Month: June 2006

UK TV

I want my State of Play 2 and I want it now

20 June 2006 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

State of Play

Paul Abbott is a talented guy. He’s written episodes of Cracker, created Touching Evil and Shameless and has more awards than ITV has viewers (give or take). Russell T Davies thinks he’s a God.

Legions of journalists have huge respect for Abbott for creating State of Play, the outstanding 2003 serial that introduced the world to the now much-admired Life on Mars pairing of John Simm and Philip Glenister. Although it portrayed journalists as a lying, shifty bunch, willing to obstruct the course of justice for a good story, we forgave it that slight flaw because we were the heroes who saved the day.

Its depiction of life at a newspaper was actually pretty authentic, except for the bit where Simm is allowed to lay out the page and compose his own headline at the end of the final episode, which would never happen – although he did mess it up, thus demonstrating why reporters don’t get to touch Quark, normally. The bit about who owned the copyright on the story because Simm was on a freelance contract actually makes those of us who are self-employed all giddy with delight (seriously. There was an article in the NUJ newsletter The Journalist about it by one of my old tutors, Humphrey Evans).

If you haven’t seen State of Play, pick up a copy of it on Amazon Amazon. You’ll be impressed to see Amelia Bullmore in a straight role and Marc Warren (from Hustle and Doctor Who‘s Love and Monsters) having a crap time of it as the slippery Dominic Foy.

Despite all the plaudits, a sequel has yet to materialise. Hollywood is all set to adapt the original. Last year’s South Bank Show profile of Abbott said filming on the sequel was to begin last June. But three years on, still nothing. The last we heard was in an interview with John Simm in the Daily Telegraph in January:

…and there is talk of a second series of the excellent State of Play. “The last time I saw Paul [Abbott], he was so caught up in writing Shameless that he’d only managed one or two episodes of the next State of Play. God, it would be great to work with him again.”

I hate to say this, but I don’t care about another series of Shameless. How much more is there to say on the subject? I want more State of Play!

What with Stephen Fry backing out of writing a Doctor Who episode, I have to say: “Writers: get your priorities straight. Give us what we want!”

News

Set the video: Star Trek’s back

20 June 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Kirk in Star TrekForgot to mention this yesterday. The original series of Star Trek (aka “The good one”) is now airing from the very beginning on the SciFi channel at 7pm (8pm on SciFi+1). Glory in the marvellous “Wagon Train to the stars” that was, free from technobabble and the requirements of political correctness that made 95% of ST:TNG such a snoozefest.

Out of this world.

Top of the Pops put out to pasture

20 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

You almost certainly didn’t hear it here first, but Top of the Pops has been cancelled. It’s always sad to see old regulars go, but it had had a good life and it needed a rest.

It can always come back later as a retro thing. Wouldn’t you just love to see DLT or Peter Powell introing hit acts from the 70s and 80s making a comeback again?

Hell, while we’re about it, bring back the Golden Oldie Picture Show. I’m sure there’s a few songs out now that could have better videos done on the cheap for them by the Beeb.

UPDATE: DLT has just signed up with radio station Magic.

US TV

Saved: just all gloom and doom?

20 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Saved

TNT isn’t a natural home to new drama. The network, once a home to pro-wrestling matches, managed to cancel just about every original drama series it commissioned before they’d even got to the end of the first season (cf Babylon 5: Crusade), with the slight exception of Witchblade.

All that’s a thing of the past. It now has shows like The Closer, which are chugging along nicely, a new minimalist catchphrase, “We know drama”, and another original series called Saved.

On the one hand, TNT should be applauded for its bravery. Saved verges on HBO-territory here, dealing with a paramedic, Wyatt Cole (Tom Everett Scott), who has a gambling addiction and a crappy existence. There’s no comedy, no moment of revelation when the hero realises he has to change his life for the better. He just lurches from one crisis to another, unwilling to do anything that would get him out of the gutter he knows.

Neither are there any other likeable characters. The paramedics he works with aren’t especially nice either. His ex- is moving in with another man – but is perfectly happy to cheat on him with Cole. His former High School friend who’s now a moneylender is still willing to have him beaten for failing to pay his debts.

On the other hand, on the strength of the pilot, all this doom is more or less the sum of the programme. Just as some shows are shallow for only dwelling on happy things and never letting the dark hand of reality sneak in and tarnish them, so it’s possible for others to be shallow for only dwelling on the misery. Aside from the occasional vein of black and teasing humour, the mood of the show is only ever misery or blank neutrality, designed to fill the gaps until the next bit of depression. It leaves you feeling a bit uninvolved as a result.

It’s a promising show though, with more than enough to keep the interest if they manage to flesh out the secondary and main characters some more. Directorially, it manages to avoid most of the clichés of ‘dark’ tales, avoiding the constant Se7en midnight and rain that so beset other shows that think they’re deep. When it’s not inspecting the disaster area that is Cole’s existence, it’s inspecting the disasters that he has to attend to in his job. With each victim he comes across, we get a potted photo romain of all the events in their lives that led up to this point – Casualty in an eye-blink if you will. The technique starts to become a little tired by the end of the show, but if the producers impose some self-discipline, it could become an effective visual trademark that’s actually reasonably disturbing.

All in all, one to keep an eye out for in future if the wind catches their sails just right,.

Brilliant but still cancelled

19 June 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Some shows are brilliant, but never find their audience. They get cancelled. Then people see them on re-runs or rent the DVDs and find out what they’re missing. Suddenly, it’s a runaway success. Look at Firefly and Futurama: both resurrected from the dead because of their popularity on DVD.

season one finally got released on DVDBut then there are other shows, shows that were brilliant but were cancelled. They never get a release on DVD. Or worse still, they do get released on DVD and no one buys them. Look at what happened to Airwolf: season one finally got released on DVD and no bugger bought it: in fact, it only sold 20% of the total amount sold of the first season of Miami Vice, which is going to be this year’s big summer blockbuster. It’s a crying shame.

On the other hand, heaven knows what a 2007 big screen version of Airwolf would have looked like.