Class-divide comedy isn’t the usual subject of American sitcoms. Indeed, you can probably count the number of properly working class sitcoms on US TV on just two hands, before you even get to class-divide comedy.
So on the one hand, we should be looking at the otherwise unchallenging TBS and marvelling as they prepare to premiere Ground Floor, a sitcom in which a blue collar worker on the ground floor on one business falls for a member of the high-flying elite on the top floor – and vice versa – and the two of them have to deal with all the class differences, expectations, co-worker challenges, et al that brings.
TBS has even got a top-flight team in for the job: Skylar Astin from Pitch Perfect is the somewhat How I Met Your Mother-reminiscent guy in the romantic pairing, Briga Heelan who excelled in the latest series of Cougar Town is the girl, John C McGinley (Dr Cox from Scrubs) is the boss, and it’s written by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) and Greg Malins from Friends.
Unfortunately, despite its cutting-edge potential and top-tier cast and writers, Ground Floor is just about as conventional as you can get and not terribly funny to boot. Plus, if that’s what they think maintenance departments are like, they’ve all really been on the top floor too long.
With the threat of nuclear war hanging over everyone’s heads for several decades, it was no surprise that TV would cover its potential horrors in some depth. We’ve already looked at The War Game, which wasn’t just one of the best ever plays about nuclear war, it was also one of TV’s best ever plays.
Up there with The War Game, however, was Threads, a TV movie written by Barry Hines and directed by the marvellous Mick Jackson (Life Story, The Bodyguard). Commissioned by BBC director general Alasdair Milne after he’d watched The War Game, it is a documentary-style account of a nuclear war and its effects on the city of Sheffield in northern England. Harrowing to say the least, it’s a pretty raw account of all the things that would happen both during a nuclear strike and after, right down to genetic mutation, massive depopulation, a return to a medieval-like economy and all fun of a nuclear winter, which it was the first play to ever depict.
And you can watch all of it below. If you like it, buy it on DVD, of course, to reward the lovely people who made it in the first place.
However, when the movie aired overseas, networks realised it might be somewhat stronger than the local audiences were used to. Canada was particularly frightened about its possible effects on audiences, so two TV stations put out these disclaimers before they aired Threads:
So remember children: Don’t just be afraid of nuclear war, be afraid of realistic depictions of nuclear war.
In the UK: WednesdaysTuesdays, 9pm, Sky Atlantic In France: Mondays, 8.55pm, Canal+. Begins 11th November
I was away last week at the opportune moment, so rather than a third-episode verdict on The Tunnel/Tunnel, the UK and France’s remake of Bron/Broen (aka The Bridge), we’re now up to episode four. And I have to say, it turns out there’s a right way and a wrong way to remake The Bridge and this is very much the right way.
Let’s dispense with the few negatives of the show: the lack of feel for the French side of things, Keeley Hawes and the relatively uncharismatic Clémence Poésy compared to Sofia Helin. Whether it was the original Swedish/Danish show’s subtitling or a simple decision on the part of the show’s creators not to make the show too specific in its references, beyond its settings, there was very little in it that made you think the show was appealing to local rather than an international audience.
The Tunnel, however, is very, very good at evoking South Kent and Englishness, right down to references to Wagon Wheels and Bargain Hunt. The dialogue, mainly by Ben Richards, is excellent, more subtle and far better at developing and building characters than the original’s was. And while Helin’s Saga Norin very obviously had Asperger’s but the Asperger’s you’d expect of a teenage girl rather than a near 40-year-old woman, ‘Elise Wassermann’ is both younger yet clearly not as developmentally undeveloped as Norin was.
The show, unlike The Bridge (US), also sticks more closely to the original, particularly with the politics, yet does it perhaps more smoothly than the original did. The action scenes are better and more convincing, the direction is better and the whole thing is very tense. There have also been subtle movements of scenes around that make the story flow better and make it seem less arbitrary than the original did in developing and dropping storylines. The police work also feels like real investigation and real deduction.
Unfortunately, though, this is all largely true of the bits involving the UK. By contrast, the show feels like it got little input from any French writers, so the show doesn’t feel as sure of itself dealing with French politics and issues so barely even tries. Poésy may be more plausible than Norin, despite having her own vintage sports car, too, but she’s also nowhere near as interesting, a flat by-the-book character rather than the force of nature that is Norin. Yes, she has sex with random men because she feels the need, but it’s all done in a very ‘cinq à sept’, sexually mature way rather than because of any empathy problems or lack of shame that she might have (although she does have them).
And then there’s Keeley Hawes, who thankfully disappeared after the third episode, having ruined the second episode trying to do a Kent accent. The show’s writers did try to do something interesting with her drug-addicted character, but it just felt like they had a pressing need to have Hawes in the show, rather than because the script demanded it.
All the same, those flaws aside, this is a fine a thriller as the original, and since it’s doing such a hearty job of polishing and even improving the original, I can only heartily recommend it to you.
Barrometer rating: 1 Rob’s prediction: Sky’s first excellent drama, although Canal+ might be more disappointed in it. Hopefully, with a second season of the original already airing, this will get to tread in its footsteps and be more French in the process.
