Everything that is wrong with „Mozart in the Jungle“, Season 2, Episode 2: „Nothing resonates like Rhinoceros Foreskin“
So we’re onto season 2 of “Mozart in the Jungle” now! MIJ is a great show – it has perfect casting, witty scripts, great actors…and screenwriters who try to unsuccessfully imagine how the classical music scene works. Actually it sometimes even adds to the fun that they don’t have a clue, as we become witnesses to scenes and dialogues that would never happen in real life. Isn’t that what TV is about?
But as it is fun to nitpick here is a rundown of all the mistakes in season 2, episode by episode….
(Moritz Eggert)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3kfbs8_mozart-in-the-jungle-season-2-e02_shortfilms
Episode 2: Nothing Resonates like Rhinoceros Foreskin
1) Ok, I get it now: The title music is now different for each episode! Quirky…only, it still is pretty similar each time. But I won’t complain…
2) For once Rodrigo sounds like a real conductor for the first time in the series…because he is reprimanding the orchestra (4:00)
3) But then…he mysteriously starts conducting without telling the orchestra where he wants to start. Nobody would play in real life!
4) 6:50: stroppy pianist is playing quite well from a handwritten score he hasn’t ever seen in his life….WITH EYES CLOSED! And why the hell is Pemberton conducting? It’s only a single piano for chrissakes, a conductor is only needed if there is more than one single instrument….And have I already mentioned that Pemberton’s composition is godawful? Oh, stroppy pianist thinks that as well. Well, GOOD!
5) 8:20…again, the sight reading skills of stroppy pianist are phenomenal. And he plays everything perfect, practically by memory. Probably because it actually IS Mahler (or Debussy).
6) 9:40…like in many films: This is essentially a half-minute business meeting which probably had to be arranged weeks before. But what is actually said and negotiated could have been said in one single email sentence. Ok, that’s the realistic part. What’s unrealistic is that there is no small talk, no coffee, no cookies, no drink. In real life even brief meetings take at least 20 minutes, otherwise they would be deemed impolite. But it’s a funny scene anyway, and the actress playing the assistant has the speech mannerisms of her superior absolutely covered.
7) …nothing to complain about for such a long time? Yes, even if the scenes where a bit exaggerated for comic effect nothing happened in them that could be called outré or out of place. And it’s nice seeing Gretchen Mol back in action (as the lesbian lawyer). But I’m still nitpicking – check the huge light in the background at 21:45 – it’s the film crew’s lighting rig posing as a street – or park light. Nobody would carry such a thing to a spontaneous party in the park!
8) 23:00…Rodrigo invited the party to his apartment. They conveniently forgot the lighting rig in the park. Would have been too heavy to carry up the stairs.
Komponist
