Boss: Pilot Review

Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer) is the mayor of Chicago, and he didn’t get there by being particularly nice to either his colleagues, rivals or family. He’s also just been diagnosed with a degenerative condition which will see him lose his physical and mental faculties within the next 3 to 5 years.

You know from the very first scene, a long close up as Kane learns of his prognosis that this is going to be a show entirely built around this one central character and the inimitable Kelsey Grammer certainly delivers the kind of performance that makes you sit up and pay attention. But any show that’s built exclusively around one character lives and dies with that character. Tom Kane is not meant to be likeable, your initial sympathy for someone getting this diagnosis is soon overwhelmed by the fact that he’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work, cold and demanding of his colleagues, ruthless and violent to his opponents, and distant and selfish to his family.

It’s not necessary to like a central character, but you do have to want to spend time with him, and I unfortunately didn’t want to. I didn’t want to feel sorry for a sleazeball just because of his medical situation, but I also didn’t want to be cold to a man’s suffering. One thing that is missing from the episode as far as I noticed was any explanation for his motivation as mayor – does he behave the way he does because that’s the price he has to pay to deliver some other higher service, or is he that way just because he wants power? Without an understanding of his motivation it’s hard to judge the character and to know whether he’s redeemable or not.

There’s not much sympathy to be had through the rest of the characters either, nor is there much cheer. Everyone seems pretty ok with manipulation, threats, and outright violence. Throughout the numerous factions and characters I didn’t see a single person who could be considered pleasant, let alone innocent.

The show is very well produced – the writing is elegant, a combination of powerful speeches and quiet moments which give the actors a chance to deliver subtlety. The direction is also well put together, mostly handheld but with some nice little visual effects that keep things interesting. But for all that, I don’t have any desire at all to watch the next episode. I can appreciate that it may be an excellent show, but when I think about watching more it’s with a sense of weary duty rather than anticipation. I can be glad it exists, and can even recommend that others check it out, but I just don’t want to watch more.

Season 1 of Boss is on More 4 on Thursdays and you can watch it (and endless adverts) on 4OD. A second season has already aired in the US, but there will not be a third due to low ratings.

2013
03/25
CATEGORY
11-12 Season
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Eureka: Season 1

eurekaI actually think I watched this season years ago, but didn’t review it at the time. I do remember enjoying it, but I stopped watching at some point because my housemates preferred Warehouse 13 and watching both felt somewhat overkill. I recently stumbled across it again on Lovefilm instant and it turns out it’s perfect telly for baking or ironing too, which doesn’t sound like high praise, but fills a very important slot in my life.

It’s got a cute concept at its heart – what if the US government and military put all of its smartest (and most eccentric) people in one place? Eureka is a town populated by extremely bright people who cheerfully bumble about inventing stuff and creating chaos. Shepherding them along however are various bureaucrats, some well meaning and some more sinister, who manage and direct the chaos in an attempt to… well… that’s the question. Better living through better weapons? More progress through more profit? The pull between these factions is a constant source of secrecy, conspiracy, paranoia and even more chaos.

In the finest tradition of television, thrown into the mix is a normal bloke. His IQ is far from genius, he’s moderately hopeless with technology and he doesn’t know what he’s getting into. But, again in familiar television world, he has a strong sense of justice and a desire to see everyone blow themselves up as rarely as possible, and a way of seeing through the bullshit and the technobabble to solve problems with brute force simplicity. He’s also sarcastic, which instantly endears him to me.

The stories and plots fall into a regular pattern of gizmo of the week, working their way through various standard tropes such as the all powerful AI over-reacting to their programming, paradox inducing time travel, paranoia inducing satellites, escaped nanites creating replicants… all the usual stuff. But it’s not really the stories that are important, they’re just a way to get to spend more time with the characters. Everyone is pure fun to watch, each actor takes a standard character type (dumb sheriff, intellectual snob, whiny teenager, good natured professor, unabashed nerd) and gives them confidence and self-awareness, so they’re comfortable in their relationships with each other and fun to spend time with. Like many sci-fi channel shows the whole thing ends up being about teams and families much more than whatever the synopsis says.

Eureka doesn’t set the world alight, but it is Nice and it is Fun, which a surprising number of shows just fail to deliver. I’d frequently find myself pausing mid-brownie making and getting engrossed in an episode, because I didn’t want to miss the little lines of dialogue and bits of body language that just made the whole thing jump off the screen. I need more excuses to bake (or more ironing to do) so I can get straight to the second season.

Eureka is available on Lovefilm instant and dvd from amazon

2013
03/19
CATEGORY
Science Fiction
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Mad Men: Season 5

Mad MenFirst up a disclaimer. I did not follow my own advice for how to watch Mad Men. I’ve always said that Mad Men is something that you have to just commit to, watch it through steadily (either week by week or in a box set catch up) and it will reward you with gradual and elegant developments of plot, characters and relationships. Unfortunately I watched this season in 3 chunks – 3 episodes, then a month gap, another 3 episodes, then a gap of about 6 months before a marathon of the last 7 episodes over a couple of days. And each time I came back to it I really struggled to reconnect with everything.

However even with that excuse, I do think this season lacked the arc and elegance of earlier seasons. I re-read my review of Season 4 before writing this review and it made me feel even more disappointed about Season 5. Maybe there’s a similar rule for Mad Men seasons as there is for Star Trek films, the even ones are a bit mediocre.

The key example of this from the second half of the season were Lane and Joan’s stories. I really like both these characters and have enjoyed their development over the years, and both had major events in their lives play out towards the end of season 5 (avoiding spoiling any details). However both stories were completely undermined by a lack of screen time in the middle of the season which not only meant I missed them from those episodes, but meant there were no hints at what might lead them to make the decisions they did, leaving my first instinct to question whether it was in character for them to take those paths. It made it hard to empathise and also harder to fully see the impacts of their choices on themselves and those around them. In normal series the stories would have still been considered slow probably, but I don’t watch Mad Men to be like other series.

Maybe those two storylines were just victims of where I broke the season up, other stories were given more time and unfolded in more traditional Mad Men style. I still don’t like Pete, but he’s a great character; he never seems to completely grow up, always complaining about the unfairness of life and managing to alienate absolutely everyone around him. Peggy also continues her fantastic story arc, and unlike Joan and Lane she gets enough screen time that you can see issues developing and bubbling in the background, leaving every action, every sentence entirely predictable and deeply satisfying.

And then we come to Don. One of the things that made me saddest re-reading the season 4 review was how positive I felt about Don and Megan’s relationship, the way that Don had found happiness and would let himself be happy. But as Peggy tells him, he really doesn’t see when things are good and he starts to revert to his usual boorish self. I’ve never liked him, but I hoped that there was light at the end of the tunnel for him and maybe he could become a better person. But he seemingly can’t, and he brings the worst out in those around him.

Mad Men continues to be an acquired taste and almost an exercise in how slow something can go before it stops entirely. That means that having got as far as season 5 I’m not going to let one slightly disappointing season deter me from watching more, particularly as I hold myself at least partly to blame due to the erratic viewing pattern. Given where all the characters find themselves, in fact I think I’m looking forward to season 6 more than ever.

2013
03/16
CATEGORY
11-12 Season
Drama
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Breaking Bad: Season 1

Breaking BadI pride myself that usually when people ask me “have you seen such-and-such?” I can smugly reply in the affirmative. Just on this website I’ve got reviews of over 200 shows; many admittedly only for the pilot, but there’s usually enough for me to make intelligent comment. Even in my impressive (pathetic?) watched list however, there are gaps, and those are sometimes very embarrassing. So I am relieved that when asked “oh my god, have you seen Breaking Bad? It’s incredible!” I no longer have to sheepishly say “um, no… I got the first season on dvd a few years back but I’ve never actually gotten round to it”. Better late than never right?

So all in all, there’s a good chance that I’m talking to the choir, and even more so one that may have seen not just the first season (which is only 7 episodes) but has made it all the way through to the fifth and final season (half of which has already premiered in the US, the 2nd half to follow this year). I know enough about the show to know that some of my comments will likely be met with “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

The first season forms a very tightly structured story, we follow the journey of Walter White an unassuming chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Through lucky (?) coincidence he stumbles upon an opportunity to turn his chemical expertise into money for his treatment and his family by making crystal meth, partnering with a former student who is an unimpressive drug dealer. We see Walt divide his life in half – one part a pushed around husband and nice guy, one part scary bad ass who fits into the violence and intensity of the drug world surprisingly well.

The story shares some similarities with Weeds, a series that didn’t work for me because I was unsettled by the levels of violence and destructiveness that an urban housewife allowed to develop just to make more and more money. Breaking Bad however carefully skirted around that problem. Although Walter also makes bad decisions, there felt like there was more of a selflessness about it and a natural snowballing that didn’t lose me along the way as Weeds did. It also doesn’t treat Walter’s life or choices as anything other than bleak, there’s no glamour in the druf world at all, it’s not exciting or exhilarating, it’s brutal and terrifying.

The most obvious comment about the show is that the acting is absolutely superb. Bryan Cranston’s performance as Walter White is perfect as a very quiet, unremarkable man with occasional flashes of intensity as he embraces not just his criminal potential, but also his terminal diagnosis. His performance is beautifully subtle, so much more about what isn’t said than what is. In contrast Aaron Paul as his more drug savvy partner gives flamboyant performance for the most part but with brief moments of quiet, somehow making me care about a character that should be phenomenally annoying. The supporting characters don’t really do much beyond adding depth to Walter’s life. I found his wife generally pretty annoying, but she’s vital to show that Walter has pretty much given away control of his life to those around him, breaking the law is one of the few decisions he’s made for himself and although it’s a bad decision, you can see why it’s so empowering to him.

My one disappointment of the series was that the comedy elements got fewer and further between as the season went on. The comedy was always somewhat incidental, it was more about taking a moment for the audience and characters to acknowledge how ridiculous the situations were, but I felt there was less time for those moments in later episodes. Instead the comedy was more heavy handed, provided by the over the top brother and sister-in-law. I missed that lightness and hope that future seasons find it again, otherwise the show runs the risk of jut become too intense and heavy.

That is part of the reason that I’m undecided at the moment as to whether to watch season 2 or not. I did very much enjoy season 1 and was certainly impressed with it, but I can also see that life is unlikely to get better for the characters and I’m not sure that I want to see that. I’ve already got a few series on my roster (Supernatural and Sons of Anarchy for example) where I’m dragging my feat watching later seasons because the unrelenting awfulness inflicted on and by the characters that I’ve come to empathise with is just too depressing. Breaking Bad is a victim of its own success in that I may not watch anymore because it is just too good.

From the looks of it, I wouldn’t hold your breath on seeing Breaking Bad on TV (season 3 doesn’t have a planned airing date yet, let alone 4 or 5) but you can pick up some pretty good deals on boxsets at amazon

2013
03/09
CATEGORY
Drama
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Broadchurch and Mayday

The BBC and ITV both launched major new dramas that no one can argue are both heavily influenced by various European dramas. There’s just less Danish knitwear and more morris dancing and 99p flakes. Something is topsy-turvy in TV land though, because ITV’s offering of Broadchurch stars BBC stalwarts David Tennant and Olivia Colman and is a great piece of television while the Mayday stars… well not much of anyone really and is utterly rubbish.

Mayday started on Sunday night and playing out over the next four evenings, which means that by the time I get this review up the series is actually almost over. I probably wouldn’t have bothered reviewing it at all if not for the fact that it contrasts so nicely with Broadchurch, which I really wanted to draw peoples’ attention to.

Both series are about a crime against a child, Broadchurch starts immediately with the body of a ten year old boy, while Mayday has a missing 14 year old girl. Both are set in small towns where everyone knows each other, Mayday in an idyllic village (complete with Mayday celebrations and Morris Dancers), Broadchurch a Dorset seaside town (with ice creams and seasonal traffic jams). The biggest point of contrast is that while both series suggest that not everyone is what they seem, Broadchurch gradually works up to that with subtlety, while Mayday practically screams “this person has a secret” with every line of dialogue, close up moody look and musical cue.

That is the very reason why I loved Broadchurch and loathed Mayday, and is also the reason that I wondered if the two had somehow got channel swapped by accident. Mayday is a pantomime that sits more naturally alongside ITV’s Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge. Characters are one sentence parodies with hammy actors combining with cheesy direction to make a horrific ploughman’s of a show. My response to it all was eye rolling and laughter at the obviousness of it all, hardly edge of the seat stuff.

Broadchurch however induced not only curiosity and genuine tension, but also full on tearing up and heart in mouth moments. The focus on the family as they went through the worst day of their lives was just devastating, and the view of the emotional impact on the team investigating the crime was equally heartbreaking. The director and writers have enough faith in their actors and audience to leave much unsaid, the subtext is clear for everyone to read and doesn’t need to be bludgeoned home.

I guess there’s a chance that Mayday settled down, and that some of you stuck with it while I deleted the series link as soon as I’d finished the first episode. It’s strange that the BBC chose to run it Sunday to Thursday evenings, it really didn’t seem anywhere near the type of event television that would make that work. The ratings don’t look to be its favour, it dropped nearly 2 million viewers (6.2 to 4.3) for its Monday showing, which went up directly against Broadchurch which mustered 6.8million. I guess the real test for Broadchurch is how many tune in next week, but I for one can’t recommend it highly enough.

Mayday finishes tonight and is available on iPlayer until and Broadchurch airs on Monday nights and is available on itvplayer.

2013
03/06
CATEGORY
12-13 Season
British TV
Drama
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Body of Proof: Season 1

Body of ProofIt’s important that I explain why I was watching this series. You see, thanks to an abundance of free time at the moment I actually find myself running a little short on things to watch. I’ve also just got a new book of Killer Sodukus and need something fairly innocuous to put on while I’m working my way through that . One evening, after clearing off my Sky+ backlog, I went rummaging around on the Lovefilm Instant service to see what I can find and stumbled over Body of Proof. I went back and had a look at my pilot review and noted that although I wasn’t enthused enough to seek it out at the time, I thought it might be ok. On top of all that, the first season is only 9 episodes long, so it wasn’t exactly a huge commitment.

That’s a pretty lengthy insight into my unexciting life, but it’s important that you understand that. Because even given those low ambition reasons for watching, and the fact that my brain was half occupied with soduku… it’s impressive that Body of Proof was still so deeply unsatisfying.

The biggest problem with the whole thing is the quality of the mysteries. The most basic requirement of a procedural show is that the cases make sense. Yes, to be successful you need characters and originality etc, but if your cases are stupid, you are sunk before you even start. It’s not like I even need the cases to be memorable (god knows I watch enough CSI and NCIS), but the ones on Body of Proof are just plain shabby. Aside from the phenomenal reliance on our hero spotting a microscopic clue, or each victim or accused having some obscurely specific medical complaint, almost every episode had a gaping error in it. One case was immediately ruled a murder rather than a suicide because the victim had been shot in the head twice (admittedly tricky to do yourself) and then utterly failed to have that happen in the eventual flashback to the murder. Barely an episode went by when something wasn’t either dropped in the middle, or introduced unexpectedly.

Everything was just so frustratingly fake. The female medical examiners are always in form fitting designer dresses and ludicrously high heals, no matter where the body is. One of the flunkies is a borderline offensive parody of a self-righteous black woman (although he’s male) doing the whole “oh no you di’nt just go there!”, while the other is the usual tedious caricature geek with glasses and awkwardness. The detectives are two good actors (Sonja Sohn of The Wire and John Carroll Lynch of ‘you’ll know him when you see him’) doing their best with the clichés they’ve been given, but even their attempts to deliver subtlety and humour with body language and delivery cannot completely overcome the terrible dialogue.

I guess I should comment on Dana Delany as it’s really her show, but I don’t really know what to say, because talented though she is, she can’t fight her way through the fact that this show just isn’t very good. I came to like the stuff with her daughter and when she got a chance to play human, but the rest of the time the character she was too much of a superhero, a medical examiner who can see the tiniest details and identify fungus at just a single glance.

Even as something that I only wanted to pay attention to with half my brain, it still managed to be unsatisfying. The actors deserve better. My soduku book deserved better. It will take a special kind of boredom to make me watch season 2.

Body of Proof is available on Lovefilm Instant (give me a shout if you’d like a free trial link) and probably other on demand services too, or on dvd

2013
03/02
CATEGORY
Crime Procedural
Medical
10-11 Season
1 comment

Dancing on the Edge

I must confess that part of my motivator in publishing this review is just to make public the fact that I dutifully sat through all six parts of Stephen Poliakoff’s drama and want some sort of credit for that. After all, as it turned out I could have watched the first episode, the last episode and just been filled in on a couple of facts from the middle and I would have got just as much out of it.

The first episode showed off the beautiful locations and detailed period design. It introduces us to the charismatic and smart band leader Louis Lester, the mercurial and ambitious music journalist Stanley Mitchell (both expertly played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew Goode respectively) and the group of socialites and influencers they become surrounded by. It gives an interesting insight into the world in the 1930s where things like race and class are far more important to some people than others. It’s not a civil rights piece per-se, it just sets everything within that context. Those involved seemingly more interested in taunting and poking fun at the other side than bludgeoning points home with tedious speeches.

Jumping forward a few hours, the final episode augments that design and those issues by putting an actual plot in. A murder mystery and a daring escape give the characters something to do, and keep the audience (or me at least) paying attention and trying to work out the zigs and zags. Somewhere between the first and final episodes the supporting characters develop from being indistinguishable witterers into outlandish stereotypes, overplaying every emotion and telegraphing their thoughts. After so many hours of painstaking lack of action, this sudden extremeness was actually something of a relief.

All that plot and character development could have been condensed into just a couple of episodes, but instead we got a few hours of meandering plot cul-de-sacs. The band’s manager is dispatched of so quickly that I presumed he was going to be brought back as a twist later on, as it turned out he was just utterly irrelevant. Likewise the lingering shots of creepy looking people in crowds and mystery around Jessie’s family turned out to be nothing at all either. Red herrings are one thing, but these just felt as if they’d been abandoned.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all however was the way that the music and band weren’t a major part of the story at all. I was actually rather surprised when the murder mystery was introduced, as I’d thought the show was going to be entirely about the music and how it fitted in (or didn’t) with everything around it – the venues, the patrons, even the early days of music journalism and fans. But that got swept away, I’m not sure the final episode even had a performance in it. Beyond Louis himself and the two singers I don’t think anyone else in the band even got a name or a line of dialogue, leaving them as glorified extras awkwardly following the leads around and randomly playing in corridors.

While this could have been a really nice three part series, it was instead a shabby six part one which completely wasted some interesting ideas, beautiful designs and talented actors.

The series is available on iplayer catchup until March 11th and on dvd after that.

2013
02/28
CATEGORY
12-13 Season
British TV
Drama
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