Feb. 28th, 2021 10:07 pm
requiem (2018)
I watched Requiem because I was in the mood for low-brain low-investment pretty horror. I did not particularly care for quality of anything beyond 'Sian Reese-Williams having feelings' and 'lingering shots of the gloomy Welsh countryside'. I had very low expectations, which were met and in some cases exceeded - this was exactly what I wanted to watch this week - but gods does the very central key of this show bug me.
Requiem is the six-part story of accomplished cellist Matilda Gray travelling to (fictional) Penllynith, because she's looking for answers after her mother kills herself in front of her eyes, and also someone is desperate for us to know who in the cast has Welsh by making them all say 'Penllynith' once an episode. It's a story about identity, and not-so-haunted houses, and less about the ways in which a landscape holds onto its people than it had told me it would be. It's sort of maybe a story about what happens to you when a parent dies and you realise they've been keeping secrets, but that thread is only occasionally picked up and it's a bit dull when it is there - self-discovery and self-creation set against the broader backdrop of history is more successful than specific parenting stories. It's a story with which Kris Mrksa has achieved the impossible: he has created a show that made me say 'D'you know what? The non-supernatural AU is better.'
I decided to watch this fully aware that![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
snickfic was saying "I enjoyed it while watching but I don't recommend it", and I hit play on episode 1 thinking "I am so fucking homesick that I'll probably love this wholeheartedly no matter how bad it is". (Un?)expectedly, I ended up thinking it was both much better and much worse than I had thought it would be.
( Cut is full of spoilers, not into angels, and thinking about places and spaces and femslash )
ANYWAY. I don't think I actually rec this, but also, I want everyone to watch it and yell about it with me.
Requiem is the six-part story of accomplished cellist Matilda Gray travelling to (fictional) Penllynith, because she's looking for answers after her mother kills herself in front of her eyes, and also someone is desperate for us to know who in the cast has Welsh by making them all say 'Penllynith' once an episode. It's a story about identity, and not-so-haunted houses, and less about the ways in which a landscape holds onto its people than it had told me it would be. It's sort of maybe a story about what happens to you when a parent dies and you realise they've been keeping secrets, but that thread is only occasionally picked up and it's a bit dull when it is there - self-discovery and self-creation set against the broader backdrop of history is more successful than specific parenting stories. It's a story with which Kris Mrksa has achieved the impossible: he has created a show that made me say 'D'you know what? The non-supernatural AU is better.'
I decided to watch this fully aware that
snickfic was saying "I enjoyed it while watching but I don't recommend it", and I hit play on episode 1 thinking "I am so fucking homesick that I'll probably love this wholeheartedly no matter how bad it is". (Un?)expectedly, I ended up thinking it was both much better and much worse than I had thought it would be.( Cut is full of spoilers, not into angels, and thinking about places and spaces and femslash )
ANYWAY. I don't think I actually rec this, but also, I want everyone to watch it and yell about it with me.
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