Bleak House on Masterpiece Theatre

[kafka]

Those who missed the series and were asking about reruns: the whole thing just came out yesterday on DVD and is available on Netflix.

[Deleted]

Found and bumped, so we don't have to try to talk about it on the Mick Jagger thread.
While poking around for images of Mr. Smallweed ("Shake me up, Judy!") I found an old etching where he was shown practically slipping out of a chair: he must have had some sort of spinal problem that made him unable to sit upright for very long. Once slumped down, he would have needed help righting himself. Perhaps his granddaughter Judy was the mother of modern chiropractic!
I don't know if I have the patience to get through the book these days (I could sit and read Dickens endlessly when I was young) but I may have to, as I also have questions about John Jarndyce and his amazingly kind and altruistic nature. How did he come to hire Esther as Ada's companion? Something gives me the feeling he had seen her earlier, found himself attracted to her, and hired her when the opportunity arose.
Thoughts? Anyone?

[buckdutter]

Cool! I searched for this thread, but didn't find it. So, what Judy was doing was fluffing the poor, old crushed feather pillow that was Smallweed? Makes sense. Am I the ONLY one who keeps slipping up and saying/thinking/typing Dickweed, instead? In my ear, the other characters were saying it, too.

Unfortunately, this is one of the few Dickens books I didn't read because I'd always heard it wasn't up to his usual standards, so all I've got to go on for insight is this production, which I really didn't pay close enough attention to the first hour. However, I do seem to remember Mr. J. confessing to Esther something along the lines that he'd entertained the hope, since seeing her as a little girl (ewww), that she'd one day grow up, fall in love with and marry him. Creepy uncle vibe aside, the man was a friggin' saint, no? I thought he was cute as a button and would have jumped at marrying him in a heartbeat....well, unless my other option was a really hot doc/ Edgar Allan Poe look-a-like. For a plain and horribly disfigured girl with an annoying lisp, Esther's milkshake sure brought all the boys to the yard.

I'm going to have to read the book to see if Richard's downfall and death were supposed to have tugged at my heartstrings, because they decidedly did NOT. Good riddance, you whiny, spoiled bottom-feeder!

Did Mr. Guppy remind anyone else of Johnny Depp? Not so much physically, maybe, but every time he was onscreen, JD sprung to mind. His flip-flopping devotion/revulsion re: Esther was funny stuff.