I just got back from a fun few days in Boston where I was doing my yearlyMasterpiece Mysteryhosting duties. I donned the suits, my hair was slicked back and I emerged from the shadows spouting pithy remarks. I like being a host, and I like going to Boston and catching up with the Masterpiece peeps. I was doing an interview whilst in Boston and talking about the fact that it is quite a dying trend to have someone set up what you areabout to see on TV. I think it is probably only Masterpiece and maybe AMC or one of those film channels that still does it. And I think that is sad. Because actually people really like to know what they are about to watch. Maybe it is something to do with our crazy, scheduled to the max lifestyle nowadays, but every time I am with a group of friends and we have a pile of DVDs in front of us and are trying to decide which to watch, 'What's it about?' is the most common cry.
I used to find that rather annoying. Why not just watch the thing and then find out, I thought? Why do we always have to be told of what to expect, or worse, what to think? If only there was someone like me giving a short and precise precis before every movie, perhaps even in the same style and aesthetic as the movie itself? Wouldn't that be good? And also save people trying in vain to encaptulate a story and a style of something that is over 2 hours long and potentially very dense and complicated?
Although I do enjoy hearing how people condense things when you play games like Taboo and they try to use as few words as possible to get their team-mates to understand them.
This picture is one I took on the train, leaving Manhattan behind ernoute for Boston. And here is a clip I found online from The L Word, with me being spunky with the lovely Pam Grier.
And here is a Broadway.com first night report of The Threepenny Opera in 2006