Skins - Season 4

This review’s a little different from usual. Via the medium of facebook messages, I’d been conversing with a friend (shout out to Yungy!) each week about the episode we had just seen, so instead of a full season review here are the episode-by-episode impressions I gave (they are thus a bit more conversational in style).

Episode 1 - pretty cool. I guess that's the kind of tone we can expect for much of this season, just like season 2 got into the whole dark-and-pensive thing. It's just as well - last season they all either fucked each other or fucked each other up, so if we're only going to see them for another year, let's see them growing up. I was surprised though that it got so dark so quick. Thomas was one of my favourite characters last year for being so naive and charming, so to see how (essentially) British culture has messed him up was quite depressing. He's going down a slippery slope now - my one concern is now he's had the first episode in the spotlight, he'll pretty much disappear altogether like Maxxie did last time round. I'm glad they actually discussed religion a little bit too, although like with Anwar it felt like a cultural aside rather than actually exploring his faith. Obviously not much to say about anyone else, as they were hardly in it. Liked some of the subtle changes - Katie's new hair colour a rebellion to her little sister's rebellion? Liked also that Cook seemed a *bit* guilty about the girl's death - I'm interested to see his general demeanour this year. And Effy - pffft. Couldn't care less :-)

Episode 2 - didn't grab me quite as much as the first. I'm just wondering how far they're gonna take this whole dead-girl thing. It just gets weeeeirder. I also didn't like Cook beating the shit out of JJ for no reason. Poor JJ.

Episode 3 - loved it! Definitely the best so far, with a character as destructive as Cook you know you can't take him any further so some kind of redemption was obviously going to happen - but I loved the way they did it, and just how fucked up it got, and particularly the sadness he got from seeing how he was influencing his brother - he blamed his being fucked-up on his parents being fucked-up, but with him seeing that he was doing the same with his kid brother and not wanting that was a very good way to go. Looks like he won't be in jail for ever though, so we'll probably see him again soon.

Episode 4 - 'twas OK. Katy seemed to get shafted last series, and this felt like the first time she got an episode all to herself - it was good to see she isn't the complete bitch everyone thinks she is. I'm completely done with Emily and Naomi though - miserable bitches, the both of them :-) And I'm sure it'll happen soon but I WANT MORE JJ!!!

Episode 5 - as the miserable so-and-so that I am, loved it! Freddie was perhaps my least favourite character, but the serious subject matter here made it difficult not to sympathise with him. After three years of seeing Effy always being not-quite-there, I thought it was brilliant to see Freddie connect the dots and try his hardest to do the right thing, even if he couldn't be perfect at it. The carnival scene was obviously over-the-top but for once appropriate, and one of my favourite scenes - it's been great to see these guys mature and do the 'decent' thing - the girl who Effy had almost pummelled to death last year was the one to provide comfort, the guy unhealthily obsessed with Effy knew when to give her space. A great episode, but I just hope next week we'll finally get something a bit more light-hearted after all the recent troubles - it's JJ so I'm hopeful.

Episode 6 - loved JJ's episode. Again, JJ was being quite inconsistent with his pathetic-ness. Remember last year's finale when he won the race and was the hero? Back to square one here, as it was with Thomas. I absolutely loved JJ and Thomas' banter at the start ("You have no hair on your balls"), and it was great seeing Thomas be so lively and cheerful again, though it does beg the question - what was the point of the depressing season premiere? I thought he was headed down a dark road to a life of crime, but here he seemed fine. Same goes for Cook, as much as I love him - why did he do the honourable confession thing and go to jail, for him to apathetically break out straight afterwards? Oh well, just nitpicking... I didn't like JJ's story much in itself, but I did like how it dipped into his unusual mildly-autistic character. Last year, the soundtrack was all Debussy, this year they played on his current obsession with the ukelele. And as much as I liked Will Young's cameo last week, I gotta say that I was actually relieved to NOT be able to recognise the actors playing JJ's parents - it was refreshing, and I thought his Dad made for an awesome performance out of such unusual writing.

Episode 7 - Certainly one of the weaker episodes of the season, and confirmation that Effy isn't all that interesting - I felt she only came to life this season when viewed throught he eyes of Freddie. And I can't help comparing this to the penultimate episode of the last generation - with Cassie also exploring her psyche and dealing with finality, plus a character death in that episode too. And as much as I try not to blame actors, for once I will - Effy was always played well as a troublemaker, but the actress just didn't have what it takes to do the more serious stuff. Oh, well. From the counsellor's first scene with Effy, I could tell something was up - his advice of suppressing her bad memories rather than coming to terms with them seemed potentially damaging to me. I'm glad that's where the writers took it too, although having him turn out the way he did was certainly a bit too much, even for Skins. It was Hitchcockian (sorry, wanted to use that word). And yes, an ending like that? Ballsy. Chris' death was obviously a lot more emotionally affecting, and all they were going for here was pure shock value - one of those moments where you wonder if you just saw what you thought you saw. I too hope that perhaps Freddie didn't die but nonetheless... final episode will be interesting, and I hope at least some of the characters get a happy ending. Mostly Cook :-)

Episode 8 - The last one seemed like a letdown, really. It's good that most of them got somewhat happy (or at least ambiguous) endings, but a lot of them came so far out of left-field that they didn't feel well-deserved. Emily just accepting that Naomi had been a bitch constantly since the age of 12? Panda and Thomas both going to Harvard?! Plus, you'd have thought more of them would know what they were doing next, given A-levels have completely been and gone. We were only given info on where Naomi, Panda and Tommo had been accepted, so things didn't feel very final as such. Given that was the case, I actually thought ending with Cook the way they did was a good choice -- his character has always been live-for-the-moment, don't think about the future, so the uncertainty of what happens next was fitting. In the end, though, this final episode was just like the rest of the season - clueless. You'd think with just eight episodes the writers would have made more of a plan. Tony's generation for the most part were all headed somewhere when their finale came around, whereas here... I blather on. The fat guy with the fag made me laugh, though.

Scrubs - Season 9

This review will be almost as brief as this botched attempt at a series revival seemed to be. It’s safe to say that Season 9, the almost-certainly-final season of my once favourite TV comedy, was a failure. There are many factors in this – some concerns I raised in my Season 8 review and they did indeed all present themselves as problems here. Any complaint you might read about the show this year, I probably at least partially agree with, particularly to do with the mistreatment of old characters that should never have been brought back in the first place (I’m looking at you JD!), although the one thing I would disagree with was that the new characters weren’t as compelling. In fact, for the show to continue I would have been much more in favour of focussing on new unfamiliar characters rather than rehashing storylines with the original ones. To be honest, I thought that this season’s one success was to give us Cole, an annoying arrogant tool, and within several episodes actually make him likeable. The writers also did well with Drew, the mature med-student who Dr. Cox has a refreshing relationship with (one of adoration rather than hatred, even though it is initially just to infuriate JD), though appreciation has to go more towards the actor for good comic delivery. It was also nice to see more of Denise, as her new relationship with Drew was a nice parallel to Jordan and Perry’s own adorably vitriolic marriage. They dropped the ball with Lucy sadly. She had nothing going for her, which was a bit of a problem as she was providing the increasingly tiresome narration.

However, for all of the many changes that happened to the show this year, I feel it’s important to note the one that is harder to write about objectively – the show just wasn’t funny any more. My concerns about cast changes and rehashing old plots are nothing compared to my realisation that the format of Scrubs has gone stale – 9 years is a good run, but it’s best to finish there. I wonder what they’ll do in the end about DVD collections – I could imagine a lot of fans would actually view Seasons 1-8 as the complete series, and I wonder if it might eventually be packaged as such!

Friday Night Lights - Season 4

‘Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeit.’ You could imagine hearing The Wire’s crooked politician Clay Davis uttering his famous catchphrase after watching the fourth season of one of American TV’s most persistent underdogs, Friday Night Lights. Not, I should stress, as a shorthand critique for the quality of the show – it feels fresh and invigorated in a way not seen since the show started out – but as a reflection on the downbeat and often depressing subject matter being tackled. Yes, this was the year that Dillon channeled the spirit of Baltimore as the show explored the seedy and heretofore unspoken of deprived neighbourhood of the Texas town’s East side. (Comparisons with The Wire’s first season don’t end there as it was also reflected in the casting of lil’ Wallace, now all grown up and intense, as the show’s intriguing new character Vince, and even a guest spot by d’Angelo Barksdale as, wait for it, a reformed gangster!)

Making any more similarities between the two shows would not be recommended though. Although Friday Night Lights couldn’t hope to achieve the (yes, I’m sorry to use this phrase again) gritty realism of The Wire’s reflections on a modern American society, the show again excelled in showing the earnestness and delicacy of everyday people facing ‘everyday’ problems, be it drug addiction, abortion or gang crime – there may be cause for concern that the writers were repeating the mistakes made in Season 2 by tackling overly-sensationalist storylines, but the difference here is that the introduction of poverty-stricken East Dillon provided a convincing backdrop for these stories, rather than the out-of-place shocks that Landry and Tyra went through back in the day.

Last time we left Dillon, not only had many old favourites finally graduated from high school, but said school was all set to be redistricted, with many students facing the prospect of moving over to the rundown East Dillon High, as well as a previously-adored Coach Taylor who had gotten on the wrong side of the Panthers’ most influential booster Joe McCoy. Eric has to start from scratch in recruiting a new football team in a place that doesn’t care so much about football. The show seemed mostly genuine in its portrayal of the East Dillon Lions’ poor fortunes in the football season – unlike every previous season, it was clear from the outset that Coach Taylor would certainly not be going all the way to State this year. As a result even the smallest successes, such as scoring a single touchdown, became huge triumphs. If I have one complaint about this season however, it’s of the strangeness of our previously favourite football team the (West) Dillon Panthers being suddenly transformed into smug faceless villains, particularly in the case of star quarterback JD McCoy who, after such an involving exploration of his unfortunate daddy issues last season, is completely squandered here. I was hoping to get an episode later in the season to give his character some resolution, but it never came. Maybe next year.

As viewers of this show know however, it’s not all about football – in many episodes, it feels like an afterthought, thankfully. The show also had to deal with the loss of three more of the original cast – Lyla and Tyra had little and no screentime respectively this year, whilst Matt Saracen was given a six-episode sendoff similar to Smash and Jason’s farewells last year, although not quite as satisfactorily done. His storyline was a bit too meandering and pointless to start with, but then a personal tragedy in the fifth episode led to one of the most tear-inducing single episodes of drama since Buffy’s seminal episode ‘The Body’, which dealt with a similar theme of loss but under completely different circumstances – here, poorly-concealed anger and resentment in Matt, the boy who had always strived above everything else to be a ‘good person’, were companions to the conventional notions of grief, and actor Zach Gilford should be given extreme praise (and thus will certainly NOT be given Emmy attention this year) for the absolutely stunning performance here. However, the following episode gave Matt a rather ambiguous departure from Dillon – emotionally satisfying at the time perhaps, but on reflection rather out-of-character and leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

In my opinion, Dillon’s resident heartbreaker Tim Riggins, a character I must admit had never been one of my favourites, was much better treated than Matt by the writers this year. No longer the football star of old, and deciding that college wasn’t for him, Tim’s struggle to find maturity and a direction in life was done very well – you feel that in any previous season, he wouldn’t have hesitated to have his way with Becky, the younger schoolgirl with a serious crush on him, but his responsible and almost-parental relationship with her was a delight to see. The conclusion to the season and behind-the-scenes news suggests he won’t be seen very much next year. I can genuinely say he’ll be missed.

And as for the Taylors? Well, let me be a broken record in saying again that Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton continue to give television’s most authentic portrayal of a long-term married couple I’ve ever seen – this year was a particularly difficult one for them, as their often severe professional problems bled into tension and sheer exasperation inside their own home. But if they can stay standing together after such ordeals, it gives hopes for us regular schmucks, for sure.

Finally, the show’s reboot this year led to the mostly fantastic introduction of four compelling new characters. Vince’s struggles with a drug-addled mother and criminal peer pressure gave the audience huge sympathy for the character – Michael B Jordan’s often quiet and brooding performance gave us a refreshing new character not really seen before. His love triangle with Landry and new character Jess (Jurnee Smollet) was rather well done in the end, although I wish overall that Jess had been given more to do this year, as she was a pleasing presence on the show. Luke was given a strong introduction as the West Dillon football player with a promising future shattered by a forced move to the East side, but I felt his presence was also a bit wasted towards the end (and a bit too similar to a first-season storyline involving Smash). Surprisingly, my favourite new character wasn’t even given star billing this year, despite having as much screentime as the others. Perhaps not everyone would be that fond of Becky’s constant pining for Tim, but it must be agreed that her heartfelt moral deliberation with Tami towards the end of the season was one of the highlights.

It’s been announced that next year will be Friday Night Lights’ last, and I’m quite glad about it – even though it’s still firing on all cylinders, that’s exactly how I want it to go out and there’s already been a bit of a danger that the writers are retreading old ground. Having said that, if they can pull out all the stops for one last season, this will have been one of the greatest TV shows of recent years, and worthy of anyone’s DVD collection. Clear eyes, full hearts…

Misfits – Series 1

(Don't say 'Skins meets Heroes'. Don't say 'Skins meets Heroes'. Don't say 'Skins meets Heroes'…)

Misfits is essentially Skins meets Heroes. (Shit.) Reviewing this show is unusual in that I only tried out the first episode a few days ago and now, after just six episodes, it's already over. That is what's so great about it though – it remained a consistently entertaining show over those six episodes and, unlike the other two shows mentioned, hasn't even had a chance to outstay its welcome.

The premise? Five social misfits are undertaking their enforced community service when a freaky storm hits and gives them all special powers. Their probation officer, also caught up in the storm, becomes a psychopath and tries to murder them all, getting killed himself in the process. The youths thus have to deal with two secrets – covering up their probation officer's death, and the new abilities that they've acquired. As it turns out, these guys weren't the only ones affected by the storm…

Yeah, so it won't win any awards for originality. In addition, the mythology is a bit hard to swallow – perhaps that's an obsolete comment to make for a show about superpowers, but it holds. Throughout the series, it's never made entirely clear (except perhaps in Alicia's case) whether these characters have control over their abilities and can use them at will. The spontaneous use of their powers, besides being conveniently helpful to the narrative at any given occasion, is unsatisfyingly random. Added to this, some of the powers that show up in peripheral characters are frankly a bit shit (power to make people bald, anyone?) but then again that just adds to the whimsical nature of what is essentially a teenage comedy-drama-hybrid-thing in the mould of Skins.

And this is where Misfits succeeds. In the same manner as Skins, we're introduced to a set of characters who are not only quite heavily stereotyped, but all rather reprehensible in their own way. I watched the first episode and immediately hated every single one of the bastards. It says something of a show that, after only six episodes to play around with, I like them all now! You could argue that it was easier to do here as there were only five characters to focus on, and Skins (like Lost before it) certainly gives credence to the idea that the 'character-centric episodes' format does help to create more of an empathy with the protagonists. Take Nathan, if you will. He's the quintessential mouthy twat, in the manner of Tony or Cook from Skins, a deplorable bellend who initially filled me with feelings of annoyance, hatred and mild indigestion (that last one was probably just from the curry I ate). But once some crazy stuff happens to him in the second episode – something I daren't spoil here as it's one of the strangest, sickest and funniest twists I've seen in television of late – and he reacts to these bizarre situations with a very human attitude, I began to sympathise with him. By the finale, I actually loved him for his aforementioned twattishness and was sad the series had already finished. The other characters went through less of a transformation (at least my perceptions of them did) but, on the whole, they were a lot more endearing to me than I thought would be possible in such a short timespan. Bravo to the show's producers for picking such an impressive young cast.

Misfits is, as it stands in the current TV climate, a rather unique show. Despite being obviously concocted as a mixture of previously successful formats, the uneasiness and darkness of the probation officer's storyline, along with the surreal humour on display throughout, makes it stand out. I do seriously recommend it (it should all still be on 4od for at least a few weeks) and hey – it's only six episodes, so you're not committing to a crumbling mess of a show of Heroes-like proportions.

On a final note, how awesome were the closing credits in the last episode?!

Glee – Season 1

No, I'm not being an idiot, I realise it's only halfway through the first season of America's latest hit show, but given that the back nine episodes are being produced separately and won't air for months, now is as good a time as any to offer an opinion.

What can I say? This show has just been fun. It's uneven to be sure – the contrast of the 'gleeful' musical numbers and zingy one-liners with the heightened melodrama and occasionally intense conflicts is rather jarring. But none of that detracts from the fact that the show is just fun. Fun to watch, fun to listen to, fun to buy the songs off iTunes. Seriously, this programme must be making FOX a fortune with its craftily chosen selection of songs being covered by an often vocally stunning cast, be they taken from old Broadway shows, modern-day R&B crooners or stomp-along rock anthems of yesteryear. As I say, the cast are mighty talented and Ryan Murphy has created a mostly intriguing set of characters that make the long bits of 'TV show' between each tune not just tolerable, but very enjoyable to watch. Standouts for me so far are Kevin McHale's wheelchair-bound Artie, Chris Colfer's extremely gay Kurt (the scenes with his down-to-earth dad are quite touching) and, strangely, Heather Morris' clueless cheerleader Brittany who kills with every one-liner she's given (which is good, as she does usually get just one line). Hairography – "It's like cool epilepsy!"

I initially didn't take to the two characters who are supposed to be the leads, Rachel and Finn, particularly as the whole point of the cooperative glee club was that everyone should be as important as each other, but fortunately that wasn't an issue as they took a bit of a back seat as time goes by. Plus I've warmed to Rachel a lot more – what a voice! I both love and hate what they've done with the 'adults' on the show though. Will Schuester obviously loves this club and is trying his best to help them succeed, and yet almost every episode I felt like he had made another poor teaching decision. Jayma Mays as guidance counsellor/love interest Emma was done very well to start with as, let's face it, she is adorable, but a combination of less screentime and poor dialogue meant I was quite apathetic to how the finale turned out in that regard. Praise of the highest order, however, must be given to Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester, the cheerleading coach hell-bent on destroying Will's ambitions, and one of the finest comic creations in quite some time.

So a terrific start for Glee. Sure, there were big mistakes with not one but two awful pregnancy storylines, but for the most part the show is sheer fun without the songs, and a complete marketing and creative triumph with them! Hey, with what other show would it not seem completely pathetic to end with a Top 5 list?!

Top 5 Songs

5. "Sweet Caroline" – Perhaps it was because it was Puck's first (and so far only) solo, but I loved this short version of a Neil Diamond song that showcased better vocal talent than the unusual Finn

4. "Dancing With Myself" – Again, another solo from one of the smaller players, Artie, that's great in its own right but made better with the visuals of his lonely wheelchair dancing.

3. "Don't Rain on My Parade" – They needed a killer song for sectionals, they got one. I hear Lea Michele's already being compared to Barbara Streisand (because they're both Jewish?!) so the show might as well embrace it!

2. "Somebody to Love" – As you might have seen, I'm usually more a fan of the solo offerings, as they usually have more to say about the character singing them. But this Queen song was done extremely well, and is probably my favourite ensemble effort, except for...

1. "Imagine" – Yes, it was a bit corny having a deaf choir sing John Lennon's classic. And yes, it even felt a bit rude that Mercedes and the rest of New Directions would butt in with their harmonies. But dammit if it wasn't also the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time. Consider my cockles truly warmed.

Got your own list? Feel free to post in the comments!

(For all you regular British people out there, I hear Glee will be airing on E4 in the new year. I heartily recommend it.)

Mad Men – Season 3

In many ways, this season of the TV critic's crumpet of choice (if that phrase actually works as a phrase) was the least satisfying so far, but in some ways it wasn't. I think a lot of that came down to something that Mad Men displayed even more of this year – inconsistency. By which I mean not the quality, but the decisions about plotting that would leave the final few episodes filled to the brim with dazzling events and the rest of the season a kind of moody and atmospheric, yet disappointly insubstantial casserole (sorry, perhaps I shouldn't write when I'm hungry). This is a problem the first couple of seasons had, but not to such an extreme. Perhaps it's also that now we're so involved and comfortable with the previously alien environment of a 1960s America, we're less engrossed by style and ambience and just want things to actually happen and that once, just once, some shit would blow up (I jest, but it's got to be said the grisly accident halfway through the season did add some much-needed oomph).

The season's biggest problem, yet leading to its greatest triumph, was too much time spent at home with the Drapers. For a while there, the extremely talented supporting cast were completely sidelined in order to make The Don and Betty Show, something made harder to digest (yes, I've eaten something now...) given that these two are rather despicable characters. One makes for a good wife and a terrible mother, whilst the other could actually be a decent father but is a terrible husband. With little hope for redemption in either, the show was becoming so narcissistic that it (almost) became a drag to watch. But at least it was all leading to something...

Secrets were discovered and discussed. New corporate directions were taken. And President Kennedy was shot (the one spoiler you can forgive me for revealing!). In fact, that last one was pretty powerful – I'd heard about the impact that the assassination had had on the American people, being the 9/11 of its day, but I don't think I could feel its effect any more clearly than in a fictional TV show where it so instantly altered the minds and actions of characters I'd known for three years (this is an example I would use to champion modern television's superiority over cinema releases). It was perhaps the entire series' best episode to date. Until the next one.

The finale... wow. Absolutely no spoilers, except to say that EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED! It came at just the right time too, as like I said the show was getting a bit long in the tooth. The finale succeeded by not only being a marvellous setup for some of the radical things to come, but also being a terrific episode in its own right, with every scene charged with raw emotion that felt so sudden yet so easily explained (and this is why I mentioned that Don and Betty's tedious domestic troubles were at least justified in the end). It was also great to see strong scenes from (most of) the often-overlooked ensemble. To be honest, the office politics and working relationships in Mad Men have always intrigued me much more than the characters' personal lives, but this was even more the case in Season 3. The writers were not sparing in their realistic depiction of the harsh fluidity of business that can advance some careers but bring others to ruin. The uneasiness of this year's British takeover (kudos, by the way, to Jared Harris' eternally compromised middle man Lane Pryce – the newcomer most welcome to continue onwards) was fascinating to watch, particularly when it came to such a daring - and entertaining - conclusion in the finale.

It's been said by Matthew Weiner before that he wanted to take this show through the 60s to portray the changing attitudes and philosophies of such a radical era. I've so far enjoyed seeing that happen, although I think I'm justified in saying that this season didn't give us quite as much as we wanted. However, after this brief self-complacent resting period, the setup for future seasons has led to hope that the show will start crapping out excitement by the bucketload. Sorry about that, I wanted to finish with the eating analogy I began with, but it became unnecessarily vulgar. Perhaps soon I'll get to the waste disposal.

New Comedy Shows - First Impressions

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