Superpower
US Drama Update
Just to keep you in the picture, I am currently watching two US dramas religiously, one of which is about to end, and I've had a look at the first episode of a third. Heroes (Sci-Fi) is one episode off finishing, and it's been a fabulous series. It begins on BBC2 almost immediately, so I won't give too much away for terrestrial/Freeview viewers, other than it's about a load of superheroes who don't know what to do with their powers and have a lot of angst about it, and are treated not as heroes but as freaks, and as the episodes go by, a greater narrative linking them becomes apparent, and evil rears its ugly head. No big stars, apart from cameos by Christopher Eccleston, George Takei, Eric Roberts and Malcolm McDowall, but the story is the thing.
Brothers And Sisters (C4) is, meanwhile, big on star names, with Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths "heading up" a strong cast of recognisable character actors - and Matthew Rhys from Wales, who is the best thing in it, and does a superb American accent - who make up the extended, LA-based Walker family at the centre of the show. There's a lot of hand-wringing, and smart-mouthing, and hugging, and lessons are constantly learned, but I like the characters and the set-up (Flockhart is the estranged, Republican daughter who went to New York to become a talk radio pundit and has returned to the fold to make it on the telly; her brothers are, in order, dull, gay and mad, and her sister is bored with her nice husband). It's a bit like thirtysomething for the 21st century. I'm informed that it's a bit slushy, and it is, but I need a bit of slush in my life, as long as it's well-written. I'm sticking with it.
Meanwhile, I don't know about Dexter even though it stars Michael C Hall, off of Six Feet Under as a serial killer (yes, a serial killer - my favourite!) who's also a Miami forensics expert, working for the police. It's a wilfully dark show, with plenty of nearly-gore, but nothing you wouldn't seen on the average British forensics procedural, and the supporting characters are helpfully kooky and/or disturbed, but it wasn't until the end of episode one, when I realised the murder plot was ongoing, rather than tied up before the end credits, that I realised I wanted to keep watching. We'll see how it goes.
I understand all three series have been successful in America. I also realise that Studio 60 is coming soon to More4, so I'll soon have a replacement for Heroes. Anyone else watching any of these?
America is a superpower when it comes to TV drama, it really is.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 5:22 PM
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I've seen several episodes of Dexter and on balance I think it's good. Each episode seems to contain one self contained story where Dex sorts out some wrongdoer. Then there's the mess of his personal and professional life, and his back-story, plus his ongoing battle of wits with another serial killer. So there's a fair few threads to build on. If it has a problem I think maybe its with the character Dexter, he's not that engaging. We'll see...
Heroes was great. Look forward to the next series. It's worth keeping an eye out for 'The Riches' as well, it's got real promise, though Eddie Izzard's accent is a bit generic.
Keep, keep watching Dexter. Having seen the whole first season run, there is a response I could make to VS's last comment but it might give the game away and then you'd come after me with sticks and make me eat figs or something...
Heroes is just so flipping good it makes you want to weep. (Maybe that's just me). Superheroes for people not interested in the spandex-suit escapades. Though there are nods to stories from the X-Men comics from way back and of course Watchmen.
Both high concept followed through with wonderful human drama that an audience can then relate to. The exact route the guys behind the new Battlestar Galactica took.
Haven't seen Brothers and Sisters since the first double-bill. It made me realise how much I miss thirtysomething. Was surprised at Ms Flockhart. It looked like she's been eating the odd meal now and again.
Probably the great thing about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip coming to the UK now is that, if you know something about the battles to keep the show on air and the amount of flack it took from critics and the like, a lot of the dialogue and situations have a marvellous resonance to them. It's like Sorkin was responding to all the crap flung his way.
It's astonishing and sad to think of how the roles have reversed. When I was a lad in the 1970s there was great British drama and all we got from the US was the likes of Hawaii Five-O and Wonder Woman. Now...
If you've only watched the first episode of Dexter so far, you won't have seen the credit sequence yet. It's a mission statement, and if it grabs you, then the rest of the show definitely will.
Don't get your hopes up for Studio 60. And this is from someone who thinks/thought Sorkin is/was untouchable. But the ego is out of control: during the first episode, a character asks Matt Perry's (basically Sorkin) "are you here to save us?". Please. That said, the first few minutes are terrific and it does have moments of absolute brilliance liberally sprinkled through the episodes. If you want to go in a different direction (and can get past the awkward laughter track at times), order his first series up, Sports Night, on DVD. Less slick but far more fun.
Cable girl in the guardian said Dexter was one step away from torture porn. Someone suggested I submit a TV review to Popmatters, and I thought about doing a Postmortem/autopsy type feature on Studio 60, but I've hit writers block. The alternative is The Closer, which is in it's third season run in the US, got buried on a Friday night in the UK, and is actually pretty good, as is The Shield - also buried on a Friday night. Why they can't put it on a Monday while Prison break is between seasons is beyond me?
anonmachinelevine
Thanks for the steer. I will look out for them.
I really hope some people are watching The Tower on BBC1 on Monday nights 10:35pm. Typical of the current BBC craven and terrified-of-its-audience attitude prevalent amongst its spineless execs, they have relegated it without publicity to a graveyard slot. Yet it has been shot by one of the UK's finest cameramen, took three years to make, and is excellent. If the BBC had any belief in itself, or the audience, or the quality of some fine documentary makers, they would be showing this at 9 pm and trumpeting it loudly from the rooftops. As it is, they are terrified of something without celebrities, cooking or feeble acting. Something real, but not reality television which of course isn't. It shows people at the sharp end, abandoned and now in the way of estate agents and their terrifying banality. A story for our times. I hope it wins some awards, because it should.
Heroes - fabulous, just what we all needed when we realised that Lost was quite frankly pants. Not as jaw-droppingly great as Battlestar but near enough.
Dexter - only seen that first episode too but looks smart, funny and very dark. Michael C is just the right side of creepy (though they seem to be running through the 'serial killer personality traits' in an a-z) and it'll be good to see how things turn out. Got to be doing something right if it upsets the Guardian!
And Studio 60...watching old West Wing episodes can still make me cry so Studio 60 was a godsend. It can be a bit self-indulgent, especially towards the latter episodes where there's echoes of the series' real life cancellation, and there's the odd bit of cheese and Sorkin-type preachiness...but you must all watch it - it has some genuinely wonderful moments, great performances (Lucy Davis! Cute! Very Lucy-like) and of course, if Sorkin's writing doesn't cheer you up, there's always Bradley Whitford to watch, whose comic timing remains spot on and who does the grown-up-Josh-Lyman-as-a-recovering-drug -addict bit beautifully well. Oh and Matt Perry was the talented one in Friends. Obviously.
Anne H
Heroes - loved it, but was ultimately slightly disappointed by the final episode.
Brothers and Sisters - It's OK, I'm hoping it will improve. I recorded it this evening because I couldn't be bothered to turn the telly on at all.
Studio 60 - Best thing on the telly since West Wing ended last summer. Yes, it's a bit preachy and a bit manic in places, although I think that there will be less of a backlash against it here because there's nowhere near the same religious fervour in the UK. At it's worst, it's better than anything, including Heroes. Channel 4 are showing their spinelessness in relegating it to More4 and failing to promote it. At least NBC trumpeted its coming for 2 months before removing any promotional support once it started. Watch out for the Christmas Episode (ep 10).
Bradley Whitford - THE best thing on television for the last 8 years. His chemistry with Matthew Perry is a joy to behold.
I loved Heroes, and now think season 2 can only be a disappointment.
Brothers and Sisters I'm sticking with too, despite every episode ending in a montage of emotions, backed by some faceless emo track. Apparently it gets really good when Rob Lowe arrives.
Dexter I'm having a problem with. He's too psychotic to like.
I saw the first Studio 60 last year in Canada and thought it was great, but I hear the series becomes some kind of demented romantic comedy in the middle and loses it.
Perhaps the failing of Studio 60, to paraphrase a line from Falling Down was that it was 'Not Economically Viable'.
There is a sense with Sorkin that he has two will-they won't they pairs of characters in his dramas - In Sports Night it was Casey and Dana, Jeremy and Natalie, in TWW it was Donna and Josh, and CJ and Danny, and in Studio 60 there are two and two (didn't want to give it away to those that haven't seen it.)
A lot of people praise Sorkin, and sure he is smart, but perhaps the theme that all his shows seem to be his own private utopia of a particular scenario are hit and miss depending on if the subject matter makes you care. Sports Night lasted for 2 seasons. TWW lasted for 7, but Sorkin lasted for 4, and Studio 60 didn't get the audience that the investment apparently warranted. Another criticism was that it was unrealistic, and too perfect compared to say, 30 Rock - which I haven't seen, but I hear Alec Baldwin is great in it.
Machinelevine
Is America the superpower when it comes to TV drama though? We only get the good stuff on the whole - there's about three times as much dross over there that we'll never see here.
They used to say that about comedy too, and the same applies.
We have some great drama here, but people are snobby about British TV generally. ER is great, but about 2 million people watch it here, same goes for Brothers and Sisters, The Sopranos, Lost and others.
I remember a talk by Jimmy McGovern or someone of his ilk saying Lost had 'raised the bar' for drama and we must try harder. That was in season 1. Then look what happened.
We've got great stuff like Life On Mars, some good one-offs and now Cape Wrath. We've got great writers like Daniel Brocklehurst, Tony Grounds, Jimmy McGovern, Tony Jordan, Ashley Pharoah. Apart from David Chase and Aaron Sorkin, how many US writers can you name?
US TV is glossier, has bigger budgets and big name stars. But at 22 weeks I think most series are way too long to keep us engaged. Thank God The Wire is only 12 or 13 episodes. Now that's proper quality.
I love drama from both the US and the UK, but Sopranos and Wire aside, I don't think it's any better than UK drama on the whole. It's just different.
I think one of the problems with British TV drama is that so many vehicles have to be star-led, even though David Jason/Sarah Lancashire/Robson Green/Ross Kemp may not be quite right for the roles, and ITV are the worst offenders for this. It's assumed a star name will put bums on seats, but this isn't always the case - viz Martin Kemp's not-very-successful golden handcuffs deal with ITV.
Ron Moore, Shawn Ryan, Joss Whedon, Rob Thomas, Jane Espenson, David Simon, JJ Abrams, David Milch, Alan Ball, Tim Minear, Bryan Fuller - I could go on all day.
"We only get the good stuff over here" is received wisdom of the most dangerously unchallenged kind. I'm sick of hearing it, it's bollocks. We don't get a third of what airs in the US, and alot of the very best shows aren't imported at all, or languish on non-name multichannel nets.
UKTV is in serious decline; it has been for several years, and pointing to one or two examples of breakout shows doesn't mean the trend is reversing. The US has more resources and uses them to make better TV. We do have some very talented creators and performers, but still we make - on the whole - shitty TV. Producing, writing, directing, photography, and acting are all sub-par.
I'm afraid I don't share your optimism. It's clear to me that no-one is trying hard enough to get out of the rut we're in, not when the proposed solutions are dross like Talk to Me and Holby Blue.
And it was Paul Abbot who made the point about Lost, in his 2006 Huw Wheldon lecture. He was right then, and still is now. Lost may not be a faultless TV show, but it goes places UK producers would never dare.
Not being a fan of Buffy or Alias and the like, I bow to your superior knowledge.
I agree, we could - and must - try harder. When we do, we do it really well.
Good discussion - and after such a hastily-scribbled entry! Glen, I've seen Sports Night, and I loved the way it laid the groundwork for West Wing. (So short once shorn of the ads too - you could watch three eps in an hour and still have time to boil a kettle.)
As for US-UK drama battle: they're playing with more money over there, is the long and the short of it. All TV channels are commercial, so they're all battling for the same advertisers. Also, the networks tend to be linked to huge media conglomerates, who also make movies etc. There's money sloshing around to take huge teams of writers onto the staff of a show (hence the endless "producer" credits for writers who are on the show, but didn't necessarily write that episode - or else they only punched it up round the table). They're on great money, but of course a show can be cancelled, so it's insecure - however, they must sign exclusivity deals and can't do any other work while they're contracted. This is good in that if offers good wages and at least security while the contract or show lasts, but it also ties writers into a job, this potentially sapping their indidividual creative juices.
Writers in the UK are paid less, but have no security whatsoever. Even if you work for a soap, which in theory never goes off air, you work from one individual commission to the next. You can also do other work, though. For the second series of Not Going Out (and I know we're talking about drama, but there are parallels), we'd have loved to have a large writing staff, but the budget per-episode is the same as series one, so it's not financially viable. This will be the same story in drama. My Family is the main example of a UK sitcom being written in the American way, with a team of writers, but I don't know if they're "staff", or how they physically write the eps.
It's never been easier to see the best US dramas. I don't like all of them, but they have higher production values and don't always have big stars in them. I've never seen The Shield beyond the first episode (didn't like it), but it made a star out of Chiklis, not the other way around. Likewise, Gandolfini in The Sopranos. That's how it should be done. Our TV dramas all hinge on a recognisable star.
I didn't like Cape Wrath one bit. Didn't make sense and yet wasn't weird enough to be a British Lost, or whatever they were hoping for.
My favourite current UK dramas are things like Spooks, Waking The Dead - which I believe sell abroad. Meanwhile Hustle, which seems tailor-made for a US audience, is too glossy for me. There's a fine line.
The other thing we haven't mentioned is series length. Imagine a UK broadcaster being able to afford a 23-part drama like Heroes.
I don't like to think that money is the only issue - after all, you can't just buy talent - but it gives US shows such confidence. Maybe that's all it is. Oh, and access to the technicians, facilities and studios belonging to film companies.
Andrew, I don't think it all comes down to money. What the best US dramas have that the UK can't currently emulate is passion.
The Shield may not be your cup of tea, but there's an extraordinary documentary on the season three DVD called "Breaking 315," which takes the viewer all the way through the production of an episode - from breaking story in the writers' room (and I think they do more during their 14 hour days than "punch up" someone else's story), through casting to shooting. It's clear that everyone involved loves making this programme, and that's reflected in the finished product.
I think the only UK shows you can say the same of are Doctor Who and the Kudos stable. Everything else is the same dead, soulless pap.
You have to love what you make. No-one knows if a show is going to be a hit or not, all you can do is your very best, and have faith in Jesus that people will like it. UKTV tries to start out with a "what do people want" approach, and fails miserably by doling out more of the same - doesn't matter how much cash you throw at something if you don't believe in it.
It was interesting to watch the first episode of Dexter and then the first episode of Cape Wrath. Dexter has its flaws but it was still streets ahead of Cape Wrath, which lost my interest long before the end of the first episode.
I know it's not American (yet) but I'm surprised, Andrew, that you haven't reviewed the latest installment of The Thick of It. BBC Four have practically had it on rotation.
Are you a horse?
Paul
Dunfermline
www.jocknroll.co.uk
Perhaps UK Drama is symptomatic of the current times. Not meaning to get too political - Watching the best 100 sitcoms according to the industry, the stuff like Blackstuff, Auf Widersehen, GBH, House of Cards was all from a certain era where there were two distinctive sides, whereas now it seems to be brand variation of a similar ethos. Nicky Wire said 'we get the politicians we deserve', and maybe the same is true of TV, as the mainstream audience doesn't want to be challenged, so programme makers don't take as many 'risks' - Could the BBC spend all it's money on one drama like they did with Our Friends in the North. In the current climate, I very much doubt it.
Meanwhile, in the US, I'm sure the budgets are bigger, but with the proliferation of Television (much the same as the UK, but more so), it is harder for a show to avoid being cancelled after 1-2 seasons. I go back to my favourites of the nineties Homicide: Life on the Street and Due South and they were always on the verge of being cancelled, but went the distance required to tell their story. Both wouldn't last a full season today I suspect.
machinelevine
I've watched all of Heroes, Dexter and BroSis. They were, in order, fantastic-geeky, creepy-great and a slushy guilty pleasure.
Never got into Studio 60 as I forgot. Meh. Too late now!
Well, in any discussion like this, how can you not mention the fantastic Shameless? And how its characters and concerns would never be suitable for American TV?
It's possible sometimes to watch NBC's primetime output live from the East coast on a satellite feed, and it's fair to say that there's an awful lot of shit on it. Arguably it's no better than BBC1 or ITV1. But yes, the production values on both drama and comedy are higher than here. That doesn't alter the fact that (for me at least) the likes of Medium, Crossing Jordan, Las Vegas, Law And Order, etc are really no better than, say, Dalziel And Pascoe. I quite liked the soapy Friday Night Lights, which ITV is pissing away on ITV4. I'm also quite looking forward to The Bionic Woman even though I know it'll probably be shit.
The best of the new Doctor Who has been better than Heroes. Two or three episodes from the latest series have been really, really great bits of television. I can't work out whether Doctor Who would be better or worse with a US-sized budget (and all that goes with it).
I preferred Tina Fey's similarly themed 30 Rock to Studio 60. But then I find comedy easier to take seriously than drama.
Ian - I was about to say that Shameless is my favourite UK drama of recent years. Then again, I don't watch much stuff live, but rather on DVD. In this way I've come to appreciate The Sopranos, The Wire and Deadwood. They are all made by HBO - how significant is that?
One thing I did catch live this week was The Tower, and I would agree that it was a cut above the sort of thing that I find myself turning off a few minutes in.
Thought Heroes was great and it was leading up to something, unlike Lost which didn't know where it was going at all!
Us V Them debate is interesting, but both the UK and the US produce some great stuff and we should be grateful! Both have downsides, true we don't have the budget, but the US want instant success and tend not let a show grow into an audience. Firefly (for instance) was brilliant but got pulled before the audience built up - a great series and even the pedigree of Joss Weedon was not enough to save it.
But we do still do some great TV drama - amazed that no-one has mentioned the fantstic Life On Mars..
AnonoNick
Oh God, please help me care about these UK and US dramas. I can't watch any of them, except for Doctor Who, Life on Mars, the first three and the last ten minutes of Lost. Never seen a single fragment of 24. Never wanted to, or wondered why I should....but I've become worried about it...Ulp. Lost cause?
I think the problem is I just don't care enough about the characters. They all seem to me to be cardboard cut-outs, same looks, phraseology and "significant voice" styles in moments of crisis or plot crux.
Additionally folks, I have a problem with feature films; I lose interest after about an hour, unless it's James Bond or something spacey like 2001 or Apollo 13. Otherwise I'm off out of the room to look at the garden, see the cats or something. Or gaze across the skyline from the Odeon car park. You can sometimes smell the Weetabix from there. I can wait years to see a film, even James Bond (I await Casino Royale with interest).
Confessing before such an erudite community, residing in the blog of a noted film enthusiast and critic I know I'll receive help. I feel left out, but unable to engage. What should I do to "get connected" - before it's too late?
air Cat
Observations:
Shameless was good up to series 3, but by then some of the key characters had left, and Paul Abbot was no longer writing, so it lost its must see edge.
Life on Mars was brilliant, though I worry for the proposed sequel, Ashes to Ashes. Dr Who is fantastic, and in the episode "Blink" contained a brilliant oneliner about the state of GB TV drama. 2 women investigating a haunted house commented on their surnames being Nightingale and Sparrow, and sounding like investigators in a TV series, then one of them retorts, "but only on ITV".
I was Skyplus-less when Heroes started on SciFi so can't wait for the BBC2 run now I can series link. As a major West Wing fan, Studio 60 whets the appetite though it'll be a bitter sweet experience knowing there's just one series. Perhaps cancellation came because the network feared Sorkin's inevitable casting of Joshua Malina.
Other than that, Brothers & Sisters is wittily watchable but I do tend to dip in and out, and I'm a big fan of Friday Night Lights on ITV4 (which did get renewed in the US, but I can't see where it can go next).
No one going to stick up for Rome? Sure, it gets a bit Desparatvs Hovsewives (Villawives?) at times, but it's nice to know that the audacity required to attempt something of that scale still exists.
Is BBC/HBO production the way forward?
Actually, I've been getting into the second season of Rome. There, I said it!
A lot of the difference is time and money. There was an interview with Milch in one of the American newspapers where it came out that each season cost $65 million. For 12/13 episodes. That is a hefty chunk of money.
Over here, Shameless was good for the first couple years. Once Paul Abbott moved on the series crossed the line, lost the shreds of humanity that kept it grounded and everyone became a cartoon character.
I thought Hustle was great for the first series. After that it seemed like same old, same old. So, yeah, that just leaves Spooks and Waking the Dead to give us something that approximates the vigour, characters and story complexity of the US fare.
Re: Writers in US TV.
Please read a (disappointingly) short book by Rob Long called 'Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke'. Fantastic diary of a writer contracted to a Hollywood studio who's sitcom gets cancelled and then struggles to get the inspiration for a new pilot in time for the next season.
I like to think that the BBC could produce something like 'Our Friends in The North' again. I love 'Hustle' and 'Spooks', but it's the US produced series that I hanker after, and miss when I see the last episode. I still watch 'The West Wing' episodes and it's like having old friends round for a drink.
StephenC
I've often wondered why American dramas are so much better than their UK counterparts (in my opinion, at least).
I think besides the obvious answers (budgets, acting, etc), a lot of it may be the society we live in.
Practically every aspect of British media is American led. Massive publicity surrounds these shows, as it does American music and film, too.
Also, from a British standpoint, what is more entertaining, a show based in LA, Chicago or New York, or a drama based in Wigan, Maidstone or Dundee? From a broad viewpoint the Americans will always have the better dramas, as there is more escapism involved when we see America, albeit subliminally.
British dramas to me seem quite insular, and 'samey'. I think this may be down to the fact that Americans are much more dramatic people in themselves.
For example, say the BBC were to make a new series called...I don't know...'Holby CSI'. It wouldn't be a patch on anything the Americans could make, mainly becuase it wouldn't be very believable for a big murder to be carried out in Britain on a weekly basis.
The detectives would go about things in their regimented, stiff British way, and dealing with 'one teenager stabs another' cases each week would be extremely dull.
Our two societies are completely different.
Oh, and I just set my own blog up. Not a patch on Andrews, though.
There's a lovely doctored image of the Our Friends In The North cast somewhere on t'internet. Speech bubbles thus: "I'm going to be the next Dr Who you know." "Yeah right, and I'm the next James Bond!"
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The Wire, West Wing, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Lost...some of the best telly ever.
American TV has huge money to spend on getting their drama right because of the way the TV 'seasons' work and the importance not only in getting an audience but in keeping them for the next show.
We still do good stuff over here but not on the same scale - a British Lost would most probably have a bunch of people stranded in the Peak District for six weeks.
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i forgot, is anyone else watching Jekyll? Excellent stuff, although there seems to be no buzz about it, which is a shame. Has James Nesbitt had a better part?
Somewhat surprised by Neddy and Teddy's comments, I did follow the link to the site mentioned. I was expevting to see proof of ignorance and stupidity. To save anyone going over, this is the site of someone trying very hard to be clever and, presumably with such a sad life that all they enjoy is making snide comments about people for no other reason then (perhaps) they they are envious that others can actually stimulate interesting debate. The lack of comments on their site, aligned with their need to post their site address suggests a very sad existance.
AnonoNick
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Neddy and Teddy
I'm not quite sure what genre of humour you are attempting to demonstrate, but other genres are available.
Things just kick off every weekend on this blog don't they? While the moderator's away...
Andrew, I know you don't read the Guardian anymore but Charlie Brooker's publicised in his Screen Burn column a documentary on FX on Monday at 9 PM called Trapping the Wire - behind the scenes look at Baltimore
Thought you might want to have a look.
Machine Levine
Going off on a TV tangent, you can vote for Andrew's (and Lee's) "Not Going out" at www.nationaltvawards.com.
You know it makes sense.
Paul
www.jocknroll.co.uk
I have just finished watching all 12 episodes of Dexter over the last 3 days. Stick with it...it is compelling. Michael C Hall carries the whole thing with ease. Who knew a serial killer could be so attractive? (Not just physically...I'm not that shallow - okay I am, but that's beside the point). I'm off to have some blood soaked dreams now.
Jane (also in Dunfermline).
Brooker also has a lot to say about Dexter. Here is an Internet link to the Brooker article.
I've heard that Heroes will also be shown on BBC's HD Preview channel on satellite - so I'm looking forward to it in all its glory as Sci Fi Channel haven't even gone widescreen yet.
For the record, I have deleted Neddy and Teddy's comments, even though they apologised afterwards, as I don't want drunken, insulting, garbled, vulgar toss ruining an otherwise reasonable dialogue. If two drunk blokes barged into your discussion in a pub you'd tell them to fuck off or ignore them. I'll go for the dignified latter.
I resist putting Comment Moderation on over the weekend. I continue to resist. But it's becoming quite a regular occurence, isn't it?
Apologies it was Tapping the Wire, not trapping (which makes more sense, obviously)
Machine Levine
Are we the goodies or the baddies?
Hey Jane,
What say we start the Andrew Collins Fan Club - Dunfermline Branch. Perhaps we could get him to do a reading of TMITC at the new Duloch Library!!
Paul
Dunfermline
jocknroll@gmail.com
Andrew,
I'm in total agreement with you on the programmes mentioned.
Heroes has been breathtakingly good. I had the good fortune to watch the entire series over a few weeks so I didn't have that infuriating week long wait for a new epsiode. I did, however, find the final showdown a bit of an anti-climax but the sneak peek of Season 2 made up for it. I'm chuffed the Beeb are plugging it so heavily. They haven't shown any decent US programmes since Buffy and 24 (well, none before midnight midweek). It will be great without adverts as well.
I've watched all of Dexter as well. It's really worth sticking with. Michael C Hall's performance is wonderful. I loved him in Six Feet Under and I am SO pleased to have him back on telly. I don't know who has the terrestrial rights to air it (I'll Wiki it in a minute) but I really hope it gets the wider audience it deserves. Unfortunately, like Oz, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under I'm sure it will only garner the rather dodgy accolade of achieving "cult status" due to its limited appeal and grim subject matter.
I've been watching Brothers and Sisters as well. I used to constantly rant at you to watch Alias and much of the cast, producers and writing team seem to now be working on this. It's a bit soapy and often schmaltzy but like you said it's well written so I'll carry on with it also. Plus any show with Rachel Griffiths has to be worth a look. Sally Field is a bit of a pain though. She's much better guest starring in ER where she can display her neuroses more naturally as her character is a manic depressive.
With reference to the US vs UK debate I have to insist that Stateside TV is far superior. Admittedly this is largely due to the huge budgets that the US networks invest in programming. There is so much emphasis placed on viewing figures over there that shows can be really quickly axed if they don't get exceptionally high audiences. This tends to mean that writing teams spend a lot more time and effort developing shows and the inclusion of well known and highly respected actors, directors and producers just add to the mix. The downside of this can mean that if shows aren't an instant crowd pleaser they can be taken off screens prematurely (The Inside for example) but some of the smaller networks (Sci Fi, SHO, HBO) seem to be more prepared to go for the critical praise over the viewing figures.
I'm not hugely inspired by British drama. Shameless is consistently good, I've yet to watch Cape Wrath which I've recorded and Doctor Who, whilst being great fun, isn't quite as classy as it thinks it is. Bizarrely I've been watching an ITV1 show (yes, I'm ashamed to admit it) called Time Of Your Life which is a bit of a guilty pleasure but also well written and performed.
Where UK telly excels has to be with comedy. Channel 4 deserve high praise indeed for creating such masterpieces as Spaced, Green Wing and Peep Show. The BBC also do pretty well with Tittybangbang and some show I've heard of a few times called Not Going Out. I think British comedy excels so well because our sense of humour is particularly unique and sarcastic but mainly because the scripts don't require the huge budgets needed to make US shows as visually stunning as they tend to be.
I'd better go - my manager is giving me that funny sideways glance that implies he has sussed that I'm not typing a long work based email. Sorry this has turned in to a bit of a rant and apologies for any typos or grammatical errors within. I'm sure there will be plenty.
Incidentally Andrew, did you ever start watching Battlestar Galactica, Oz, Alias or Veronica Mars? I used to hassle you to get them all the time but I haven't been on this blog for AGES so I don't know if you ever took my advice. I took yours and now I'm loving The Wire so I reckon you should splash out. Go on - humour me
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