Hoozah! I got it right again! Apparently, Vanished operates at my level (worrying thought) because all my predictions for it have been right so far. And man, do those producers have balls, unless there are some miraculous resurrections planned for next week’s episode.
What’s going to happen next? Don’t know. No new predictions yet, other than it’s all going to be silly. But you knew that already.
It had a promising start and it’s continued to be promising. Only a few minor changes since the preview, with one character having been recast – it’s for the better, since the original actor gave one particular relationship a touch of the “Ew!”, so makes the possible adultery intended not quite as inevitable as it was in the pilot.
It’s not quite as clever as when it started – not saying much – but its characters are all reasonably entertaining, people are already starting to pair up and there’s steady plot progression rather than “situation of the week”. It’s like Friends, circa seasons two and three. Not quite as good as Friends season one, but what is? I’m going to carry on watching anyway.
In the UK: Sunday, ITV1, 1st October 2006
In the US: Airing as “Cracker: A New Terror”, October 30th, BBC America
Yes, I know it was on Sunday, but I only watched it last night.
I wasn’t much of a fan of Cracker. It all seemed a bit too forced and unlikely. But I was actually really impressed by Sunday’s one-off special. Maybe that’s because Fitz didn’t have much to do and other characters got more of a look-in.
Read no further Americans, unless you want to spoil yourself.
A rare fourth-episode verdict here, but the third-episode was so bad compared to the first two that I felt delayed judgement was required.
Well, the fourth episode was definitely better than the third, but it still didn’t quite have the charm of the first two. Maybe I’ve just fallen out of love with it. I suspect it’s only going to be good when Jenny Bicks writes it.
A reluctant thumbs down, then. What a pity.
In the US: Showtime, Sundays, 10pm
In the UK: Acquired by FX for showing in early 2007.
You’ve got to hand it to Showtime. For years, the ITV1 to HBO’s BBC1, it’s finally got its groove back and is putting out some great stuff, like Weeds, Brotherhood, Sleeper Cell, The L Word and now Dexter.
All the same, you’d have thought serial killer dramas like Dexter would be a bit passé . They’re unrealistic and pretty much all the same: bad man who attacks women gets chased by nice police people, who build up clues and an idea of the killer’s mind until he’s apprehended or killed.
So Dexter, if it’s possible to feel welcoming towards a gory serial killer drama, is indeed welcome for providing a new twist. The eponymous ‘hero’, Dexter, is indeed a serial killer. But he’s a member of the police – a CSI in fact. And get this: he only kills other killers.
© 2022 The Medium is Not Enough
