Wolf Hall - 2 entertain Video

[samdvd1]

March 2nd 2015.

[Le Grande Blu]

Starts on BBC2 tonight, and the early reviews are extactic

[CinemaScope]

It's nice that it's getting a Blu-ray release, most BBC stuff is DVD only.

[Sheridan Mac]

Has anyone seen what the blu-ray looks like? I only heard about this story through today's gushing New York Times article, and am intrigued enough to consider an order from amazon.co.uk for my region free player...

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by Sheridan Mac

Has anyone seen what the blu-ray looks like? I only heard about this story through today's gushing New York Times article, and am intrigued enough to consider an order from amazon.co.uk for my region free player...

It's a gorgeous 1080i presentation; the series is quite brilliant with a breathtaking central performance from Rylance.

[Filmbloke]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

It's a gorgeous 1080i presentation; the series is quite brilliant with a breathtaking central performance from Rylance.

Here here! I also rated Clare Foy - but all in all every performance was note worthy! The best thing the BBC has done in a long time.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

It's a gorgeous 1080i presentation; the series is quite brilliant with a breathtaking central performance from Rylance.

Yep I enjoyed it quite a lot. Those who might think its like Game of Thrones are in for a shock though!

[CinemaScope]

I recorded all this & thought I'd watch it over the weekend, but my god, I found it all so slow. I don't think I could sit through it again.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

I recorded all this & thought I'd watch it over the weekend, but my god, I found it all so slow. I don't think I could sit through it again.

I'd have to agree. It's dramatically rather flat, mixing clumsy exposition ("Thomas Boleyn - you used to be in trade, didn't you?"), the odd bit of modern slang that sticks out like a sore thumb and a dull one-note performance from Mark Rylance who plays it like the head of a firm of undertakers. In his hands the death of Cromwell's wife and daughters was played rather like someone trying to adjust a TV aeriel to get a better signal but giving up rather than being effectively underplayed). It has a 'and then... and then... and then...' feeling of disinterestedly going through a checklist of historical incidents that should be in a period drama, with only Jonathan Pryce really livening things up a bit.

It's surprisingly poor technically, too, with much of the first third of the opening episode shot in impenetrable darkness a la Alien vs Predator: Requiem with the hi-def digital cameras showing less detail than normal ones because shooting many scenes only with natural light or candlelight resulted in a dark grey mass where barely discernible shapes bled into each other as you struggled to make out what you were watching. The opening shots of riders approaching Hampton Court or any exterior night scenes and many interiors are completely devoid of any detail and it is hard to make out where one shape ends and another begins in the gloom. It's not atmospheric use of natural light where the cinematographer is compensating and adapting for it like Barry Lyndon but plain bad photography where they've assumed that after grading the camera can capture detail without any form of lighting: it can't.

I'd give it a generous 6/10.

[CelestialAgent]

Next season released in February

[Sergeant Howie]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Next season released in February

There's also a stand-alone edition of "The Mirror and the Light" about to be released in the UK, no doubt for those, like me, who bought the original series' Blu-ray all those years ago. (Also on DVD)

[Deadend45]

When super-action fans heard Wolf Hall had men-in-tights they assumed that meant lots of super punching surrounded by tons of VFX and afterwards spouting of lame quips plus 'thats what heroes do' type dialogue.

[Wendell Armbruster]

Noticed these in HMV this morning - The Mirror and the Light is just in a usual BR case with no slipcase, whereas the first Wolf Hall series had an embossed sleeve. But the Complete Series as pictured above does have a slipcase.