Friday, November 13, 2015

Good Morning, World

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The gay sex scene in the first episode of London Spy, starring Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft as two lovely young men meeting in a world full of secrets, got a lot of attention this week, and for good reason -- it's hot as hell. But I'm more interested this morning in this earlier scene in the show...

... which comes right after the two have met. Holcroft's character brings Whishaw back to his house and you think it's gonna be just a hook-up, because...

... good goddamn who wouldn't just jump on Edward Holcroft if given the opportunity? But this scene, and this show, plays everything a lot more interesting than that.

Thing about this scene is it rang so much truer to life, for me at least, than any immediate bow-chicka-wah-wah scene would've - indeed I have a really fond memory of a date with a guy in college going exactly like this scene goes. We went back to his place, he took a shower...

... and nothing happened. The introduction into the situation of bedrooms and showers and all that naked-adjacent stuff adds a charge to the moment, for sure. But a lot of us are too awkward, or want more, than gay men often get painted as.

So bless this scene for its restraint. It's sexy restraint, but it's restraint nonetheless. And all of the build up makes the later scene (which calm yourselves you can find it on Tumblr in five seconds if you need it right this very moment) all the hotter.

By the way I looooved this first episode more than I have loved the first episode of anything in a long while. It is a very very good show! Ben Whishaw is, as usual, killing it. And Holcroft's great - he's got a difficult task set before him, telegraphing weirdness and mystery while remaining The Dream Guy, and he pulls it off. Plus the look of the show and the sound of the show is top notch. Seek it out!


6 comments:

Yummy Pizza said...

LOVED. IT. I wish this was a Netflix show because I need to watch it all now now NOW!

Also, ignoring the sadness of the story Wishaw tells about his past and, well, I'll be in my bunk...

Anonymous said...

How/where on earth did you watch this? It only just aired in the UK and so I expect a bit of a wait until it arrives on Netflix. Grrr.

Jason Adams said...

You can find anything on the internet with some determination, Anon ;)

Anonymous said...

I figured that's what you did.

Bill Carter said...

Ben Whishaw is giving a brilliant performance in this. He's damaged and vulnerable, and at the same time, boyish and hopeful. You want to take care of him, and make sure nothing bad happens to him, not unlike the way Jim Broadbent's "Scottie" character feels.

The script is by Tom Rob Smith, the out gay author of "Child 44", who wrote the "Danny" role with Whishaw in mind.

Couple of things:

"Alex" is played by Edward Holcroft, from "Wolf Hall". You've probably seen his name in the gossip posts during the last few months--He's dating Cressida Bonas, who's Prince Harry's ex. I guess that gives us a Kevin Bacon-ish Ben Whishaw-Edward Holcroft-Cressida Bonas-Prince Harry link, which I'm going to have to think about for a while.

From the brief promo for the rest of the series, it looks like the magnificent Charlotte Rampling shows up in a later episode.

The plot so far is v close to the 2010 real-life Gareth Williams case. Here's a link, which may tell you more than you want to know:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams

squeezit said...

I agree with Yummy - wish it were all out there to watch NOW! Ben Whishaw is always amazing.