***WARNING***
THE FOLLOWING POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS AND CONTRADICTIONS THEREFORE IT MAYBE UNSUITABLE FOR SOME FUCKS. AND IT COULDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE ROYAL WEDDING.
***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***
***ADDITIONAL WARNING***
THIS POST WILL BE VERY LONG. SO GO AND TAKE A LEAK NOW, BECAUSE I AINT STOPPING.
***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***
***AGAIN***
Television in many ways, is superior to cinema. A statement that will either make or break my reviewing "career", but a statement I completely believe in. Television shows have come a long way since the likes of Quincy ME and Columbo. The budgets have gotten larger, the scripts have improved and the caliber of actors that television attracts has turned the industry around to the point where Cinema now offers it's viewers a hell of a lot less for a hell of a lot more. The reason for this switch in pretty simple really, there is a lot more potential to tell a decent, invested story over the course of a television series which lasts over a thousand minutes than there is to do the same in a ninety minute feature film.
The more attentive of you may have managed to work out that this is going to be part one of a multiple part series, looking at Television shows that have caught my attention over that last few years. While I am very impressed that you managed to piece this information together using your meager excuses for cerebrum, may I point out that I literally spelled it out to you during the title for this post.
So without further ado, I bring you my critique on episodic television.
I will start with the first TV show that averted my gaze towards the small picture box. And (in many ways) a show that instigated the change in television that is still felt to this day. I am talking about Star Trek: The Next Generation. 'TNG' was a show doomed to fail from its very conception. A spinoff series based upon a universe established in a failed Sci-Fi show from the sixties, that for some reason still lost on me, has possibly the largest following of any television show ever. At the time 'TNG' started being broadcast fans were outraged at the idea of having a Star Trek without Kirk, Spock or McCoy, and as a result it was detested despite it being far superior in many ways. 'TNG' has better characters, more involved story lines and a much wider, more intelligent philosophical view than that of 'The Original Series'. The ideas of racial equality, exploration and understanding as well as mutual respect were ahead of their time back in the late eighties. On top of this the characters were well fleshed out, many of which deeply flawed and the story lines were on numerous occasions deeply involving, thought provoking and exciting. However, 'TNG' didn't get it due respect until the end of its third season.
'The Best Of Both Worlds' was game changing television. A typical 'Zombie' horror/invasion story line that pitted the Enterprise crew against a race of cyborgs with seemingly no weakness, the Borg. The Borg were terrifying, scary villains that made me scared of hoovers for months and to make matters worse, they manage to capture and assimilate Captain Picard in one of the most nail biting, cliff hanger, series endings ever broadcast. It was this moment that changed the way people looked at episodic television. After this, people wanted and expected more from their shows, a simple story that wrapped itself up nicely after forty minutes simply wasn't enough, and rightly so. From this point on, episodes had consequence and 'TNG' following grew massively. While the show did miss the mark on many occasions the writing as a whole was amazing, and the staff who began their writing careers on 'TNG' went on create many of recent years biggest shows including 'Heroes' and 'Battlestar Galactica'.
Start Trek: The Next Generation gets...
3 out of 5
Notable Episodes: Yesterdays Enterprise, The Best OF Both Worlds, Measure Of A Man, Tapestry.
A widely overlooked TV show from the nineties is 'Due South' The adventures of Constable Benton Fraser, a Canadian Mountie who is forced into moving to Chicago. There he teams up with street wise cop Ray Vecchio and the two set to work solving crimes with a lot of assistance from Frasers deaf wolf Diefenabker. 'Due South' was incredibly simple. Each week there was a new case and each week it got solved, yet still very few people in America understood it. The blend between cop drama and oddball comedy was too jarring for many viewers which is why 'Due South' got cancelled twice during its four season run. It's saving grace was the audience fan base it collected in both Canada and the UK who understood that the charm of show lied in the characters and the shows quirky sense of humour. 'Due South' was essentially a canadian comedy, its sense of humour was deprecative and dry which is undoubtedly why it succeeded both with me and my fellow Brits. Each episode had its own screwed feel and a surprising lack of ridged structure allowed the show to go places that audiences couldn't expect. If your a fan of farce, as well as very canadian humour then 'Due South' should be a show you should see. Plus it has one of the most awesome theme songs ever written.
Due South gets...
4 out of 5
Notable Episodes: Manhunt, The Gift Of The Wheelman, Victoria's Secret, Some Like It Red, All The Queens Horses, Call Of The Wild.
Now I jump forward to 2001, just the wrong side of 9/11. For some reason the year 2000 was seen as a time when television had to do new things. Most of this resulted in an abundance of reality TV shows which today clog up our screens like an oversized shit just round the u-bend. It did however start the production of a TV show that brought us a legendary hero that the world needed. A man who would single handedly protect the american people from the terrorist scum time and time again. A man who never needed a shit, rarely needed food, and no matter how much stuff he got right would always be put down by the same country he swore to protect. That man, is Jack Bauer. '24' was a tense, excruciating show to watch when it first started. Nobody could be trusted, anything could happen and there were plot twists happening that turned your brain into something that resembles week old mushy peas. From the start of season one to the end of season five, '24' was almost unbeatable television, it was like watching a new 'Die Hard' on a weekly bases. Kiefer Sutherland portrayed Bauer extremely well, making you believe this guy could beat the odds every day despite being deeply emotionally scared. The plots were outrageous yet undeniably addictive and any main character could (and usually would) wind up dead without a single moments notice. It is worth mentioning that seasons six through to eight were a little bit rocky due to the show really having run its course but the sheer dizzying heights of the earlier seasons kept me, as a fan going and still left me wanting more. Yet again this was a show that changed the way TV was produced, it was a bar to be met, a bar many have failed to level.
24 gets...
4 out of 5
Notable Episodes: 10pm-11pm (S1), 11pm-12pm (S1), 10pm-11pm (S2), 6am-7am (S3), 7am-8am (S5)
Now, all of this positivity has left me feeling rather sick, so allow me now to look into some of recent pasts lesser liked Television, excursions.
Some TV shows have a great premiss, good characters, tons of intrigue and still manage to fall completely flat. 'Lost' is one of these shows. Back in 2004 'Lost' captured the imagination of seemingly everyone I knew, myself included. They were lost with no idea how or why it happened, on an island that didn't seemed to exist which is inhabited by scary monsters, ghosts and mysterious 'other' people rarely seen. Over the first two seasons the mystery seemed to be slowly unravelling, some answers were given while new questions arose and everything seemed to be going somewhere, then season three happened. The pacing was lost, the questions mounted up too quickly and things on the island went from mystical to downright stupid. The problem was that this show was not supposed to be a long term idea, when the show started the producers knew where it was all heading, then because of the shows popularity, they were forced into prolonging the series way past what the story could handle. By the time the show entered its fifth season some absolute novice decided time travel was the way forward, something which any film or television fan knows is the hallmark of writers who have nowhere else to go with a story. The end result in this was the show itself getting lost in a move that made its very title seem ironic. Midway through most of the survivors had already made their way off the island which took away the shows greatest pull and I feel lost this show completely for many. By the time the misery ended the show couldn't possibly answer all the questions it had brought up and as a result the show never seemed complete. Sad thing is though that by the time the final episode aired, nobody really cared anymore.
Lost gets
2 out of 5
Notable Episodes: Pilot (Season One, Ep One) and The End (Season Six, Ep 17/18)
Another show that started off well but quickly lost its way would be 'Heroes'. The first season of this show was fantastic. The premiss of the show is that there are people with super powers living amongst us but living in secret, a concept that has been established in the comic book world for years. The difference with 'Heroes' however is that these people are trying to live normal lives, but keep getting dragged into increasingly dangerous situations that have the potential to bring an end to the world as we no it. Like I said the first season was great, the characters were fun and interesting, the threats were scary and the plot was so thick you could smear it on a bagel. Really clever writing coupled with amazing art direction set a high standard for this show very early on, a standard which sadly it couldn't reach during any of its three remaining seasons. Seasons two, three and four all got hopelessly messy, the plots became too complex, there were too many new characters and the shows premiss was quickly lost behind an overabundance of smug comic book action. In the shows defense however I feel this show would have achieved its initial greatness if it weren't for the 2007 writers strike. The strike forced the show to finish its second season half way through a major story arc which apparently would have killed off many of the cast members. Had this happened there would have followed a higher emphasis on the drama of the show and forced the characters to band together in order to overcome issues. Alas season two ended early and the writers were left with too many characters to service and instead of writing the deaths into the show again, they instead tried to push forward multiple plots to provide each character with a story. The end result, 'Heroes' got cancelled on a cliff hanger at the end of its fourth season due to lack of viewing figures and excessive production costs.
Heroes gets...
2 out of 5
Notable Episodes: All of the first season.
Seeing as the size of this post is bringing it closer to the stage where it will no longer be able to leave the house without a wall or two being removed, I will end todays installment on a high note.
'Battlestar Galactica' was and always will be a truly astonishing achievement. Based on a popular, albeit badly dated sci-fi show from 1978. It was produced at a time when sci-fi had become mainstream due to the unfounded popularity of the evil beards 'Star Wars' saga. Infact, teh original 'battlestar' was hounded by legal issues from the franchise claiming that it had pilfered its ideas from Lucas's monstrous beast. This, however was not an issue when in 2003 'TNG' writer Ronald D Moore and David Eick remained 'Battlestar' for a broader, more intelligent audience. My initial reaction when hearing about the remake was that it was pointless, I was not a fan of the original and could only imagine the worst when it came to a remake of it. I foresaw cheap sets, bad acting, cheap effects and clichéd dialogue, something which I never intended to see. Boy was I wrong. 'Battlestar Galactica' (2003-2009) is an absolute blast from just after the slightly shaky beginning all the way through to the closing credits. Each episode is filled with emotion, humour, morally grey choices and darkness. 'Battlestar' is all about its ever so damaged and flawed characters and their will to survive against the odds. Every character has been perfectly cast, and every cast member has the ability to take your breath away at any given moment. The sheer quality of the writing, acting, cinematography and music is all of top notch and incredibly consistent.
As I said, the series did get off to a shaky start. The pitot (or miniseries) is a tad slow. The writing is there as is are the performances but the pacing is off and not a lot happens. This is quickly forgotten though when episode one of season one starts with '33' an episode tightly constructed and uncomfortably tense. This episode also sets to work the notion that this 'Battlestar' will go places very dark and unsettling. During the closing moments of this episode the series main protagonist (Commander Adama) makes a calculated decision to condem 1,345 innocent human beings to death in order to escape the enemy. This is only the first episode. And all I'm going to say is, its gets better with each season.
Battlestar Galactica gets
5 out of 5
Notable Episodes: 33, Kobols Last Gleaming, Revelations, Exodus, You Can't Go Home Again, Pegasus
And thus ends part one of my look into television. Upcoming parts will look at Sitcoms, the genius of Joss Whedon, British contributions and the shows that still grace our screen today.
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