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Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,373
Registered: ‎04-04-2015

Re: My mother and other strangers


@Ellensevs wrote:

I couldn't agree more! I enjoy all of the Masterpiece programs from bygone eras....however this has taken such a hurtful turn, that it is hard to watch!


That's how i feel about Grantchester too.  Especially since it takes on God's role in people's lives.  Almost seems mocking of people of faith to me.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,159
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: My mother and other strangers

@blondiechick  OMgosh you're right!!!! How could I not remember that? I thought the first time I saw him he looked familiar! I thought he was cute on MM, too. He looks even younger on this-how can that be??

Contributor
Posts: 61
Registered: ‎08-23-2011

Re: My Mother and Other Strangers

I for one have loved My Mother and Other Strangers.

 

As a history buff, I am fascinated by stories of how the lives of people have been affected by tragic events, especially by something as devastating as a world war. 

 

In MM&OS, everyone is overwhelmed by the tsunami of war enveloping them.  It has been interesting to see the story of adult events told from the perspective of a ten year old boy reflecting on the events as a grown man.  All the drama of life .... finding and losing love, economic hardship, deprivation, loss of livelihood, loss of family heritage, domestic abuse, clashes of ethnic groups, illness, death ... are magnified and exacerbated by the pressure of the war and the threat it presents to everyone.  Nerves are fraying.  

 

English Rose and her Irish husband Michael love each other, but he has been pushing her away, making her "a stranger", like "her lot" the English, ignoring the needs of her feminine heart while brooding on his own woes.  Rose strictly follows the rules of her moral compass while Michael is more of a pragmatist.  Someone doesn't pay him what they owe but substitutes stolen goods, he doesn't like it, but understands that is what must be done, given the difficult nature of the times.  He does not want to be a black marketeer, but will if he must, while Rose refuses under any circumstance, even though that further drives a wedge between them.  Their son Francis, the narrator, is a very serious child, much like his mother.

 

Given her strict set of values and loyal to her husband even when it is not easy, Rose is totally caught off guard by the kind and educated Captain Dreyfuss.  He touches the longing for a fantasy love she has cherished since girlhood.  She tries to fight it, but Michael continues to be at loggerheads with her over various issues, pushing her away, and she drifts further and further into fantasizing over the American officer.  He is cool and reserved, but seeks her out.  Given the revelations of the final episode, they are both desperate for love and acceptance.

 

I hope that they will finish telling this story rather than just leaving us with the cliffhanger of the last episode.  I also read that the production was put on hiatus because of the pregnancy of the actress who plays Rose and that they have not resumed production.  My hope would be that Rose and Michael would be able to find their way back to saving their marriage and their family, but It would be so sad if the Captain goes off to war and is killed, which would actually be a realistic scenario. 

 

I think the overwrought emotional scenes toward the end, in which Rose is crying and babbling are a device the writer used to allow her to reveal her internal turmoil.  There are many important plot elements that are only revealed late in the game (don't want to spoil it for someone who hasn't seen it yet) and Rose has to have a way to explain how it all has affected her.  Yes, it is ironic that she bemoans how another person has betrayed Michael when she is moving toward a massive betrayal herself.  She has tried to fight it but is losing the war. 

 

I have found it such an interesting program.  It does help to watch it with the closed captioning on as some of the dialog is very quick and colloquial, which can make it hard to understand. 

 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.  It is a glimpse into an aspect of World War II that I had never considered .... how the Yanks interacted with the local people during such a dark time in world history.  May it help us cherish and strive to maintain the peace with which we have been so richly blessed. 

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Registered: ‎04-04-2015

Re: My Mother and Other Strangers

[ Edited ]

The wartime setting doesn't really seem to explain the attraction of Rose to Dreyfus.  Rose seems to feel superior not only to Moybeg but also to her husband.  They - and he - don't "speak properly," are not educated, and are dull overall.   

 

He definitely feels this and apologizes for subjecting her not only to the town, but also to himself.  He counts on her loyalty, however, and does not immediately suspect her involvement with Dreyfus.

 

Whatever she decides now, the marriage is doomed.  If she stays with him despite her overwhelming passion for Dreyfus, her betrayal (on top of his cousin's) will likely destroy him.  Her contempt will only increase and she will feel even more superior for "giving up" the "love of her life" and expect him to be eternally grateful.

 

When she says she doesn't deserve him, I agree.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,159
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: My Mother and Other Strangers

[ Edited ]

@SuperShopper  That was beautiful. I think you have it in a nutshell. I guess the only way to end it, should she not go off with him, would be for him to be killed. And I can see it happening very clearly. I can even see Michael comforting her, knowing she had feelings for him and thinking how miserable she must have been (is) in their own lives (although she wasn't-she just had the white knight in shining armor thing). But I'm a romantic and I want her to go with him, wherever that may be, but  down the road of course they would both have such guilt feelings that it wouldn't work. Just the wrong time and the wrong place.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what were we doing in Ireland???

Honored Contributor
Posts: 10,894
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Re: My Mother and Other Strangers

It's the sort of thing I like but it failed for me because I found the characters annoying and unappealng. The casting was a miss as well, especially Rose. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,159
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: My Mother and Other Strangers

@occasionalrain  I didn't like her at first, but I guess she grew on me. None of the Irish actors appealed to me. 

Contributor
Posts: 61
Registered: ‎08-23-2011

Re: My Mother and Other Strangers


@Judaline wrote:

@SuperShopper  That was beautiful. I think you have it in a nutshell. I guess the only way to end it, should she not go off with him, would be for him to be killed. And I can see it happening very clearly. I can even see Michael comforting her, knowing she had feelings for him and thinking how miserable she must have been (is) in their own lives (although she wasn't-she just had the white knight in shining armor thing). But I'm a romantic and I want her to go with him, wherever that may be, but  down the road of course they would both have such guilt feelings that it wouldn't work. Just the wrong time and the wrong place.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what were we doing in Ireland???


Hi, Thank you for your kind comments.

 

I have not researched it, but I think that once the U.S. entered the war on the side of England and its allies, major preparations were underway for the massive Allied invasion of continental Europe ..... we now know as D-Day.  There was massive movement of American troops, supplies, ships, planes, equipment, etc to the British Isles, military bases were set up in many places for training and staging the invasion.  It looks like the American military base in MM&OS was a bomber training facility, hence the bombers everpresent in the skies around Moybeg.  Just months after the events of MM&OS, these troops would be deploying into battle, with many of them being killed.

 

The tension between the locals and any "strangers" and between Michael and Rose foreshadows the coming  uprising of Irish nationalists to throw off the centuries-old domination of the English in Northern Ireland, which erupted in the 1960's with bloody conflict between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and England.  Many of us are probably old enough to remember the bombings, fighting and killing, even in London.  I think that era is now referred to as "The Troubles".  So the ire of the locals at outsiders, for example the Hanlons, reflects what was really developing at the time. 

 

I think that the Republic of Ireland itself (not Northern Ireland) may have opposed the English during the war. 

 

As for Rose being "snooty" , correcting Michael's grammar, etc (other posters have mentioned this) , this is a conflict we see even in our country and our own families.  People with education speak a certain way, colloquial people speak with colloquial expressions.  Consider the dinner table conversation in the first episode when Michael compliments the meal by saying "them eels".  When Rose chides him to say "those eels", she indicates that in the past Michael has used the grammatically correct words and that she is trying to teach the children to speak correctly.  Apparently as Michael has returned to his roots, he has re-identified with the locals rather than being the more cultured person he was when Rose met and married him.  She is the rule-bound starchy schoolmarm, he is the pragmatist trying to make his way and take care of his family in a turbulent time.  They love each other and their children, but outside forces are putting them under tremendous pressure, so that what might have been a minor irritation in peaceful times becomes a microcosm of the bigger conflict around them. 

 

I think I remember reading that the writer actually grew up in a village in the area of fictional Moybeg, so much of the story has its basis in fact.  Sorry I don't have time to fact check myself right now.  But I am enjoying the glimpse into a past in a place I had never considered.  We are so blessed to live in the time and place where we live!

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Posts: 1,268
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: My Mother and Other Strangers

I will be so happy to see the Durrells in Corfu back! Talk about your quirky characters! Loved it. I have only watched the last four episodes of My Mother And Other Strangers and did get pulled in. These dramas beat anything on American television, right now. Just my opinion! I am still having withdrawal pains from the loss of Downton Abbey!