Catching Ducks

Small Island is a two-part mini-series about Jamaican immigrants in post-WWII Britain. The two main characters are Queenie, a white British woman, and Hortense, a black Jamaican woman. The series has some good moments, but I had three major problems with it.

The first is the time jumps. The story jumped back in forth in time, but only sometimes had title cards to tell you when you were. This led to me being confused about when things were happening. They either needed to tell the story in a more coherent way (so that the title cards weren't necessary) or use them every time they jumped to a different time period.

Secondly: the narration. In general, I understand why narration might be necessary, especially for an adaptation of a novel. But this was one of the strangest and most frustrating uses I have ever encountered. For example: Character-A would say to Character-B, "Tell me about Character-C" and B would speak just a couple words before the narrator would take over and say, "And so, B told A all about C, how C would blah-blah, and how they met at that-place, and how they dreamed of whatever". Basically, the narration took just as long as the actual conversation would have. The narration sucks the personality out of the interaction and was almost completely unnecessary.

My final problem was one of the lead characters, Queenie. Queenie was more of a caricature than a person. The only time she seemed like a real person was in her scenes with her father-in-law. The rest of the time she seemed like some idealized version of what a modern white person would want to be if they were living in that time period. It's very annoying. (And, considering person who wrote the book the series is based on is black, it's very strange. But, to be fair, it's possible the book-version of Queenie wasn't so jarringly martyr-like.)

The other lead, Hortense, is much better. Her character seems more real and more interesting. I think one of the big differences might be that she's much more specific, where as Queenie is vague and ill-defined. I never quite understood why Queenie did the things she did. Hortense's motives, on the other hand, were very clear. Even when she did things that were petty, or made bad choices, I understood why she did them.


Spoilers:

Gur zbzrag jura gur gvzr-whzcf ernyyl pbashfrq zr jnf jura vg jnf erirnyrq gung Dhrravr jnf certanag. Vg jnf boivbhf gung Zvpunry jnf gur sngure, ohg fur unqa'g frra uvz fvapr gur jne, naq V gubhtug vg jnf fhccbfrq gb or 1948. Fb gura V gubhtug V jnf pbashfrq nobhg jung lrne vg jnf, jura npghnyyl Zvpunry unq ivfvgrq ure cbfg-jne. Juvpu jnf rkgen pbashfvat orpnhfr Ubegrafr unq orra gbyq gung ur qvrq va gur jne. Vg jnf riraghnyyl rkcynvarq (fbeg bs), ohg vg ernyyl gbbx zr bhg bs gur zbzrag. Vs gur gvzrf unq orra zber pyrneyl ynoryrq, gura V jbhyq unir gehfgrq gung vg jbhyq or rkcynvarq.

Fcrnxvat bs gur zrasbyx: Tvyoreg terj ba zr. (N ybg.) Oreaneq jnf hayvxrnoyr ohg vagrerfgvat. Zvpunry... jung ba rnegu jnf uvf nccrny? Obgu Dhrravr & Ubegrafr jrer tntn sbe uvz, ohg V pbhyqa'g haqrefgnaq vg ng nyy.

Bar bs gur guvatf V ernyyl qvq yvxr nobhg guvf jnf vg fubjrq ubj yvzvgrq jbzra'f bcgvbaf jrer ng gung gvzr. Obgu Dhrravr naq Ubegrafr zneel zra gurl qba'g xabj (naq qba'g cnegvphyneyl yvxr) orpnhfr vg jnf tbvat gb trg gurz fbzrjurer gurl jnagrq gb or. Ubegrafr rira fnlf gung fur, nf n fvatyr jbzna, pbhyq arire geniry sebz Wnznvpn gb Ratynaq. Ohg vs fur jrer zneevrq, naq jrer geniryvat gb zrrg hc jvgu ure uhfonaq va Ratynaq, gung jbhyq or nyybjrq. Penml gb guvax nobhg!

Labels: review: TV