In Canada: Fridays, 9pm ET/MT, HBO Canada/Super Ecran 1 In the US: Acquired to air on HBO Cinemax, possibly in June In Germany: Already aired on RTL In France: Already aired on M6
Time for a third-episode verdict on Transporter: The Series, an international co-production that tries to replace the movie’s growling, car-driving Hong-Kong style martial artist who dare not get attached (Jason Statham) with a purring, karate-loving car-driver who loves a shag (Chris Vance).
Of course, what constitutes the first three episodes of the series is a good question, since the episode that aired last week – The General’s Daughter – was actually the first episode broadcast in France and Germany, and so is also a pilot of sorts.
Most of the same criticisms still hold for episode three/one that were true of episodes one and two. It’s a stupid show that doesn’t shoot action well and thinks that women are only useful if topless, naked or sat in front of a computer doing menial tasks. However, compared to the first two episodes, the action seems a lot more together. The fight’s are a tad more Hong Kong in terms of the use of props but, with a German stunt team, of course you’re going to get a lot more karate than kung fu. Pleasingly, Vance also seems to have got the hang of this fighting thing and is looking quite effective in the fights. And the car chases are now only sped up minimally, rather than virtually all the way through.
With less of the comedic German engineer from the first episode and more of the French police inspector from the movies, you’d have thought that would have meant the show was getting better, but the combination of the elevated misogyny and reduced characterisation, plus the fact that even when sped up, the third episode’s car chases weren’t in any way exciting – spoiler: one actually ended with Vance’s car trundling to a halt on a grassy verge after racing along driverless at 100mph – meant that it was actually quite dreadful TV viewing.
Nevertheless, despite being largely horrific, the halfway decent fight scenes are a least a reasonable enough excuse to watch. If you can sit through the rest of it, you’ll at least get that much each week. But if that’s enough, still well clear of this.
Barrometer rating: 4 Rob’s prediction: Will last a season but no more
In Canada: Fridays, 9pm ET/MT, HBO Canada/Super Ecran 1 In the US: Acquired to air on HBO Cinemax, possibly in June In Germany: Already aired on RTL In France: Already aired on M6
Co-productions are the future. Allegedly. Ask the BBC, which regularly works with BBC America and also HBO on productions. Sky also does plenty of international shows in collaboration with US, Spanish, French and South African broadcasters.
The idea is that you unlock more money that can result in either better shows or shows that couldn’t otherwise have been made at all, or you can have overseas filming and exotic locations courtesy of the people who know the areas best and can give you firm advice on the cultures that can be incorporated into the scripts.
Sometimes this works: the Swedish/Danish The Bridge was excellent; Sky’s Falcón and Strike Back are good; Canada’s Flashpoint, originally produced in association with CBS, wasn’t half bad, despite its desperate attempts to appear as un-Canadian as possible.
Sometimes it doesn’t: BBC/Cinemax’s Hunted was dreadful.
Quite often, the problem is in making a programme that will appeal to audiences in all the countries involved. Anyone can import another country’s television, quite cheaply, but once big production money is involved, you often want actors from both countries, filming in both countries, writers from both countries and so on. And of course each country’s producers and network executives will want input into the show. As a result, more or less anything interesting gets filed off by the process.
It’s basically ‘death by committee’.
In particular, there is one unholy alliance of producing countries, familiar to anyone who watched TV in the 90s, that can be pretty much be guaranteed to co-produce rubbish: Canada, France and Germany. Forget how good each individual country’s television can be – united in co-production they are only a force for evil.
Remember Highlander? Remember its arbitrary location changes from Canada to Paris and back each season? Remember the contractually obligated French and German actors struggling to speak English each episode? Remember the guest Englishperson in any episode shot in Paris, since they needed someone who could act in English, who was cheap and who could be there quickly?
If not, let’s pretend 20-odd years haven’t happened and tune into Transporter: The Series. It’s based on the 2002 Luc Besson French-US movie that starred Jason Statham as Frank Martin, an ex-special forces, samurai-like car driver who would drive anything you wanted, anywhere you wanted for a price and would kick the crap out of anyone who tried to stop him – provided you stuck with his supposedly rigid rules. The series sees Chris Vance (ex of Prison Break and Mental but no action background whatsoever) take over the role of Martin, who’s still working in the South of France – and Germany – but now has the help of a comedic German car engineer and an East European female boss, and is being chased by both the French and Belgian police.
Creative compromises? I don’t know what you mean. Here’s a trailer for the movie, followed by a trailer for the series itself.
Now, I try to stay abreast of world TV. True, my first love is US TV and when I’m not watching that, I’m usually watching British TV. But I do try to sample the wares of other countries when I can, including Canada, France and very, very briefly Australia. I’ve even been known to watch German TV.
But it’s not exactly my speciality. So let me introduce to you Thierry Attard, who seems to me to be a lot better at looking at continental European TV than I am, with French TV being one of his specialities. Want to know how the French and Greek remakes of ITV’s Doc Martin are going? He’s your man. Want to know TF1’s format-acquisition strategy for drama? Look no further.
And he writes in English, which is helpful. So add him to your bookmarks, RSS feed, smoke-signal generator or whatever it is you use to read t’Internet forthwith.
