on the other hand

Recently my Monégasque friend, Sylvie, lent me a DVD set of Pushing Daisies. Although our taste in movies and TV overlaps greatly, I was doubtful that I’d enjoy it as the trailers I’d seen lead me to think it was going to be syrupy clever American pap ...

Delighted to find I was wrong – sure I could see a connection with the excellent Amèlie but they had taken care to make it much more than a lazy clone. On a whim, I watched it with French subtitles which added an extra dimension. My French is rusty and I could see the subtitles were abbreviated but it was delightful to see how they’d chosen alternate French idioms.

Having watched the first series almost back-to-back, I wanted more but my timing was off as the second (final) series had just finished on UK TV (and not quite out on DVD) so had to resort to iTunes via a slow Virginmedia cable. Yes, I enjoyed it almost as much as the first – I say almost because I had no option for French subtitles. I missed that extra cultural richness and also realised that they had also given me a sense of watching it with my Francophone (though fluent in English) friend.