Susanna Biel, who won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Emmy Award for Best Director of Miniseries for the TV series "Night Shift Manager" with the Swedish film "Better World", this time with David, who has developed many classic law-themed TV series. · Kelly teamed up to bring the HBO miniseries "Inaction", which was supposed to be released in May 2020. The films and drama series directed by Susanna often pay much attention to the use of scenery and color, just like the setting of a stage play, setting a basic threshold for the story she wants to tell. This time she led us to appreciate the ambiguous and ambiguous New York that was white in winter and yellow at night. She seemed to remind us that this prosperous city, like the various things behind the city, could only be passed by with a smile.
This play tells the story of the Fresher family. Grace is a psychotherapist who works in the Upper East Side of New York with a high salary and lives in New York City with her husband as an oncologist and a son who likes to play the violin. In a big house. The life of the Frescher family looks like New York during the winter day, simple, happy, pure, and intentionally or unintentionally showing its invulnerability to outsiders from time to time. However, under this fragile but slightly boring appearance, it looks ambiguous and full of turmoil just like New York in the early days of the lights. The new-born mother Elena, who was transferred from her son's fourth grade school, is like a firework that soars upwards in the night, hoping to reveal this ambiguous illusion with her short but bright moment. She attacked Grace's upper life circle like a bomb. At this aristocratic school with a tuition of $50,000 per academic year, she is like an intruder, giving the nobles a glimpse of the lives of the lower class, as Grace’s socialite friends said: "Who will send the children to school, Do you have time to sit in front of the school? This fucking guy is in New York!"
Elena's short playing time turned the plot forward sharply. First, she was breastfeeding in public at the preparatory meeting of the school's charity dinner. Although Grace felt uncomfortable, she said that it was just a mother feeding the baby. Then in the second meeting in the gymnasium, Elena stood naked, generous but slightly provocative in front of Grace, making her look cramped and uneasy. However, at the end of the first episode, the news of Elena's death instantly brought everything into a whirlpool. Grace was forced to look directly at this life intruder and its possible impact on her life, she began to anxiously search for her husband who claimed to attend a seminar in another place.
As a psychologist, Grace thinks that when she talks about the relationship between the sexes, people are self-rejecting in the emotional prison they are involved in. Because they consciously ignore or avoid certain characteristics of their partners in the process of communication. In other words, they know what their partners are, but they don't do anything. You know from the beginning that he is a playboy, he is generous in his hands and feet, he is complacent and arrogant. From your first conversation and your second date, you know in your heart. However, then you will subconsciously persuade yourself, forget those judgments you have made of him, and use a longer time to get along, you will understand him more fully than before as a powerful argument.
In real life, do we often do this too. The first time you chat with the landlord, you understand that he is actually a difficult person, but because of the pressure of finding a house and the subsequent meetings, you convince yourself that he is probably not that bad? When you chat with your employer for the first time, you understand that this company is not suitable for you, but because you are worried that you will never find a more suitable one, and encourage yourself, this company is not bad? When you date that person for the first time, you realize that you have no interest in him, but because of your age and conditions, you warn yourself not to look too high?
With the disappearance of her husband, the relationship between him and Elena’s death and his unknown side began to slowly show up, Grace also had to ask herself this question: "Is it right? I knew it early on. He is a downright hypocrite, but I have consciously ignored these qualities of him?" Grace grew up in New York, with excellent family conditions, and the child’s aristocratic school expenses are borne by her father. Her life experience is based on these solid foundations. In the hard financial relationship, she has lived in a privileged state all her life, but the key thing is that this privileged state makes it difficult for her to realize that she is truly privileged. In this stable and positive worldview, they tend to attribute their current life state to their own efforts, while others are either not working hard, or not smart, or have no vision, so they There is no way to live a prosperous life. Paradoxically, Grace seemed to understand from the time she was in contact with Elena that this woman would bring earth-shattering destruction to her life. The state of this woman’s life was not something she could explain without trying hard enough, but she chose Ignore these details repeatedly to comfort myself.
In an interview, the director said that the most important thing in a television adaptation of a good book is to make appropriate dramatic adaptations on the basis of the original work. In this way, you can maintain the essence of the original work but have independent conscious expression. So although this drama is an adaptation of "You Should Have Known", its character settings and core expressions have changed. Susanna wanted to use Grace's story to explore how to tell a chaotic story. How to tell a story full of confusion. How to tell a noisy story. How to tell a story that even though the world you have always thought to live in has collapsed, you have to continue to live normally or pretend to be a normal life. Ironically, these stories are not just stories, but the reality in which you and I live.
How to tell a story that is unbearable, noisy, and enjoyable? Looking around, reading the news occasionally, and surfing the Internet from time to time? Reality more absurd than drama will not let you down. The American writer Jonathan finally wrote in his work "Correct": "However, after he died, she gently kissed his forehead, and then went out with Dennis and Gary into the warm spring night. Now she feels Nothing can kill her hope, no matter what. She is seventy-five years old and she will begin to change her life."
David Kelly bought the right to adapt the original book several years ago, but because the original book lacked the emotional conflict required for the album, he first adapted the two seasons of "Lies and Lies". However, the original book’s sharp brushstrokes against the upper 1% of Manhattan’s population It can't be forgotten for a long time. When he handed over the script of the first episode to the director, the direction of the plot can be either a plot or a suspenseful one. The director favors the questioning of "Who can I believe on earth", so the plot turns to a suspenseful style. However, there is nothing new under the sun. Even if most people can't guess the ending after watching the first episode, they probably have a determined plot trend in their hearts. Although the director uses montages and hand-held cameras very sophisticatedly to increase the suspense of the plot, this excessive use of detailed shots often makes people feel a little tired and impatient. The important thing is not whether he is worthy of your trust, or whether he does it or not. To be honest, the important thing is yourself. And more importantly, I hope that one day in the near future, you will be able to walk into a warm spring night, not at the age of seventy-five.
Update (there are minor spoilers for the ending below):
The above film review is based on the plot of the first episode and the original work. Although the adaptation of HBO is relatively large, the core has not changed, which also confirms what the director said in the interview while maintaining the essence of the original work and having different expressions. In the end, Henry and Grace's shouts with their backs to Jonathan, without turning their heads back, were just a point. Tina's comments in the comment section have a unique perspective and profound views. Thank you all!
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