I really like Frain as Sarek. Is he Mark Le(o)nard? Absolutely not, but he seem to "get" the character just fine. As Ferdinand Chevalier in Orphan Black and Richard Shepherd on Intruders, both cold blooded killers, he really nailed those characters, so it shows great range that he can pull off Sarek as well as he does.
I like Frain as Sarek. I also like deconstructing the character, trying to figure out what makes him tick. Here is a Vulcan man from a very high status family who was betrothed in traditional fashion to a girl from an equally high status family, only something went wrong. The girl — Sybok’s mother — got religion sometime after Sarek’s first Pon Farr and became a high priestess in the temple and Sarek and his wife divorced or the marriage was dissolved. For whatever reason, he doesn’t seem to know the first son that well. Maybe there are rules that the offspring of such a marriage is reared by the mother and intended for the temple life. So Sarek is presumably disillusioned and does what he wants to do, since the traditional way doesn’t work. He becomes ambassador to Earth and is fascinated by humans. He has a thing for human women and falls in love with and marries Amanda, while telling himself it is logical for the ambassador to do so to further human-Vulcan relations. But, contradictory man that he is, he decides that his human wife and half human child should follow the Vulcan path and he puts extraordinary pressure on them both to make that half human, half Vulcan son a perfect Vulcan so Sarek can prove something to the establishment. When some judge misguidedly allows the ambassador and his human wife to foster a human orphan, Sarek also turns that child into a sociology experiment. Yet he also loves that child passionately and even gives up a literal piece of his soul to bring her back from the dead. And he loves his wife and son, though he never says so outright. Sarek is massively flawed and a pretty lousy husband and father, but he is an extremely interesting character.
^^^ I look at i as - She went with it; but now realizes it was a mistake, and feels INCREDIBLY guilty about it. IMO - it plays well into why she's so determined to help Spock now, and the lengths she's going to, to accomplish that.
Exactly how I feel too! I actually love Frain thanks to Orphan Black and Gotham, but Sarek has been pretty dull. I'm not certain that's been Frain's fault.
i think he's doing a great job though I do feel a little weird about Sarek sometimes because I'm too used to seeing Frain playing bad guys.
I feel about Sarek as I do Burnham: Neither has engaged me so far, and I can't tell if it's just the writing or both the writing and the performance. TBH, I wouldn't mind if we never saw Sarek again.
I certainly like what the writing has done for Sarek most of all, adding more dimensions to his relationship with his society and how he wants it to become than ever before. And so far, among the recast roles, Sarek has been the most illuminating and wide-reaching when it comes to Star Trek lore as a whole, IMHO. On the other hand, I would not rate Frain himself as higher than any of the other recast players in terms of their performances. Mark Lenard was simply too impressive a scene stealer to be overtaken by the more subdued Frain. However, my impression also could be affected by the performances of the other recast actors who have either, IMHO, put in performances which could potentially become defining (Mia Kirshner, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn) and is already defining as far as I am concerned, Rain Wilson's absolutely standout performance as Harry Mudd.
Yes, he desperately wants to change his society into something more inclusive and a healthier hybrid than he sees it currently is (this could have played out with his first wife and son). And how to many human fathers do this? By trying to train their children to help them do just that. Unfortunately we don't get to see a whole lot of Vulcan parenting on the show, so I suspect that by Vulcan standards he may not be as bad as father and lousy a husband as we on the human side would reckon. On the other hand, his dreams are a major overreach when it comes to Vulcan society which is pretty reactionary in general. So Sarek's failures are pretty spectacular soul wrenching falls where he does fail. And yes, that is quite interesting to get further insights into him and the Vulcan's in general, as it adds further dimension to a cuture that started out like most in Star Trek, a Planet of Hats.
This may be part of my problem. I don't really care about learning more about Sarek. He's a supporting player, not someone I want or expect to see explored in depth. His actions were typically dictated by the needs of stories being told about another character -- Spock -- rather than because they make sense on their own. I'm not sure digging at that too much is a wise idea.
I've seen him in shitloads of stuff and his roles run the gamut. But primarily, I still remember him as Jack Bauer's one true love.
The point of supporting players is to add to dimension of the players they are supporting. Sarek is still a supporting character, that hasn't changed. It just that it isn't Spock he's supporting here, so of course there will be digging, because relationships between people are by nature unique to their pairing.
Sure. But I'm not really digging the relationship with Burnham, either. Her character already feels weighted down by backstory. Nearly everything about her is heavy, from her relationship with Spock to her mutiny to the death of her family to her star-crossed loved affair with a secret Klingon spy, and her daddy issues with Sarek only add to that. Let's free her up to be a normal person. More time with Tilly and less time speaking stiffly with her Vulcan stepfather.
Completely agree with this. James Frain is a good actor, but he seems WAY too warm and fuzzy to be Sarek. He's always on the verge of breaking into a smile. He just doesn't feel like the same character.
I haven't started S2 yet, but I got the strong impression that Sarek was part of Section 31 from the last two episodes of S1. I don't have any problem with how he's cast. Every actor is going to bring something different to the role.