Disclaimer (AppleTV+)

[FilmBuff]

The first trailer for Alfonso Cuarón's Disclaimer has been released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so6XoqZgbVM


Widely considered one of the greatest directors working today, it's a bit startling to see Cuarón suddenly turning his attention to a TV project, but by all accounts from those who have seen it, this is really something special.

Definitely one of the most anticipated TV shows of the year for me!!

[FilmBuff]

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

[hownos]

Is this Blanchett's first TV series?

[FilmBuff]

Is this Blanchett's first TV series?

She has been doing television since 1993.

[hownos]

She has been doing television since 1993.

i can't name any of those shows:)

[FilmBuff]

This is the first time Cuarón directs ANYTHING for television.

[FilmBuff]

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/10/13/multimedia/13disclaimer-01-lktw/13disclaimer-01-lktw-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp

I binged the whole thing in one sitting over the weekend.

All in all - and I can't believe I'm saying this - I would say this is my least favorite thing directed by Cuarón. And that's not because it's a bad series, but because he's just better when he's directing movies and there's a tighter storyline that doesn't try to pull in several directions at once.

Without going into spoiler territory, I'll just say that there's an element of the "unreliable narrator" somewhere in the whole thing, and it leads the viewer sort of astray, except for me, it kind of didn't, because I could tell that it would just have created a gigantic story hole if the things that we were being told were really taken at face value. And Cuarón is just too talented to let that big a story hole just sitting there, unnoticed.

But when we get to the "reveal" of what really happened, it still doesn't quite add up 100%, I think - there are a lot of things that don't make a lot of sense, even when looked at from this "new" perspective, character motivations that aren't believable, and other minor problems with that narrative.

I'm not familiar with the source material, but I'm just going to assume that this was a relatively faithful adaptation, and that the problems inherent with narrative consistency were there from the beginning.

Having said all that, there are still some pretty good performances in here, and it's kind of awe-inspiring to see how well Kevin Kline does playing a Brit - I'm not going to say that I completely suspended my disbelief, but I stopped thinking about whether or not he was doing a good British accent.

Now that it's done, I really would hope Cuarón doesn't continue working on TV series, he's better as a filmmaker and hopefully now that he's gotten this out of his system, he can go back to directing feature films.

[AgrippinaX]

Watching this now. I mostly like Cuarón’s output, but this is awful. Feels very ‘chic flicky’/like a woman wrote it (it’s no news to anyone here that there are few female directors I like). It feels like Cuarón is getting a strange sort of kick out of humiliating Blanchett/having her suck up to people. Pretty dreadful. Agree with FilmBuff that it’d be best if Cuarón stayed away from TV from now on. It feels imbued with a kind of artificial heaviness that ceases to feel heavy after a while. Like Russian literature at its finest! Very strange show.

[Stirchley]

Watching this now. I mostly like Cuarón’s output, but this is awful. Feels very ‘chic flicky’/like a woman wrote it (it’s no news to anyone here that there are few female directors I like). It feels like Cuarón is getting a strange sort of kick out of humiliating Blanchett/having her suck up to people. Pretty dreadful. Agree with FilmBuff that it’d be best if Cuarón stayed away from TV from now on. It feels imbued with a kind of artificial heaviness that ceases to feel heavy after a while. Like Russian literature at its finest! Very strange show.

Like you, I bailed out.

[AgrippinaX]

Like you, I bailed out.

Inevitable with this one. A shame, Blanchett is usually fascinating to watch.

[Captain Quint]

I catch everything with Cate, and she was worth watching, but damn, this was cringe inducing miserabilism - grimy, exaggerated, manipulative, to the point of gimmickry, and the dialog is iffy. I did like Manville (underutilized) in a supporting turn, and Blanchett, it's star - who play two sides of the wounded mother's coin. But man, the material they were handed was not up to snuff.

And the question has been answered, but yeah, she started off on stage, did work in TV (Police Rescue, GP), a few miniseries (Heartland, Bordertown), also sold cookies, or rather, biscuits, on the tube.

https://youtu.be/I5bY2UVY7QI?si=itYQu07INSXPlxIn

She's only 24 in this thing - I actually bought a package of them in honor of Cate, they were pretty good, pricey (they were in the import section) but good. (Not, "waste all your wishes" good, but good. lol)

Oh, and she's done other limited series, most recently Mrs. America and Stateless in 2020.

[Stirchley]

Inevitable with this one. A shame, Blanchett is usually fascinating to watch.

Always been a fan.

[AgrippinaX]

Always been a fan.

Likewise. She’s a powerhouse, she’s allowed a few flops (though I’m sure plenty of people loved this show). I’m watching Black Bag in a few hours — very excited.

[FilmBuff]

She's very good in Black Bag, but keep in mind it’s a performance of more subtlety than flash, which is exactly what the part calls for (imho) and she’s excellent in that slow-burning mode.


Likewise. She’d a powerhouse, she’s allowed a few flops (though I’m sure plenty of people loved this show). I’m watching Black Bag in a few hours — very excited.

[AgrippinaX]

She's very good in Black Bag, but keep in mind it’s a performance of more subtlety than flash, which is exactly what the part calls for (imho) and she’s excellent in that slow-burning mode.

Excellent! Stoked now.

[AgrippinaX]

I rarely do this, but can anyone summarise for me how this ended?

[FilmBuff]

I rarely do this, but can anyone summarise for me for this ended?

It's been so long I don't remember off the top of my head, but here's the wikipedia summary for the last 2 episodes:


Separate flashbacks reveal inaccuracies in Nancy's retelling of the events in Italy: Sasha is revealed to have left the trip after a fight with Jonathan, not because of her aunt, and Catherine recounts that she simply noticed Jonathan watching her throughout her first day alone with Nicholas, and did not actually engage with him. In the present, Nicholas is hospitalized following his overdose. Robert informs Stephen and allows him to visit the comatose Nicholas. Stephen arrives with a syringe full of cleaning chemicals, intending to kill Nicholas, only for Catherine to intervene. Following a tense fight, Robert privately apologizes to Stephen for Catherine's behavior and tells him he can visit again. That night, Catherine breaks into Stephen's house, and sits him down to hear the truth of what really happened in Italy.

Catherine reveals to Stephen that Jonathan broke into her hotel room, held her at knifepoint, forced her to pose for his photos, then repeatedly raped her before leaving. The next day, Jonathan did indeed drown saving Nicholas; Catherine had collected physical evidence of her rape, but got rid of it after Jonathan died, wanting her memory of the experience to die with him. As Catherine finishes her story, she realizes that Stephen has drugged her tea and collapses; Stephen then returns to the hospital to kill Nicholas, but relents when he awakens and calls for his mother. Stephen, finally accepting what Catherine told him, informs Robert, who is overcome with guilt. Catherine awakens and rushes to the hospital where she reunites with her family. In the aftermath, Stephen reclaims and burns all the copies of The Perfect Stranger, along with Jonathan's photos and Nancy's belongings. He discovers that one of the photos shows young Nicholas witnessing his mother's rape and contemplates suicide. Unable to forgive Robert for what she’s been through, Catherine chooses to divorce him, and later reconciles with Nicholas.

[AgrippinaX]

It's been so long I don't remember off the top of my head, but here's the wikipedia summary for the last 2 episodes:

Thank you.