Tom Hiddleston one shot/drabble collection

You're ruining my reputation!

Summary: Charlotte Mason writes about Tom in her articles, spewing out hateful words about his acting, as well as mocking him in general. Despite his friends and loved ones telling him not to read what she's written, he ignores their warnings anyway, and unfortunately he's hurt deeply by every written word. However, can he control his anger when he eventually sees her? And is digging up the past a good idea?

~

November issue 2008

Tom Hiddleston received a Laurence Olivier for Best Newcomer in April. Clearly there have been a lot of high expectations for the young actor (27), especially given his educational background which includes both Cambridge and RADA, and both are very high on the prestige level for the prospective field. He's also got a double first in classics under his belt. Albeit note those who awarded him Best Newcomer have done so after his Cymbeline performance. A classic. A William Shakespeare classic to be more specific. I myself haven't seen the production, however I am well read and I read the play more than once. Also, I am aware of Hiddleston in any case and of course I know all about his career thus far.

Now though Hiddleston has joined Kenneth Branagh in a new series, Wallander. It's three hours spread over three episodes of the crime drama, which is an adaptation of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels. Naturally Branagh is behind the camera as the series' director, as well as portraying the lead role, Kurt Wallander himself. As to be expected everything circles around his character and his line of work as part of the police force. Although it may have strong storylines and is well directed along with some great casting, however, my main focus is Tom Hiddleston himself.

Hiddleston's character Magnus Martinsson is undoubtedly the tech savvy and lackey on the force. Yet Magnus is lacking any real potential, and he seems far from the most ideal person to be Wallander's partner on the force. The real strongest member on the force and better suited partner would be Sarah Smart's character Anne-Britt Hoglund. Despite her being the best candidate for Martinsson's replacement, Hoglund still needs to be further developed fully in order to lift her up to where she could be to achieve greatness. Plus her story arc in general could be further explored as well. Circling back to Martinsson, he's very underdeveloped, just as shockingly terrible as Hoglund and the rest of the characters are too. I'm certainly not forgetting about the fact that Wallander is the star of the series, but none of the others seem to have a story arch, or any kind of extended background. Except for the odd references to outside work life that occasionally get a mention. Then again I know what you might be thinking. Why are you picking on Hiddleston? Especially when you've mentioned the lack of story arch for all of the main characters. Well I can tell you why....

Hiddleston's exceedingly highly praised Cymbeline performance does not hold up to my expectations of what it really takes to be an actor. Again I may not have seen this particular production, yet I am basing my opinions on what I know from his previous performances, and how low his abilities/skills actually are. Therefore, he doesn't gain any praise from me nor for his performance in this series either. His character may not have had much in the way of development, but what doesn't help is Hiddleston's lack of good onscreen presences. In my opinion, as a viewer, he doesn't have what it takes for television or the face for it. His entire performance was abysmal. Albeit, it was somewhat an improvement from his performance and time spent on the god awful series Suburban shootout (2006). Although admittedly there was a minuscule amount of potential in his performance in The Changeling (also 2006). Furthermore, this performance in Wallander exceeds his other appalling attempts to be a seducer of older women and childish behaved character, which is displayed within the disoriented family depicted in the film Unrelated (2007).