about a Filme Horribilis.

When Navy ensign Billy Grenville, heir to a vast New York fortune, sees showgirl Ann Arden on the dance floor, it is love at first sight. And much to the horror of Alice Grenville--the indomitable family matriarch--he marries her. Ann wants desperately to be accepted by high society and become the well-bred woman of her fantasies. But a gunshot one rainy night propels Ann into a notorious spotlight--as the two Mrs. Grenvilles enter into a conspiracy of silence that will bind them together for as long as they live. . . .This is by far one of the best made for TV dramas I have ever seen.I still have it on videotape.Ann Margaret is well Anne Margaret no great actress as you will see but totally drop dead gorgeous which was why she was cast in the first place.Claudette Colbert also ideally cast as the Family Matriarch.At the funeral of the grandson Billy Grenville Colbert without missing a beat says to Anne Grenville "Well maybe now you know what it feels like to lose a son."A must see and must read book and film. -R Brentnall

One of the best docs to come to television.

David Halberstam's The Fifties. 1997.

Volume 1: The Fear and the Dream. First segment in a six part series on the United States in the Fifties. In the postwar U.S., new affluence mingled with the fear of the new menace of communism. Film discusses the conditions encountered by WWII veterans, the building of the first housing tract, the development of the nuclear arms race and the hydrogen bomb, anti-Communist hysteria and McCarthyism, events leading to the Korean War and the development of popular literature in the 50's focusing on Mickey Spillane. 90 min. Volume 2: Selling the American Way. Still haunted by the Great Depression, Americans needed to be coaxed into enjoying their new-found affluence. This episode shows how the invention of television and the perfection of the art of advertising were used in both commerce and politics. Highlights advertising gurus Norman Vincent Peale and Rosser Reeves, shows how Richard Nixon applied slick new media techniques to save his career and how Washington learned to manipulate the media, hiding undercover operations in places like Iran, Guatemala and ultimately, Vietnam. 50 min. Volume 3: Let's Play House. This segment describes the personal unrest sometimes felt in the outwardly tranquil fifties, including dissatisfaction with women's roles as housewives and men's roles in the corporate rat race. Feminist Betty Friedan, Sloan Wilson, author of The man in the gray flannel suit, and Grace Metalious, whose steamy novel Petyon Place exposed small-town hypocrisy, are discussed as representative of the gap between the idealized nuclear family of the 1950s and the way things really were. 50 min. Volume 4: A Burning Desire. During this time of social claustrophobia and sexual taboos, a handful of individuals brought a world of suppressed desires into the open. The publication of the famed "Kinsey Report", pin-up girl Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner's Playboy, and Margaret Sanger's crusade for the pill are profiled as key movements that set the stage for the sexual revolution to come. 50 min. Volume 5: The Beat. This episode shows how the culture of the Beats and the rise of rock 'n' roll helped forge the youth culture that would explode in the sixties. Focuses on Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, jazz greats Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, the rise of country/rock and Elvis Presley. 50 min. Volume 6: The Rage Within and The Road to the Sixties. "The Rage Within" shows how America in the fifties is finally forced to examine issues of racial discrimination through the murder of Emmet Till, the rise of athletes like Bill Russell and Willie Mays, school desegregation, the Montgomery bus strike, and leadership by Martin Luther King, Jr. "The Road to the Sixties" shows American involvement with fast cars, fast food, the space race, the rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba and a rising restlessness as the country hurtles toward the next decade. 50 min.