I just don't understand why they insist on making such massive blunders in such an excellently well-made series.
Inasmuch as I am a devoted fan of the magnificent Helena Bonham Carter, and inasmuch as she plays the part with all her (considerable) might... she's miscast. I'm sorry. And in this episode, it shows.
Vanessa Kirby from the first two series was fantastic in the role, and it's inconcieveable why they suddenly changed the cast. Just think about what she could have done with this episode!
The script is, as always, outstanding; so are the sets (although, why has the White House suddenly been flung out into the middle of a field in Kansas?), the direction, the photography.
But who on Earth was in charge of casting? Stevie Wonder?
I'm happy for the subtitles that give you an indication of who'se speaking; I would have been lost otherwise, not knowing who is supposed to be who. I mean, come on, Harold Wilson without a pipe! LBJ looking only vaguely like LBJ (almost as bad as the casting of JFK; that was a near criminal offence), Queen Elizabeth looking more like an elderly Margaret, the Duke of Edinburgh sounding like his son and looking like his grandson... I could go on for ages but you get the picture. (And the previous two series had similar blunders - whose great idea was it to cast the role of the robustly built Scot Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother with a diminuitive mousy actress??)
It's such a shame, really, because it ruins what could otherwise have been near perfection. And the legendary HBC certainly deserves better.
Inasmuch as I am a devoted fan of the magnificent Helena Bonham Carter, and inasmuch as she plays the part with all her (considerable) might... she's miscast. I'm sorry. And in this episode, it shows.
Vanessa Kirby from the first two series was fantastic in the role, and it's inconcieveable why they suddenly changed the cast. Just think about what she could have done with this episode!
The script is, as always, outstanding; so are the sets (although, why has the White House suddenly been flung out into the middle of a field in Kansas?), the direction, the photography.
But who on Earth was in charge of casting? Stevie Wonder?
I'm happy for the subtitles that give you an indication of who'se speaking; I would have been lost otherwise, not knowing who is supposed to be who. I mean, come on, Harold Wilson without a pipe! LBJ looking only vaguely like LBJ (almost as bad as the casting of JFK; that was a near criminal offence), Queen Elizabeth looking more like an elderly Margaret, the Duke of Edinburgh sounding like his son and looking like his grandson... I could go on for ages but you get the picture. (And the previous two series had similar blunders - whose great idea was it to cast the role of the robustly built Scot Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother with a diminuitive mousy actress??)
It's such a shame, really, because it ruins what could otherwise have been near perfection. And the legendary HBC certainly deserves better.