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Julia [Child] on HBO Max - will you watch?

Julia [Child] on HBO Max - will you watch?
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  • Julia [Child] on HBO Max - will you watch?

    Post #1 - April 2nd, 2022, 4:59 pm
    Post #1 - April 2nd, 2022, 4:59 pm Post #1 - April 2nd, 2022, 4:59 pm
    I'm torn on this one but I'll probably give it a shot, since I have an active subscription. Curious if others here are interested, if they've watched any of it yet, etc. Looks like the first 3 episodes are already available.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #2 - April 4th, 2022, 7:21 am
    Post #2 - April 4th, 2022, 7:21 am Post #2 - April 4th, 2022, 7:21 am
    I'd describe it as "cute." It's the origin story that every Julia Child fan already knows. The actors who had to convey the "who would want to watch a cooking show" and "is this culturally appropriate for public television" drama weren't even trying to sell their arguments.
  • Post #3 - April 4th, 2022, 9:12 am
    Post #3 - April 4th, 2022, 9:12 am Post #3 - April 4th, 2022, 9:12 am
    In the first 3 episodes, I could immediately see the similarities with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and then I found out that both shows share the same producer, Daniel Goldfarb.

    It's light entertainment and very enjoyable. If I wanted a documentary I'd watch something else. I think this one, however, has a ton more substance than Julie & Julia and I could see them competently milking two or three seasons out of this easily. Writing is very good.
  • Post #4 - April 4th, 2022, 9:30 am
    Post #4 - April 4th, 2022, 9:30 am Post #4 - April 4th, 2022, 9:30 am
    After watching 2 episodes, I thought it was almost completely devoid of charm. If you've seen Julie & Julia, not only does this telling not move the needle but the lead actors are several notches below Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. I mean, like penthouse to basement notches. In this take, Julia and Paul are rendered with virtually zero likability. As I watched, I continually wondered how this project even got greenlighted.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #5 - April 4th, 2022, 3:40 pm
    Post #5 - April 4th, 2022, 3:40 pm Post #5 - April 4th, 2022, 3:40 pm
    I liked the Julia and Paul part (Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci) of Julie and Julia very much; the Julie part didn't engage me at all and I hardly remember it. If I heard this new show was as good as the Streep-Tucci rendition, I'd be curious, but I haven't heard much yet. If you're open to a book suggestion as an alternative, I highly recommend Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, written with her husband's great-nephew, for much more of the story, and much more in her own voice, than the Julia half of Julie and Julia.
    NY Times book review: My Life in France
    "Your swimming suit matches your eyes, you hold your nose before diving, loving you has made me bananas!"
  • Post #6 - April 4th, 2022, 9:36 pm
    Post #6 - April 4th, 2022, 9:36 pm Post #6 - April 4th, 2022, 9:36 pm
    jnm123 wrote:In the first 3 episodes, I could immediately see the similarities with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (MMM), and then I found out that both shows share the same producer, Daniel Goldfarb.

    Very keen observation, I'm impressed.

    Now that you recognize the MMM style seeping into Julia Child, then I can wait until I get around to seeing it. I liked MMM more early on, it does not have as much a must-see for me presently. So far this season, I have seen only the first episode. I am sure eventually I will get through it.

    Regards,
    Cathy2
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,
  • Post #7 - April 8th, 2022, 12:22 pm
    Post #7 - April 8th, 2022, 12:22 pm Post #7 - April 8th, 2022, 12:22 pm
    I amend my previous response to say that I did not know til today that David Hyde Pierce plays Paul Child. I would watch him in anything.
    "Your swimming suit matches your eyes, you hold your nose before diving, loving you has made me bananas!"
  • Post #8 - April 8th, 2022, 1:04 pm
    Post #8 - April 8th, 2022, 1:04 pm Post #8 - April 8th, 2022, 1:04 pm
    Cathy2 wrote:
    jnm123 wrote:In the first 3 episodes, I could immediately see the similarities with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (MMM), and then I found out that both shows share the same producer, Daniel Goldfarb.

    Very keen observation, I'm impressed.

    Now that you recognize the MMM style seeping into Julia Child, then I can wait until I get around to seeing it. I liked MMM more early on, it does not have as much a must-see for me presently. So far this season, I have seen only the first episode. I am sure eventually I will get through it.

    Regards,
    Cathy2


    Maisel has a healthy budget and matching production values. Julia looks like community theater.
  • Post #9 - April 9th, 2022, 11:05 am
    Post #9 - April 9th, 2022, 11:05 am Post #9 - April 9th, 2022, 11:05 am
    spinynorman99 wrote:
    Cathy2 wrote:
    jnm123 wrote:In the first 3 episodes, I could immediately see the similarities with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (MMM), and then I found out that both shows share the same producer, Daniel Goldfarb.

    Very keen observation, I'm impressed.

    Now that you recognize the MMM style seeping into Julia Child, then I can wait until I get around to seeing it. I liked MMM more early on, it does not have as much a must-see for me presently. So far this season, I have seen only the first episode. I am sure eventually I will get through it.

    Regards,
    Cathy2


    Maisel has a healthy budget and matching production values. Julia looks like community theater.

    Julia's budget and production values seem on par with Maisel's. This is HBO Max, after all. Where it falls down for me is in the creative choices and execution. But the show is shot well and looks very nice.

    Helen Rosner had an interesting take at the New Yorker's website, which included this . . .

    at newyorker.com, Helen Rosner wrote:Child’s great feats of charisma (in life as well as in the world of the show)—such as attracting an entourage of die-hard friends (including the radiant Bebe Neuwirth as Avis DeVoto) and fast-talking a skeptical WGBH producer into green-lighting the show—happen offscreen. Her most pronounced moments of self-possession arise from her relationship with Alice Naman (Brittany Bradford), a fictional young producer at WGBH who appears to be the only woman—and the only Black person—in an office of interchangeable white men. Alice gets her own plotline, a sweet little arc of professional ambition running up against romantic prospects, with Julia serving as a bit of a fairy godmother. The real-life Julia was remarkably progressive on social-justice issues for a woman of her class and era, but there is something glib about the Alice story line, as if the show created “Julia” to create a Black woman, whole cloth, just for its heroine to mentor.

    and this . . .
    at newyorker.com, Helen Rosner wrote:By softening its heroine, by making her into an underdog beset by self-doubt and secret little sorrows, “Julia” tips the scales against its own argument for the value of her celebrity—and her work.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #10 - April 9th, 2022, 8:57 pm
    Post #10 - April 9th, 2022, 8:57 pm Post #10 - April 9th, 2022, 8:57 pm
    The only aspect of this series that aren't up to my standards are the actual food shots/sequences, unlike the Julie/Julia movie or Stanley Tucci's Searching For Italy. The food filming is glancing at best, which is odd because I think it would have put the show over the top. It was a conscious decision that HBO Max must have made, a curious one to be sure.

    Community theater?! Hardly. Sarah Lancashire (Last Tango in Halifax), David Hyde Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth are all solid. I am sure that some creative license is taken with the story line, but that's not surprising.
  • Post #11 - April 10th, 2022, 8:40 pm
    Post #11 - April 10th, 2022, 8:40 pm Post #11 - April 10th, 2022, 8:40 pm
    jnm123 wrote:The only aspect of this series that aren't up to my standards are the actual food shots/sequences, unlike the Julie/Julia movie or Stanley Tucci's Searching For Italy. The food filming is glancing at best, which is odd because I think it would have put the show over the top. It was a conscious decision that HBO Max must have made, a curious one to be sure.

    Community theater?! Hardly. Sarah Lancashire (Last Tango in Halifax), David Hyde Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth are all solid. I am sure that some creative license is taken with the story line, but that's not surprising.


    The only reference was to production values. For example, there was a throwaway establishing in Maisel where they had a Chinatown street scene in New York. It appeared to be a block long with numerous street vendors and pedestrians in period dress with fully dressed storefronts. In Julia, they have a storefront or two, a couple of pedestrians and one or two cars.
  • Post #12 - April 27th, 2022, 8:49 am
    Post #12 - April 27th, 2022, 8:49 am Post #12 - April 27th, 2022, 8:49 am
    What Julia—HBO’s New Julia Child Series—Gets Terribly Wrong About Legendary Editor Judith Jones
    The texts and emails started right away. Earlier this spring, when Julia, an HBO Max original series “inspired by Julia Child’s extraordinary life and her long-running television series, The French Chef,” premiered, I began getting questions from writers, editors, colleagues and friends. Did that actually happen? No one was writing to ask me about Julia Child—there are people out there far more expert on her life than I—but about Judith. Judith Jones.

    As a doctoral student in the fall of 2012, I was lucky enough to be in the room when the Julia Child Foundation came calling on one of my professors: Judith Jones—who edited, among many, many other authors, Julia Child—had, at the age of 88, just retired after more than 50 years as an editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and the Foundation wanted help collecting an oral history of her remarkable, but little known, life and work. Judith had long been my hero, grad school was a bore, and I wanted in on the project. Unbidden, I threw my hat in the ring.
    ...
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,
  • Post #13 - April 12th, 2023, 1:19 pm
    Post #13 - April 12th, 2023, 1:19 pm Post #13 - April 12th, 2023, 1:19 pm
    jnm123 wrote:In the first 3 episodes, I could immediately see the similarities with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and then I found out that both shows share the same producer, Daniel Goldfarb.

    It's light entertainment and very enjoyable. If I wanted a documentary I'd watch something else. I think this one, however, has a ton more substance than Julie & Julia and I could see them competently milking two or three seasons out of this easily. Writing is very good.

    Just found Betty Crocker has ideas for a Marvelous Mrs. Mazel watch party.

    Regards,
    Cathy2
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,

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