[Cyberyeti]

Did it make any sense to anybody who wasn't British ?

[Bbradley62]

Did it make sense to anyone (Brits or not) who were in the stadium and didn't have the benefit of TV announcers explaining each step?

[wclass___]

I liked it a lot.

[hrothgar]

wclass___, on 2012-July-27, 18:51, said:

I liked it a lot.

I thought it was great

(I don't think its gonna play well in Peoria, though)

[PassedOut]

Just finished watching it, and enjoyed it tremendously. Quite a show!

[gwnn]

I missed Sherlock Holmes Mary Poppins really?

[Aberlour10]

Cool Britannia

[Cyberyeti]

Bbradley62, on 2012-July-27, 18:05, said:

Did it make sense to anyone (Brits or not) who were in the stadium and didn't have the benefit of TV announcers explaining each step?

More than you might think, American TV commentators feel they have to say stuff to justify their fees, the main BBC commentary said about 2 or 3 things that mattered in the whole pre parade period, and the people in the stadium had the benefit of what I believe was a pretty detailed programme if they paid £15.

[Aberlour10]

gwnn, on 2012-July-28, 01:53, said:

I missed Sherlock Holmes

He had no time for it. Today is cycling race>>>a lot to investigate there as usual

It was a great show, a little bit bombastic imo, but the scenes with British humor here und there made it really smart.

[barmar]

During NPR's "On the Media", there was an interview with a British reviewer. The NPR guy asked him why there were a bunch of poeple looking like Abraham Lincoln. I hope he was being facetious.

[diana_eva]

I watched the show with my son who is 10 now. I liked it a lot, especially the very first movie. Overall I didn't like the music much and kept hoping pink floyd will pop up at some point.

The first scenes looked like a strategy game, which was probably intentional but not too much to my taste. I loved the industrial revolution, it was much more spectacular, and then we wondered about the guys looking like Lincoln. My son assumed the black guy was Obama.

We loved the scene with 007 and the queen jumping off the helicopter but in rest i felt it was a bit like watching Forrest Gump without the history background. A lot to explain to a 10-year old

Romanian commentary was rather bad, they didn't explain much of what each scene is supposed to symbolize and instead simply explained what was on the screen like we were blind or something. They didn't explain anything about the NHS scenes and then when it all evolved to giant monsters scaring kids in hospital beds the whole scene had the opposite effect on my son who will probably stick to his impression that british hospitals are like haunted houses or something.

I loved the episode with Mr Bean (I kinda hate his type of humour normally but this time it was great). I didn't get the part with the TV shows and all the texting (recognized a bit of trainspotting at some point but that was it). Paul McCartney was glorious (not pink floyd but good enough lol).

[mike777]

wow alot of members watched

I would guess bias sample


did not see it.

[barmar]

They kept saying that about a billion people were watching around the world. In the US, it was the most-watched Olympic opening ceremony ever, far surpassing the viewership in 2008.

[Cyberyeti]

diana_eva, on 2012-July-29, 00:40, said:

I watched the show with my son who is 10 now. I liked it a lot, especially the very first movie. Overall I didn't like the music much and kept hoping pink floyd will pop up at some point.

The first scenes looked like a strategy game, which was probably intentional but not too much to my taste. I loved the industrial revolution, it was much more spectacular, and then we wondered about the guys looking like Lincoln. My son assumed the black guy was Obama.

We loved the scene with 007 and the queen jumping off the helicopter but in rest i felt it was a bit like watching Forrest Gump without the history background. A lot to explain to a 10-year old

Romanian commentary was rather bad, they didn't explain much of what each scene is supposed to symbolize and instead simply explained what was on the screen like we were blind or something. They didn't explain anything about the NHS scenes and then when it all evolved to giant monsters scaring kids in hospital beds the whole scene had the opposite effect on my son who will probably stick to his impression that british hospitals are like haunted houses or something.

I loved the episode with Mr Bean (I kinda hate his type of humour normally but this time it was great). I didn't get the part with the TV shows and all the texting (recognized a bit of trainspotting at some point but that was it). Paul McCartney was glorious (not pink floyd but good enough lol).

Kenneth Branagh looking like Abraham Lincoln was I believe the architect Brunel who built many of the early bridges and tunnels in the UK, and that was just how many upper/middle class people looked at that time.

The NHS scene was also to do with kids literature, hence Voldermort (and JK Rowling doing a reading) and some stuff from Peter Pan. JM Barrie who wrote Peter Pan donated all the royalties from the book to Great Ormond Street (kids) Hospital, hence the link to that.

The black men were symbolic of the ship the Windrush that brought the first Caribbean immigrants in the 50s.

The texting and stuff was just the last part of the history going from agricultural-industrial-digital with Sir Tim Berners-Lee web pioneer putting in an appearance.

[paulg]

barmar, on 2012-July-29, 02:06, said:

They kept saying that about a billion people were watching around the world. In the US, it was the most-watched Olympic opening ceremony ever, far surpassing the viewership in 2008.

But, apparently, you did not see it all of it ...

www.dailykos.com said:

Actually, "coverage" might not be the best term to describe NBC's prime-time Olympic broadcast. NBC is trying to sell the Games that cost $1.18 billion in U.S. TV rights fees — and hundreds of millions more to promote and produce.

So when it came time in the opening ceremony for something that has been widely interpreted as a tribute to the 52 victims of terrorist attacks in London in 2005, it's not shocking NBC didn't see lingering on that as helping its overall marketing effort. When asked why NBC didn't show the memorial, NBC spokesman Greg Hughes on Saturday said only that "our programming is tailored for the U.S. audience. It's a tribute to (opening ceremony producer) Danny Boyle that it required so little editing."

[mike777]

dint not watch...anyone else miss it?

[diana_eva]

Cyberyeti, on 2012-July-29, 03:08, said:

Kenneth Branagh looking like Abraham Lincoln was I believe the architect Brunel who built many of the early bridges and tunnels in the UK, and that was just how many upper/middle class people looked at that time.

The NHS scene was also to do with kids literature, hence Voldermort (and JK Rowling doing a reading) and some stuff from Peter Pan. JM Barrie who wrote Peter Pan donated all the royalties from the book to Great Ormond Street (kids) Hospital, hence the link to that.

The black men were symbolic of the ship the Windrush that brought the first Caribbean immigrants in the 50s.

The texting and stuff was just the last part of the history going from agricultural-industrial-digital with Sir Tim Berners-Lee web pioneer putting in an appearance.

Thanks, read about it in wikipedia this morning. However, while watching the show live it was hard to follow all implications of each scene and the commentary wasn't helpful. The show was great though and I enjoyed watching. Was fun even if I didn't understand everything right away

[Cyberyeti]

diana_eva, on 2012-July-29, 03:20, said:

Thanks, read about it in wikipedia this morning. However, while watching the show live it was hard to follow all implications of each scene and the commentary wasn't helpful. The show was great though and I enjoyed watching. Was fun even if I didn't understand everything right away

Part of the problem was that to keep it secret, they couldn't distribute what was going on to the media much in advance, so I suspect the commentary was seriously under rehearsed.

[kenberg]

I guess I begin by acknowledging that I am usually only lukewarm about such shows. Here is how it went this time:

We started watching Friday evening. Two hosts (Mark Lauer, who I know nothing about and a woman whose name I don't recall) were both vapid beyond tolerance. Then there were commercials. OK, we can, and did, record it. During the day Saturday I fast-forwarded through the preliminary stuff and got to the actual ceremony. This was well done but it's just not in my nature to much care. The parachuting queen indeed was very clever, probably the part that both Becky and I liked best, although we are only halfway through it. In another segment, the announcers seemed to say, maybe I should have checked it, that the dancing doctors and nurses were all actually real doctors and nurses. If so, I am impressed. Perhaps the most insightful comment from one of the hosts (Lauer I guess) was that while we here in the US are in a bitter partisan battle over healthcare in the UK they display their approach as a proud achievement.

Probably my general take can best be described this way: I had to take care of something in another room, Becky asked if she should pause it, I said no. I missed, for example, Mick Jagger not getting any satisfaction. Becky asked should she rewind, I said no.

Really though, this reaction is more indicative of my general view of such ceremonies. I liked the gold rings. I didn't like Mary Poppins (the movie was unbearable, I don't think even my kids liked it).

I post this only because you asked. I am fine with it, just not my thing. Sorry.

[TimG]

kenberg, on 2012-July-29, 07:41, said:

Becky asked should she rewind, I said no.

Is this like dialing a cellphone, or were you really using a VCR?