The Triffids Have Had Their Day.
I have just been taught a very valuable lesson. It is one that I have learnt several times before but it doesn’t get any easier… The lesson is; don’t believe the hype. And what is it that I am talking about? Why, the BBC’s modern two-part adaption of ‘The Day of the Triffids’, of course.
Where do I begin? Perhaps I should start on the set of the dramatisation itself, where everyone is blind. No, they have not lost their sight because of a celestial light display; I am afraid that their lack of vision has been caused by such factors as a mediocre script, farcical acting and the anonymity of computer generated special effects.
I had been really looking forward to watching ‘The Day of the Triffids’ since I first heard about it on the internet a few weeks ago. The last time that the Beeb made a series of John Wyndham’s Sci-Fi classic, in 1981, it was brilliant. ‘Even if it goes the way of the pear,’ I told myself before seeing it; ‘then it still can’t turn out to be as much of a stinker as the 1962 film version with Howard Keel’.
How wrong you can be.
The BBC’s latest adaption is an absolute shambles. I cannot be too harsh with what I have to say though, as I only managed to watch the first 15 minutes. What I can say though is that certain words sprang to mind as I saw it all unfold; travesty, hokum, contrived, weak, feeble, baloney. There, I do hope that wasn’t too harsh…
It is a constant mystery to me why it is so often necessary for screenwriters to muck around with a perfectly good story. For example, in Mr.Wyndham’s novel there is no large passenger plane ploughing through a London borough within the first few pages (or any at all for that matter).
When will people learn? And, more importantly, when will I learn?
Don’t believe the hype.
As a complete sidebar, I feel I should say I was doing some stuff online last week and I came across a webpage covering microdermabrasion treatment. I would like to point out that this is something I have never even pondered before this moment, but looking at it I can’t help but want to try it a little bit, I feel like this is wrong. Is this wrong?