That was an excellent one.

As Good As It Gets

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The most important things to know about the Easter Rising were that it marked the return to violent rebellion in Ireland and the way that the English dealt with it started the turning the sympathies of the Irish at large against the English and the idea of home-rule as part of the Empire. Those two things are very well demonstrated in Rebellion, from the brutal dealing of the British military with both the rebellion and Irish civilians, the complete lack of due process for those arrested and executed, creating martyrs and setting the stage for the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

I loved this series. Highly addictive, compelling with some amazing tension throughout. Brilliantly written and superb acting throughout. As someone who's not particularly academic I've always struggled to learn about history the conventional way, through books, so am always grateful when TV teaches me something new. This series had my scurrying to the history books afterwards to find out more. The characters were all really easy to identify with and there was a much more realistic representation of the lower classes than is usual in period dramas. There was some wonderful dialogue-free sequences throughout the series which were just mind-blowingly good. I cant wait for season 2.

There is a shot of the GPO being bombed at the end of episode 3. You can hear aircraft flying over, and the subtitles read "Flying Aircraft." now off course they had aircraft, but none that would sound like that, and none that would drop bombs. Also, can anyone tell me if aircraft were even deployed to the Easter Rising?All in all a very enjoyable show. Apparently, according to a few Irish reviewers, it didn't do the Rising justice. I definitely sympathize. It was spread a little thin, trying to cover a dozen relationships and character developments. But for someone who knows less than i should about Ireland, it was very intriguing and got me reading. I did find the acting and script impressive at times. It would have done much better cutting a character or two, looking more at the intrigue and scale of the thing, all spread over going for 8 or 10 episodes.

It's an entertaining story, but it feels like the characters are stereotypes, not real people. Perhaps more grating is the fact that inaccuracies and anachronisms abound. The time is 1916, but there are several terms used which never appeared in English at the time. The character of May uses the term 'brainwashed', which first appeared - in the US - in the early 1950s during and after the Korean War; an apparently British character says 'lootenant' when the correct British pronunciation is 'leftenant' (for some mysterious reason, but that's another discussion). When giving absolution, the priest uses 'Holy Spirit', which only came into use after Vatican II around 1963; 'Holy Ghost', was the term used by Catholics until that time. These are just the things that jumped out at me in the first two episodes.