The Slap!

have only seen the ads running during SNL, but I laugh every time evil Spock slow-mo smacks the kid tbh

missed theme song opportunity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ylhBDysbI

NRA issues a press release stating that The Slap! merely underscores their oft-stated position that non-lethal violence solves nothing and can often make matters worse.

I cannot wait to watch this terrible looking thing

Ugggh this looks awful and the book was SO GOOD.

The book, btw, was set (mainly but not exclusively) in suburban Australia amongst the immigrant Greek community. It worked in large part due to the author's thoughtful depiction of that specific setting. p I do not see it translating well.

this was a book? I thought it was a Lifetime movie

that somehow got mixed up in the NBC schedule

in theory this could be quiet interesting; the premise and structure reminds me of some of the high-concept psuedo-modernist novels of the early 20th century.

i applaud all of those concerned for actually making it happen. but i also sympathize because there's really no way to sell this—especially with the title—without making it look terrible. and maybe it is terrible, i dunno. but it has potential.

Several folks have told me the book is excellent. The marketing for this is pretty rough; it looks like a dead-serious crime drama or something. They did a very good job of making you want to slap that kid though.

i guess i just can't imagine the book's structure/tone would translate well to the reigning dramatic/stylistic modes of network prime-time TV, but we'll see..

i mean at least as far as dramas (not comedies) are concerned, network programs seem to be to be almost all manic and hysterical these days

/old man

Hmm, I found the book pretty average, and the Australian miniseries actually better than the book. However I'm not sure that the US is especially good at doing grown up (and ambiguous) class / ethnicity / sexuality studies - and may instead turn this into a morality tale about parenting. I hope not.

right, that's what i mean. hard to see a network show doing an /analysis/, even in soap-opera form. but maybe the ads are just doing a bad job of selling this, or rather trying to sell it as something more familiar to the TV audience (=less appealing to the likes of me).

I'm not sure that the US is especially good at doing grown up (and ambiguous) class / ethnicity / sexuality studies

what do you mean? we gave Crash all the Oscars!

I predict much frenzied yelling.

I predict this will be worse but probably bad in a way that makes it more entertaining than Polanski's "Carnage", which seems similar

lisa cholodenko is one of the exec producers and directed @ least the 1st ep so idk im hoping it could be a little nuanced; nb I haven't seen the ads

she adapted olive kittridge which is prob the most "grown up" thing I can remember recently on tv tho obv that was hbo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui1YlTPlW_8

whole show should end with one big slapfight

Or the entire cast being lined up for a Three Stooges slap.

Looks like a miniseries of a story that should take about an episode of high maintenance to tell.

soundtrack is by the cast of Stomp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kswOS1YfmPM

From the end of that preview, looks like Sarsgaard is on Team Slap.

...so uh I saw and liked the first two eps of this! Has narration by Victor Garber that reminded me a little of Listen Up Philip.

do tell!

i should be happy about this b/c it represents an attempt by a network to do something kind of weird and interesting. i'll watch it, in any event.

Quinto makes a pretty believable alpha psycho hypocrite.

Hmm, I found the book pretty average, and the Australian miniseries actually better than the book. However I'm not sure that the US is especially good at doing grown up (and ambiguous) class / ethnicity / sexuality studies - and may instead turn this into a morality tale about parenting. I hope not.

― paulhw, Tuesday, February 10, 2015 9:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Ohhhh it was an Aussie miniseries, I was wondering what the missing link was between 'legitimately interesting contemporary aussie lit' and 'TV show rewritten for US audiences'.

Grandma otm

Yes this is a Greek Aus book by Christos Tsolkias (great author) and was a great miniseries here some years back. US network TV will ruin it, of course, but whats to be expected. Can ye not just show the damn original series?

WSJ's John Anderson said everybody in the new version, incl. the kid who gets slapped, is amazingly obnoxious, and "if you have a shred of decency...you'll hatewatch." Not what I expect from the Wall Street Journal (arts coverage, anyway), must be very special episodes.

That's not completely untrue but also not, on its own, a criticism.

"hatewatching" is such an awful phenomenon. don't people have more respect for the finitude of their lives? :(

That's interesting because I hateread the book

There are definitely shows I've gotten a weird thrill from seeing how self-important and bad they're willing to get (Smash, The Newsroom) because that can be fascinating, but this is definitely not one of those shows, imo.

yea not sure abt this now, quinto is a good actor imo but im worried his character isnt gonna allow him enough complexity

This should be turned into a regular series. Every season should revolve around a different characters/different slapping scenario a la True Detective. Also someone should get slapped in every episode.

they should do a flash forward where someone is like "that slap ruined our lives" but they do a different slap every week so there's suspense about which slap exactly it was

I like these ideas! (I have not watched this show.)

second season centers on a boorish adult being slapped by a precocious child. this incident exposes deeply buried resentments between boors and children.

Also someone should get slapped in every episode

A coworker and I were saying the same thing: "Who's going to get slapped this week? when is it going to happen?" Oh shit here comes THE SLAP"

I watched the third episode without having watched the first two. The writing was pretty bad but ultimately I sort of liked it? Blythe Danner's british accent was cracking me up. Uma Thurman's boyfriend's band was fun to rant about.

"hatewatching" is such an awful phenomenon. don't people have more respect for the finitude of their lives? :(

NOPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UPd_hNhugA

James Franco guest slap

dangerously contemplating watching this trash fire

k picked an episode at random (the one centered around quinto) and WHO THE FUCK thought this voice-over would be taken seriously by anybody????

um why is this 7 year old child who looks like a longhaired damien from the omen being breastfed

the beat keeps knocking down my rear view mirror

this is a single handed argument against gentrification, and if that was the purpose then bravo, slapping show

I don’t defend anybody online with a net worth greater than a million dollars, if you guys wanna talk slap morality we can check out the 2015 NBC series The Slap

— Dan Sheehan (@ItsDanSheehan) March 28, 2022

i completely forgot this show even existed. amazing!