Two good reasons why I haven't watched episode two of The Wire yet
I have The Wire season one box set, and The West Wing season seven box set sitting on the coffee table, unwatched. For their shameful neglect we must blame Sky+ and the resulting volume of telly now in a constant, self-regenerative holding pattern, from George And Mildred and The Late Edition to The Choir and Nigella's Dirty Christmas. But this is surely better than there being "nothing on". As it happens, two fine drama series on the BBC have come to an end after six weeks. Both compulsive in different ways.
The State Within
A top-class, high-production-values British political conspiracy thriller from writer-director Daniel Percival, actress-writer Lizzie Mickery and director Michael Offer (credit where it's due) which will go down in the almanacs as one of the BBC's biggest flops, in that it started out with a healthy 5.7 million viewers, shed two million by week two, and was struggling with a viewership of 2.6 at its nadir, almost beaten by Monty Don on BBC2 for its big finale. An ignoble fate for such a thrilling, intelligent, politically brazen piece, and with a proper film star at its centre, Jason Isaacs, unflappably heroic, stoutly principled and sexually rapacious British Ambassador in Washington. Sharon Gless made an iron-knickered US Defence Secretary at the centre of a phoney, contracts-led invasion of a blameless country after a self-inflicted terrorist act, the like of which are anything but unbelievable in a post-September 11 world. Why did audiences desert? Was it too complicated? I mean, it was, but bracingly so. Unanswered questions litter the roadside, but hats off to overambition and punching above your weight. Isaacs was well supported by shifty cohort Ben Daniels, recently seen in BBC4's Ian Fleming biopic Bondmaster (it's bound to end up on BBC2 at some point), and Lennie James was enigmatic and tortured as the mercenary on death row. Never really come across Eva Birthistle before, but she was diverting and charismatic as the embassy underling dispatched to Florida, and I hope we will see more of her on telly. No point in going on about it further as nobody saw it. A great shame, and I hope its baffling but spectacular failure doesn't dissuade the BBC from investing in political drama in the future. I wonder if they've sold it to America? My guess is that the Yanks wouldn't much go for its central premise. Mind you, the same might be said for this:
Into The West
Never mind the commitment of an hour a week for The State Within, this was 90 minutes an episode (two hours with ad-breaks in the US, where it aired on TNT last summer). A miniseries! How quaint. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg at DreamWorks, this was big telly, charting about 60 years of American history from what is pretty easily identified as a guilt-ridden white liberal perspective. This is not a problem per se. If Into The West reminded me of anything, it was Roots, which, although based on a black American author's book, also played to liberal guilt in its unforgiving telling of American history's other shameful chapter. As a teenage boy watching Roots in the 70s, I found it mesmerising and thoroughly informative (if only history at school had been so vivid, I might have passed my O-level). This sought to do a similar job on the ethnic cleansing of the Indian population between 1825 and 1890. Of course, it's the European settlers who are implicated in this slaughter, as it was us who drove rapaciously West, destroying everything in our path, including millions of beautiful buffalo. But for modern Americans, it's worse, as it confirms that their great country is founded on disrespect, cultural rape, genocide and the law of military firepower against bows and arrows. Great! Let's make a sprawling historical drama about it!
William Mastrosimone was the main writer, the directors various (credit where it's due). With so many generations and tributaries of one white and one Lakota Indian family to plough through over nine hours, it's pointless to try and pick out the main cast, as they kept being replaced by older actors, although John Terry (not the England captain, the bloke who played Jack's boozy surgeon dad in Lost) was a recurring presence, very nice in his white beard, and Keith Carradine looked very comfortable on his horse. What Mastrosimone did was use fictional characters to foreground factual events - the Gold Rush, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee etc. - and the efficiency of this was only undermined by our inability to keep track of who was who. There were a lot of people called Wheeler, I know that much. Some of the actors convinced as leathery pioneers, others less so. All the Native Americans were played by Native Americans, and spoke in what I assume is authentic native tongue, subtitled. This gave the series a good balance. History is written, as we know, by the victors, and that has always been the mythological case with Westerns, but it turns out that, hey, the "Indians" weren't savages, but an indigenous population frugally in touch with the land they lived off, whipped into "savagery" by the heavy-handed justice meted out to them when they got in the way of railways, gold and stuff.
I found Into The West fascinating, despite its creative deficiencies: lapses into meaningless slow-motion, over-reliance on the "snapshot" technique of freeze-framing in sepia to suggest photography, unhelpful leaps forward in time papered over by narration ("ten years had passed etc."). The energy-lightbulb starpower of the cast helped focus on the story (people like Beau Bridges, Tom Berenger, Skeet Ulrich, David Paymer, Matthew Modine, recognisable but not too dazzling), and of course the locations looked impressive, even though they weren't in Dakota or Virginia, but in fact New Mexico. Perhaps I am too easy an audience for this kind of liberal porn, and I'm not saying it's in the same league as Roots, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the ride over the last six weeks. And I've never seen Deadwood, American telly's other Western, with which I imagine it shares very little common ground.
There's a very nicely tooled Into The West website, which has an interactive map showing the white man's progress from a small strip on the East coast to total landmass domination in less than a century.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:36 PM
19 Comments
Contact
Andrew at
19 Comments:
Well, that's at least two of us who watched it Andrew. I thought it was marvellous, even if it had more plotlines than an Eastenders annual scriptwriters conference.
Fave character had to be the fantastically suave gay MI6 chap. Oh, and the ludicrously attractive lawyer who managed to fight injustice while pouting for Britain.
Joking aside, the mis-series execution was suitably heart-stopping in the way it was acted and directed, and really grabbed you for the 15 minutes it seemed to take.
Nice to know I wasn't watching alone anyway...
I stuck with The State Within but only because we taped it and then watched, pressing pause every so often to figure out what the blazing heck was going on before continuing. Bracing indeed.
I'm not surprised that the audience declined for The State Within. As you say, the plot was complicated, which made it all the more rewarding for those who were able to saty with it. But if you missed an episode, it seemed like more effort than it was worth to persevere.
Also, political content in a drama has to be put across in a sensitive way to avoid alienating those who, while being sympathetic, may feel that they are being subtly fed propaganda (of whatever nature, be it pro or anti Establishment).
But I agree, that this sort of intelligent drama is to be encouraged, and I am glad that we still have a BBC that puts on challenging programmes that stimulate the mind.
My wife and I are cracking up at the title of this posting as, seemingly, every day we resolve to get past the pilot ep of The Wire Season One but Sky+ gets in there before we can reach for the DVD. And we have no one to blame but ourselves : (
As for the West Wing, the special edition Presidential Library has just come out in the US and it's required viewing (well, it would be if it wasn't for Sky flipping +). Meanwhile, a quick warning: don't get too excited by Sorkin's latest show, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip as it ain't a patch on WW or Sportsnight. I believe it's coming to E4 or More4 next month
The State Within was one of thedramas of the year. I was glad that every episode left me with questions. Remarkly, every time I thought I had something figured out they yanked the rug out from under me yet again.
There are enough dramas where, within the first ten or fifteen minutes you pretty much know what the resolution is going to be.
Maybe it suffered from only being shown once a week. Are people used to switched over to one of the other BBC channels for the very next episode? If so, shame on them.
Mr Collins, I say to you, shame for not getting around to watching The Wire. When you do, clear some space in your diary. It is superb. And it is very addictive (no pun intended). Luckily it is only 13 hours long, not 22 or 24.
And there is a scene in the fourth episode, I think, that should have everyone who loves good drama and good writing jumping up and down and cheering. It features Bunk and NcNulty. You'll know it when you see it.
Glen, give Studio 60 a chance. I think the problem with it - which has had so many comedy writer bloggers froth and foam at the mouth - is that because it is set around an SNL-type comedy show, they expect it to be full of the funnies. (Although everytime I'm in the US and happen across Saturday Night Live I usually sit through it stony-faced. I probably would find it funny if I was of an age when I was nappied up and sitting in my own poop).
Studio 60 is all about the fall out from the first episodes opening scene. Setting the drama in a comedy/sketch/variety show environment allows them to talk about a broader scope of television.
And the rendition of O Holy Night by the New Orleans musicians was just exceptional.
I thought that about Studio 60 at first, but episodes like the Nevada Day double bill and The Christmas Show have made it worth watching in recent weeks.
I don't have Sky+, so I live off torrents and DVDs essentially (although she who must be obeyed wants me to sell some DVDs before I can buy any more - It's fine: I need to sell 5 seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street so I can but the filing cabinet box set of the complete series). Ultimately I get new stuff off the net, and was lucky enough to get North Square episodes 6-10 when it was re-run on FX. Now i'm constantly anxious for a repeat showing or a release date for the DVD. It was also criminally under-rated. I've heard a lot of good things about Widows, and am keen to get Births, Marriages and Deaths. I've dl'd State Within and I'm ashamed to say NGO - I think I'll like it, I liked Grass.
PS
Just read the piece about Into the West in more detail rather than the initial skim.
Started watching it but had the feeling the characters were heading west only so they could apologise in advance.
Also, I've seen Deadwood. Which does share some common ground. I mean there are trees and horses and sky and, er... ah, Keith Carradine.
After The Wire watch Deadwood. If you want to know why? Four words:
It's by David Milch.
Did you see the article in The Stage about the second series of The State Within? The only thing to say to that is Why?
Ive really liked The State Within, but found it was the same thing as THe Amazing Mrs Pritchard, i.e. no-one i spoke to knew it was on! I still have the last episode on tape as i perpetually am a week behind on it as i'm so busy at the mo - some of us dont have the luxury of Sky+. The only thing i was dissapointed with was the dispatching of the fabulous Lennie James half way through. Jason Issacs was lush (sorry to lower the tone!) and Sharon Gless amusingly harpy-like. I liked its complexity too. I think another of its problems was that it wasnt in a 'BBC drama' slot, myself and my mum were very suprised when it turned out to be on Thursday nights as that's not traditionally a drama night.
I also watched Into the West, mainly on tape and mainly, in the end, out of duty, as i'd watched a few and had to stick in there till the end, to see how it finished. It was all a bit 'important' and portentious for me. Being a fan of Deadwood I found all the pioneer stuff a bit rubbish, but the 'indian' stuff good, although I have a father obsessed with all that so i know a bit from researching books for him to read - i heartly recommend The Day the Earth Wept (i think that's what its called) and Bury My Heart at WOunded Knee (??) two of my dad's faves. However, i was slightly miffed that the early episodes wouldn't allow us to identify with the indians by themselves, always reading them through interaction with a white settler, until the later episodes. So i didn't feel it was as much an equal story of two families, as it was billed. It was also very distracting that the early episodes were filmed in Canada, of supposedly iconic American views, probably as they've destroyed much of their once beautiful land!
The State Within was fab, I really enjoyed it and was quite pleased to discover that it was co-funded by BBC America, so yes Andrew, I expect it will be shown over there fairly soon, albeit on a cable channel that only a small proportion of the population actually watch.
Wire latest: I have now watched three episodes, two back to back, and it's got me, as you all said it would. (Hey, I didn't much like Curb when I watched the first episode - it took my friend Rob to lend me a DVD with a high recommendation to turn me, and now it's one of the greatest comedies ever made. How did I not spot it straight away?)
Faye, I have already ordered Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee from Amazon, where it gets five star customer reviews all round.
Anonymous "torrents" fan: we loved North Square in our house. Why it wasn't recommissioned, I'll never know. Mind you, neither was Grass! Births, Marriages, Deaths was the best thing Tony Grounds has done, I reckon. Amazing cast, and really operatic in scope. Hope you can find it.
Incidentally, no spam since adding word verification. Fingers crossed.
I watched Into The West, although mainly on tape, as well. I still have two episodes to go as I am a bit behind! However I did think it was very good, although the ultimate Western series has to be Lonesome Dove starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee- Jones. I thoroughly reccomend it.
Births, Marriages and Deaths was excellent from what I can remember. I never managed to speak to anyone else who had even heard of it, let alone seen it.
Bodies finale tonight I believe Andrew - thanks to the scouring of the TV listings and some non-descript promotion.
Another show more deserving of attention.
Have audiences got dumber, or is it the proliferation of channels that makes it harder for large groups of people to enjoy one quality programme at once?
Taped Bodies last night, one of the best British dramas of the last five years. Can't wait to sit down and watch it tonight. This is a really good advert for BBC3, which is all too easily dismissed as the comedy nursery (although nothing wrong with that - without it, Grass might never have seen any light at all). I always keep an eye on BBC4 now - that's where I caught Bondmaker, the Ian Fleming biopic. Low-budget, but well-made and informative. I'm never sure if audiences have got dumber, or the world's just got scarier and people seek refuge in dumb entertainment. These are, after all, the last days. (Or decades.)
And for anyone interested in the the last days nonsense, Tony Robinson's good, if drawn out, documentary about The Doomsday Code (stupid populist name) is on More4 again on Saturday. Some christians are just scary.
Those Mark Lawson interviews on BBC4 are usually worth catching. They made me realise that you just don't see proper interviews on TV anymore. God save us from Parky.
Sorry I can't comment on the films list: I haven't been to the cinema since 1993.
Taped Bodies myself last night, but with it being repeated and you may not have watched it yet Mr. Collins, I'll try to keep my views cryptic (save for the odd minor spoiler).
Odd seeing Rob with Polly, just didn't connect them. Two interesting plotlines proving to be the catalyst for the final outcome, but there's still that niggle of no definite closure for Rob.
Still, fantastic series, and perhaps the last bastion of BBC 3's brilliant period of drama output with Funland, Conviction etc (although the former is coming back for a second series).
I started watching The State Within but dropped it around episode 4. I don't think the problem with it was that it was too complex or confusing.
You just need to look to some of the long running US shows that require people to get involved and pay attention (Lost, The West Wing, 24, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Six Feet Under) to realise that viewers are happy to invest in intricate television.
I felt that the problem with The State Within was although it was excellently crafted, with enough twists and conspiracies to keep me involved I felt the production was a little smug as if the people behind it knew it was classy so decided to give it a feel that it was superior to some of its US counterparts.
Still, the lead actor in was pretty fit.
Apologies - I'm sure there are loads of typos and grammatical errors in this post but I'm really knackered and can't be bothered to check it.
Anon, have now watched Bodies and will post a review as soon as I get a moment.
Herb, I know what you mean about State Within, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that 24, West Wing etc. are actually popular in this country. They get tiny audiences. (263,000 watched the last episode of West Wing on More4.)
Does 24 get low viewers too? I appreciate that only being available to Sky viewers will dramatically reduce your audience but surely it still gets at least a million.
Incidentally Andrew have you heard anything about the new US series Heroes due to start on BBC2 in the Summer? It's in a completely different league to the afore mentioned political dramas but could well be the next Lost if current ratings and reviews are anything to go by.
I've seen the first 8 episodes and it's AMAZING.
Post a Comment
<< Home