Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Family

Ma’am and David Budd in Bodyguard

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Anya insisted that we all watch Bodyguard and we are so glad we did.

From Wikipedia, “Bodyguard is a British police political-thriller television series […] set around the fictional character of Police Sergeant David Budd, a British Army war veteran suffering from PTSD, who is now working for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. He is assigned as the principal protection officer (PPO) for the ambitious Home Secretary Julia Montague, whose politics he despises. As the series unravels, the series comments on many issues regarding the controversy around government monitoring of private information and its regulation, and also on PTSD.”

Richard Madden as David Budd and Keeley Hawes as Julia Montague are fantastic. And I liked Sophie Rundle as Vicky Budd, Ash Tandon as DCI Deepak Sharma and Anjli Mohindra as Nadia Ali. (A side comment: I liked how they realistically portray London as being very cosmopolite — I laugh a bit when I saw Chike Chan as Daniel Chung at the end as to complete the loop).

The TV series is only six (long) episodes and I have to say that I really loved the first 3 episodes until THAT catastrophic event. The remaining episodes were good but not as good as the beginning. And I have to confess that I am a bit disappointed with the ending. It felt a bit rushed to me.

But, I am just nitpicking. Bodyguard is really a great TV show. Thanks Anya.

Give it a go. It’s on Netflix.

My favourite characters in The Young Pope and The New Pope

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Christina and I have just finished watching The New Pope, a TV series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, and I have to say that we both loved it. It is a continuation of the 2016 series The Young Pope, which we also loved. Both shows are very strange and explore subjects à la David Lynch. Many time, while watching the Popes talk, I was transported into an episode of Twin Peaks but at the Vatican…

Anyway, one of the great things about The Young and New Pope is the importance given to all characters. Some actors and actresses used the liberty they were provided with to really break barriers. Never have I seen popes, priests, nuns, communicators, wifes & mothers so depicted. It’s a treat for the eyes and the brain. And this is quite rare in 2020.

Here are my favourite characters (more or less) in order of awesomeness:

(1) Silvio Orlando as Cardinal Angelo Voiello, Camerlengo and Cardinal Secretary of State.

(2) Cécile de France as Sofia Dubois, in charge of marketing for the Holy See.

(3) Jude Law as Pope Pius XIII (born Lenny Belardo), the young then comatose pope.

(4) Nora Waldstätten as Sister Lisette, a cloister nun whose mother is ill and (5) Kiruna Stamell as the Abbess of the Monastery of Saint Therese, the head of the cloister nuns.

(6) Maurizio Lombardi as Cardinal Mario Assente

(7) Yuliya Snigir as Ewa Novak, Dr Helmer Lindegard’s wife and mother of a son with severe myotonic dystrophy.

(8) Kika Georgiou as the Woman in Red, the head of a constant vigil over comatose Pope Pius XIII in Venice.

(9) John Malkovich as Pope John Paul III (born John Brannox), the titular new pope.

(10) Ludivine Sagnier as Esther Aubry, former wife of a member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

(11) Daria Baykalova as Amber, the girlfriend of Bauer, the ambassador of the Holy See.

My feeling (and this is something I am realising just when writing this sentence) is that Silvio Orlando as Cardinal Angelo Voiello and Jude Law as Pope Pius XIII were mere ornaments for the ladies who, in fact, were the stars of the show. The actresses were extraordinary. Every scene they were in was mesmerising.

If you have not yet seen The Young Pope and The New Pope, lucky you! Stop whatever you are doing and go and watch all the episodes. I’m sure you’ll love them.

My first photo with my own DSLR… in 2011

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Nine years ago, we were all in the USA in San Francisco on vacation. I had ordered a new camera, a Canon EOS 60D DSLR, on Amazon and I had just received it. This is the first photo I took with it at 06:37:58 in the morning while everyone else was still sleeping. Nothing special of course, but still so beautiful compared to everything else I had captured before.

Nine years later, I have given the 60D to the kids and I’m using a second-hand Canon EOS 6D which, despite being launched in 2012, still has a hell of a sensor, especially for low-light photography.

This year, if everything is all right (COVID, etc.), I’ll probably upgrade my 6D to a brand new mirrorless Canon EOS R6 (which has not yet been announced but only rumoured). I’ll keep all my lenses of course.