Diplomats and spies, oh my!

[charloween]

The State Within is an enjoyable series from the UK, which has an equal number of American and Brit characters. It's definitely a product of Bush-era paranoia, with the British Ambassador to Washington (played by Jason Isaacs) as the hero. It's got a nice and twisty plot, meaty acting and lots of people in hushed voices speaking with great gravity.

It's quite good! I enjoyed it. Ben Daniels was quite excellent. Jason Isaacs makes a great action hero, too. :D

I'm finding it entertaining for a few reasons:

1. Speaking American The dialogue written for the American characters was not written by Americans. There are a few little things that stick out. I have to snerk a little when a guy with an American accent demands, "Why did you let them video that?" On this continent, video isn't usually a verb. There're also a few times where Americans refer to their country as "the US", not "America". In my (admittedly limited) experience, it's mostly non-Americans who call that country "the US".

2. Locations! It's set in Washington, DC but mostly shot in Toronto. The location scouts did a really good job, and it's shot quite well to disguise the locations, but Canada Post mailboxes have a distinctive shape, and I'm fairly certain that the Boston skyline doesn't have a building that looks like the CIBC hq. They did a lot of filming around the Royal York hotel, which is distracting when Toronto's Union Station doubles for DC's Union Station.

See, there's one part where Jason Isaacs grabs a cab at Front and University (you can see the Casey's in the background) and dramatically demands to be taken to Union Station (which is right there in real geography), and there's a flashy bunch of establishing shots of the Union Station in DC, and then they cut to the interior of Toronto's Union Station. Heh.

Knowing all that, it's funny when they mix inset shots of DC with bits of Toronto near City Hall. Or when a character drops a letter in a US Mail mailbox and the shot pans away past a TTC bus stop and a shelter with an ad for Zipcars.

3. Nerds? I'd like to think the producers are slight nerds. There's a redheaded female FBI agent, a hotel room 1013 and a hopefully-intentional reference to Forever Knight (Nigel Bennett, saying "Nicholas" in that tone of voice).

EDIT: And to give full credit (because I failed to mention it in my original post), fides recommended the series. Many thanks! Now I'll be watching Ben Daniels in Law & Order:UK with a much greater appreciation for his abilities. I can't quite describe how he did it, but by the end of the series he made even the most seemingly-innocuous entrances into something of great gravity and importance, while still playing it as innocuous. Thank you, fides!

Comments

[skivee.livejournal.com]

In my (admittedly extensive) experience We AMERICANS (yay us, the rest of the world sucks)use both interchangably. As a Canadian, you know they aren't really interchangable, but we don't care because WE ARE AMERICANS!!!!!! WOOT! In general conversation "US" is more common. When speechifying "America" is more common and spoken with reverence.
Regarding location shots, I love watching images of DC in movies. There was a film about a paper-pushing CIA office worker who has to become a field agent killing machine for stupid reasons. We first see him as he leaves his pad in Georgetown, drives past the Washington monument, the Capitol, then the White House, then Union station. After continuing in this directionally confused tour of recognizable landmarks, he suddenly arrives at CIA HQ in Langley, Va...8 miles south of DC and across the Potomac. It must be something about them CIA spy cars that makes this work out in the end.

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Ah, noted. But you wouldn't "video" something? I think that's a UK thing not a North America thing. I think.

I love movie geography! Kung Fu: The Legend Continues was particularly bad for having streetcars drive by just as a character was speechifying about "how we do things in America". (But The State Within was, as previously noted, quite adept at not fucking up that stuff.) I see Toronto play so many other cities that it's really strange to watch something where the city plays itself.

[fides.livejournal.com]

Yay! Having recced it I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

Ben Daniels and Jason Isaacs are indeed excellent (and looking very nice in black tie, and everything else imho).

I didn't get the Forever Knight reference because I don't know the series but George always made me think of Scully with her red hair and combination of brains and backbone and is my favorite character along with Mark and Nicholas.

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

I did indeed enjoy it. I'll go back and edit to give credit where it's due! Next step is to go back and check out your fic for the series.

Forever Knight worth investigating if you're really into vampires, but it's very early-90s (http://www.lucienlacroix.com/images/forever-knight-season1-cast2.jpg). All you need to know is Nigel Bennett played the villain, an evil vampire who'd show up in flashbacks every episode (like Highlander) and hiss the hero's name (Nicholas) a seedy seductive/possessive way. It's exactly the same way he says "Nicholas" in the first episode of The State Within. It's likely not an actual reference, but I couldn't let it pass without comment.

And I agree completely: George is a great character.

[fides.livejournal.com]

Credit was not necessary, but thanks :-) I always blame morganmuffle as she was the person who pimped me into it.

If you are intersted in TSW fic then let me point you towards state_within. It's a small fandom and there are a few authors that I wouldn't recommend but there are some really good ones as well. (My stuff is there as well but I wouldn't like to say which of those categories it falls into.)

I have heard much about Forever Knight. I really much get around to checking it one of these days.

The one that keeps amusing me is an episode of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries which has both Ben Daniels and Alex Jennings in it and their characters are lovers so whenever I watch it I can't help thinking 1. 'OMG how young does BD look!' and 2. 'wait Nicholas/James?!?'

George just rocked.