Rose Byrne, the flop Persuasion and TV's laziest trope

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [View in browser]( [The Independent]( July 09, 2022 [The Independent]( Written by Jessie Thompson   The IndyArts Newsletter   We were half agony, half hope. In the end, agony won the day: [Netflix’s Persuasion adaptation]( is, by all accounts, an abomination. Difficult question: am I going to hate-watch it at the weekend? The reviews are so bad that I find myself with a bit of morbid curiosity at the thought of seeing one of my favourite novels razed to the ground. Indy chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey’s [one-star review is such a good amuse bouche](. “It’s as if someone tried to recreate Emma from memory, but they’d only watched the film on a plane, and while the plane was experiencing extreme turbulence,” she writes. “At no point during Carrie Cracknell’s directorial debut you ever get the sense that anyone’s ever read Persuasion.” Is it clever when TV shows kill off big characters? Or just a lame shock tactic? Louis Chilton’s [excellent State of the Arts column explores the conundrum](, after Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown [called the Duffer Brothers “sensitive Sallies”]( for not being more ruthless with characters’ fates. Whatever your view, surely the naughtiest thing is teasing the death of a major character and then not following through (*ahem* looking at you, Line of Duty). Am I going to hate-watch 'Persuasion' at the weekend? I'm unsure (Netflix)   Elsewhere: Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke made her West End debut at last in The Seagull. [You can read my review here](, but all I can say is: it was no Red Wedding.   [The Saturday Interview – Rose Byrne]( [Oscars image]( Rose Byrne is starring in another series of Apple TV's 'Physical' (Andrew H Walker/Shutterstock) The queen that is Rose Byrne had a chat with Adam White for [this week's Saturday Interview](. The Australian star of ‘Bridesmaids’, ‘Damages’ and the dark Apple TV+ comedy ‘Physical’ talked about refusing to play a ‘nagging wife’, her friendship with Heath Ledger, and why we should remember aerobics as a revolutionary step in Eighties feminism. [Oscars image]( Byrne in 'Physical' (Apple TV) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… Last year, Byrne told The New Yorker that she and her actor husband, the ubiquitous – if not quite a household name – [Bobby Cannavale](/topic/bobby-cannavale), move through the world very differently. Tall, broad and loud, he’s approached by people constantly. She, though, can disappear. Professionally, it’s been an asset and a liability. “It means I can vanish into parts,” she says. “But this is a business, too. People want that instant hit, that instant gratification. I definitely don’t fall into that category. I probably fall into the category of character actress, which is not [me] trying to humble-brag or anything, it’s just a hard business to place yourself in. I definitely was not a confident 20-year-old or even a confident 28-year-old, you know? It’s taken me a long time to feel more in my skin. It’s dull of me to say, but I do always feel grateful to have consistently been a working actress. It’s not easy. It’s a tough business, and people tend to fall in traps or rely on other things to get [them] through it.” [Read the full interview here]( What to binge this week Taron Egerton in 'Black Bird' (Netflix) Black Bird Apple TV's new miniseries is a true crime thriller with prestige casting. Taron Egerton plays Jimmy Keene, an imprisoned drug dealer who is tasked with extracting a confession from a serial killer. [In Amanda Whiting's review](, she notes that the standout from a stellar cast is Ray Liotta, in what was to be one of his final performances. 'Black Bird' is available to stream now on Apple TV Out and about [The Seagull - Harold Pinter Theatre]( More than two years since it was due to open, Jamie Lloyd's production of The Seagull has opened in the West End. Emilia Clarke makes a respectable London stage debut, and her Game of Thrones co-star Indira Varma is excellent, but I'm not so sure that the whole thing really hangs together. [Buy tickets here]( The Dance of Death - Arcola Theatre Isobel Lewis wasn't so sure about the Arcola's new version of this Strindberg play, either. There's more marital bickering than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but the drama soon fizzles out. Check out her review in tomorrow's Week on Stage column. [Buy tickets here]( [Don Quixote - Sadler's Wells]( Like The Seagull, Carlos Acosta's Birmingham Royal Ballet production of Don Quixote was delayed by the pandemic. This one was more worth the wait: Zoe Anderson finds a company who seem to be having a good time. 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