Every month, TMINE lets you know what TV the BFI will be presenting at the South Bank in London
February’s a pretty full month by the looks of it at the BFI, with a couple of impressive seasons, as well as two TV previews. The main attraction is a season of programmes directed by Waris Hussein – best known as the first ever director of Doctor Who, but who’s built up an impressive portfolio of shows from both sides of the Atlantic over the years, including a rare acting foray by Barry Manilow in Copacabana. There are also showings of Ingmar Bergman’s original versions of Face to Face and Scenes from a Marriage from Swedish TV.
The two previews? The sequel to Kenneth Clark’s original Civilisation, Civilisations, and the return to British TV of John Cleese and Alison Steadman in Hold the Sunset. All that after the jump, where we can merengue and do the cha-cha.
Season 1 of The Crown could have been better. Written by perennial Queen fictionaliser Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Audience), The Crown is Netflix’s big attempt to outdo the BBC at what it does best, being a multi-decade, multi-season, semi-factual prestige project about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, starting in the 1950s with her ascent to the throne after the death of her father and following her through to the present day.
Beautifully made, wonderfully acted, frequently funny, frequently tear-jerking, often romantic, and sometimes eye-opening, season 1 was nevertheless an occasionally turgid affair. Too often focused on husband Philip (Matt Smith) or Prime Minister Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) and not her maj, when Elizabeth (Claire Foy) herself did get a look-in, she was something of a wet blanket of a monarch, constantly unhappy, personality-less and tossed from situation to situation like a corgi being taken for a walk. Whether it was the 1950s themselves being a bit dull, the writers trying to avoid saying anything too ‘interesting’ about the Royal Family or simply the choice of stories told – Churchill having his portrait painted or the Pea-Soupers don’t seem like the most obvious choices of plot for a show called The Crown – you got the feeling that everything was wrapped in plastic and a more lively show was lurking underneath it all.
Season 1 finally concluded with the departure of Churchill, replaced by Anthony Eden (Jeremy Northam), and the arrival of the Suez Crisis – the event that marked the true death knell for the British Empire and its status as a top-tier world power.
But with Claire Foy and Matt Smith signed up for only one more season, the question was whether the show would carry on in the 50s, leap to the 60s or do something completely different in season two.
Oddly, it chooses to carry on exactly where it left off. Fortunately, this season the gloves are off and we get a more warts-and-all portrayal of our constitutional monarchy – and of other similar relationships, including JFK and Jackie’s.
If 2017 was the year of military programme, 2018 is already shaping up to be the year of the workplace two-hander. Coming out of the tail end of 2017, we’ve already has CBS All Access’ No Activity, in which various pairs sit around at work doing nothing but chatting to one another, and now we have LA to Vegas, in which employees and passengers of a minor airline sit around and chat to one another. TV’s expensive and I guess a never-ending series of bottle episodes is cheaper than extensive location filming, so expect more of this if it pans out.
I say ‘if’ because dialogue-heavy two-handers require a combination of good writing and good acting to really work. No Activity started fine when it was Patrick Brammell writing it, but a switch in writer meant it soon dropped off my viewing list.
Most of the action revolves around impulsive air hostess Kim Matula (UnREAL), who’s always dreamed of international travel but who’s stuck on the regular shuttle flight between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, doomed never to escape. She’s stuck on it with posturing pilot Dylan McDermott (Hostages, Big Shots,Dark Blue, American Gothic), who’d rather be talking to the passengers about muay thai than actually flying the plane and camp fellow flight attendant Nathan Lee Graham (Zoolander).
But there’s a regular posse of passengers, too, including eccentric Russian gambler Peter Stormare (Swedish Dicks, American Gods, Prison Break), commuting stripper Olivia Macklin, and English economics professor Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project), with whom Matula strikes up a potential romance. Since there’s nothing like a two-handed, dialogue-rich script to lure in a certain class of actor, scheduled for future flights are the other DM – the one you probably thought I was talking about earlier – Dermot Mulroney (Crisis, Shameless, Pure Genius) and Don Johnson (yes, that one), with Kether Donohue (You’re The Worst) guesting in this pilot episode.
I say ‘action’ but really, it’s just dialogue, with people playing off one another’s foibles. As of yet, there’s little depth to anyone but Weeks, whose ‘depth’ is necessary for the mystery plot of the episode, with Matula being impulsive, Weeks sardonically English, McDermott sozzled, Stormare manipulative, and Macklin stupid and inappropriately sexual.
Does it fly?
Some of this works, some of this doesn’t. The characters are likeable enough and Weeks and Matula do actually have some chemistry, making their romance potentially interesting. The cast are mostly good, with Matula, Weeks and McDermott particularly fine; Stormare does his best, although more as a generic Eastern European than a Russian, while Graham works with what little he’s got but can’t really get anywhere. The rest of the cast are okay, but forgettable.
But it’s the script that has the most issues. When it tries to do slapstick like Airplane!, it doesn’t have the energy or the wackiness; when it’s trying to do smart and witty, it falls short and usually only manages to elicit a chortle.
It’s not a total bust – the show’s well paced, the chortles are at least consistent and there’s plenty of pathos for the flying metal tube of losers. It just feels like two episodes of any given above-average US comedy you care to mention.
