‘Growling happily to itself’: thank you, that’s just spot on. Has there ever been an American drama that was capable of doing the same thing? Because of Happy Valley, I will watch anything by Wainwright and anything Lancashire is in - I love to see her radiating power and force of personality.
I would heartily recommend Mare of Easttown, although it's interesting that that's another UK actress (Winslet) albeit playing an American. (There's also Promising Young Woman with Carey Mulligan which I keep meaning to write about - again, a British actor.) I suspect there are US series or films in which women actors are genuinely undefined by their sexuality (while not renouncing their sexuality altogether), but I wonder whether there's something about the sheer Hollywood/Broadway of the US tradition that pulls against it. Like, I really liked Natasha Lyonne in Poker Face, but her character is a very articulate, charismatic overgrown child, not a grown-up. Or maybe the UK has a more visible/prominent tradition of older female character actors (not, crucially, always comic), giving space to people like Sarah Lancashire and Kate Winslet to age up in a relatively realistic way? Hmm. Interesting.
As always, when writing about something I am not familiar with, you make me want to go and investigate. I don’t know what it is that has kept me away from Happy Valley because I was unaware of the sexual violence element. I think maybe it was a feeling that I didn’t need more gritty bleakness to remind me that the world isn’t that great.
This idea of the way women almost unconsciously support each other just through the fact that their interpersonal relations and reactions are so different to men’s is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently (but I’m still working it through, hence that fairly garbled and inarticulate sentence) In that context, I think this might be worth a watch.
I enjoyed Wainwright’s Scott and Bailey when it ran on ITV and at the time it stood out for its portrayal of female protagonists. I am not sure how well it would stand up to a second viewing though.
I guess it’s a measure of how much I enjoyed Happy Valley that I suspect I will at some point watch everything she’s ever written. I’m eyeing up ‘last tango in Halifax’ at the moment
I did like Lancashire’s performance, it was impressive. I actually liked Mare of Easttown a lot, but possibly because I’m much more of a ‘tourist’ in US culture and less able to judge what is and isn’t authentic!
‘Growling happily to itself’: thank you, that’s just spot on. Has there ever been an American drama that was capable of doing the same thing? Because of Happy Valley, I will watch anything by Wainwright and anything Lancashire is in - I love to see her radiating power and force of personality.
I would heartily recommend Mare of Easttown, although it's interesting that that's another UK actress (Winslet) albeit playing an American. (There's also Promising Young Woman with Carey Mulligan which I keep meaning to write about - again, a British actor.) I suspect there are US series or films in which women actors are genuinely undefined by their sexuality (while not renouncing their sexuality altogether), but I wonder whether there's something about the sheer Hollywood/Broadway of the US tradition that pulls against it. Like, I really liked Natasha Lyonne in Poker Face, but her character is a very articulate, charismatic overgrown child, not a grown-up. Or maybe the UK has a more visible/prominent tradition of older female character actors (not, crucially, always comic), giving space to people like Sarah Lancashire and Kate Winslet to age up in a relatively realistic way? Hmm. Interesting.
As always, when writing about something I am not familiar with, you make me want to go and investigate. I don’t know what it is that has kept me away from Happy Valley because I was unaware of the sexual violence element. I think maybe it was a feeling that I didn’t need more gritty bleakness to remind me that the world isn’t that great.
This idea of the way women almost unconsciously support each other just through the fact that their interpersonal relations and reactions are so different to men’s is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently (but I’m still working it through, hence that fairly garbled and inarticulate sentence) In that context, I think this might be worth a watch.
I enjoyed Wainwright’s Scott and Bailey when it ran on ITV and at the time it stood out for its portrayal of female protagonists. I am not sure how well it would stand up to a second viewing though.
I guess it’s a measure of how much I enjoyed Happy Valley that I suspect I will at some point watch everything she’s ever written. I’m eyeing up ‘last tango in Halifax’ at the moment
I couldn’t watch Mare of East Town- too depressing. And kate winslet doesn’t have the authenticity and earthiness of sarah Lancaster.
I love what you say about women being the tree roots of connectivity.
I did like Lancashire’s performance, it was impressive. I actually liked Mare of Easttown a lot, but possibly because I’m much more of a ‘tourist’ in US culture and less able to judge what is and isn’t authentic!