Very little of what was portrayed involving Chrissie Hynde actually happened. She only worked at the Sex shop for a short period, slept with Jones once, says she never even knew about his musical aspirations, and wasn't even in their orbit during a lot of the events they portray her as part of. It was Sid Vicious who was going to marry her, not Steve Jones. She had nothing to do with a made-up kidnapping plot to get Nancy on a plane and certainly never wrote the song "Kid" while singing a lullaby to Nancy. She never wanted to be a Sex Pistol, though she did try to work with Malcolm on two other bands, one of which became the Damned. Also, she is much taller and spindly than that puffy-faced actress playing her (couldn't even get the haircut right - Chrissie had it really short when she worked at the Sex shop).
Most of the Chrissie stuff in the show is nonsense.
My understanding is that Boyle wanted to show how women were pushed aside, but by making up plots to insert Chrissie he steals away valuable time that could have been used to expand the roles of Helen of Troy, Jordan, and Siouxsie, women who were actually integral parts of the development of the Sex Pistols and who were really cast aside in a most insulting way in this series. Jordan, particularly, is perplexing, considering how much hype went into Maisie Williams playing the role. She barely had anything to do and certainly nothing that told you anything much about the person or her contribution.
As well as the women, time spent on fake stories about Chrissie could have been spent looking at Sid and Johnny's friendship before the band, letting us know who they were and so allowing more depth and empathy to what eventually became of Sid. An expansion of Siouxsie's presence would have helped with this since Sid played on stage in the first incarnation of the Banshees. And of course having Chrissie arrange to marry Sid as it actually happened would have expanded his role and justified at least that section with a focus on her.
As it is, the show is fine, it has moments, but it could have been better. It needed someone to give it a looser and less traditional structure that would have truly presented the wider expanse of the Sex Pistols story as more than just the story we all know.
Most of the Chrissie stuff in the show is nonsense.
My understanding is that Boyle wanted to show how women were pushed aside, but by making up plots to insert Chrissie he steals away valuable time that could have been used to expand the roles of Helen of Troy, Jordan, and Siouxsie, women who were actually integral parts of the development of the Sex Pistols and who were really cast aside in a most insulting way in this series. Jordan, particularly, is perplexing, considering how much hype went into Maisie Williams playing the role. She barely had anything to do and certainly nothing that told you anything much about the person or her contribution.
As well as the women, time spent on fake stories about Chrissie could have been spent looking at Sid and Johnny's friendship before the band, letting us know who they were and so allowing more depth and empathy to what eventually became of Sid. An expansion of Siouxsie's presence would have helped with this since Sid played on stage in the first incarnation of the Banshees. And of course having Chrissie arrange to marry Sid as it actually happened would have expanded his role and justified at least that section with a focus on her.
As it is, the show is fine, it has moments, but it could have been better. It needed someone to give it a looser and less traditional structure that would have truly presented the wider expanse of the Sex Pistols story as more than just the story we all know.
Tell Your Friends