Martin Freeman News

[Carol the Dabbler]

It's the one that also has Harrison Ford in it. ;) The plot is about some sort of government mumbo-jumbo, I think.

[Arcadia]

Oooh, sounds right up my alley. :d

[Carol the Dabbler]

I looked it up again. It's based on a true story about a government employee who leaks sensitive information regarding military activity.

[Arcadia]

The Snowden Story? ;)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Nope! The "leaker" is a woman, for starters, so I assume she's played by Natalie Dormer. Not sure where each of the male characters fits in.

[Pseudonym]

God, apart from stills this is the youngest I've ever seen him. 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Any idea what that's from?

[Pseudonym]

No sorry. I'm useless for knowing the sources of the things I stumble across. :(

[Pseudonym]

Is Start Up any good? The gifs of the sex scenes are kind of squicking me out. 

[Arcadia]

Ummm... it had it's interesting points. Frankly, I thought Martin's part in it could have been left out. Not that he wasn't good, or interesting, but it didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the story. It's definitely not something I would have watched if he hadn't been in it. Towards the end I started fast-forwarding a lot.

 

And the sex was very gratuitous. The first episode especially was just degrading to everyone involved. *sigh*

[Carol the Dabbler]

So MF's role doesn't even tie in at the end?

[Arcadia]

No, it didn't. It was weird, he barely intersected with the other three characters at all.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Are they planning a sequel?

[Arcadia]

No idea, but it was open-ended. Except ...

 

... Martin's character appeared to have been killed. They didn't show him actually dying, but he was left in a position that I don't see how he could have come out of it alive.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm starting to think I'll just skip StartUp. It hardly sounds worth watching.

[Arcadia]

To be honest, I felt it was intended for a younger crowd than thee or me. It was so self-consciously hip it hurt. (What's the modern term for "hip"? )

[Carol the Dabbler]

Last time I checked, they were still saying "cool," but that's been a while.

 

Yeah, I believe my initial impression of the show's style was "gritty chic," which never has been my cup of tea. If Freeman had some good screen time, I might still spring for it, but if not why bother. For all I know it's still not available on DVD anyhow.

 

Tell ya, though, I'm really looking forward to Cargo.

[Pseudonym]

I like weird gritty things, but the premise sounded a bit dull :(

 

I like the look of Cargo too, wonder when there'll be a trailer. 

 

One one and his baby... I wonder how many Sherlock crossover fics there'll be

[Arcadia]

Start Up is still available for free on Crackle, you just have to sit through the ads. http://www.crackle.com/startup

 

Martin has quite a lot of scenes, and he's good in it ... his scenes just don't have a lot to do with the rest of the story. It occurs to me you could probably just watch his scenes and have a fairly easy to follow narrative. You wouldn't avoid the graphic sex that way, though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Does it have subtitles / closed captioning?

[Pseudonym]

Was there actually any point to the sex scenes or was it just to be edgy?

[Arcadia]

Does it have subtitles / closed captioning?

Yup.

 

 

Was there actually any point to the sex scenes or was it just to be edgy?

Oh, definitely the latter. To my way of thinking.

 

Did you see Gone Girl? That is one of the few movies I've seen where I thought the graphic nature of the sex actually served the plot. So if you felt the same way, you might see where I'm coming from. Start Up is equally graphic, perhaps even more, but without any point other than to show what jerks all these people were to each other; imo. And since they acted like jerks in every other way imaginable, I didn't feel like I needed it reinforced by watching them have sex.

[Boton]

I have to say, though, that Start Up has actually made me more curious to see MF in other roles.  Where I made the opposite statement about BC over in his thread - that I think I'm less interested in his work than I am in Sherlock - Start Up hit me at just the right time to say, "OK, MF can play John Watson, who I like quite a bit, but he can also play this fairly unlikable character that I still want to stick with to see how he works through things.  

 

And I actually didn't mind the sex scenes, although I can't say they furthered the plot all that much. But, I have a reasonably high tolerance for those types of scenes and don't really take pains to avoid them, so there's that.

[Carol the Dabbler]

You might check out Fargo, then.  MF plays a character with a fairly complex personal arc, so you get variety, plus none of the stages are at all like either John Watson or what's-his-name (Phil Rask?).  It's pretty dark, but it's dark whimsy, so if you got through StartUp in good shape, you should do fine with Fargo.

[Pseudonym]

I just read an article that Netlix have bought the rights for Cargo, so does that mean it's not released on cinemas and instead straight onto Netflix? Seems so because it's going under their Netflix Originals banner.