Phil Newton casts an eye on the TV scene letting you what you've missed and gives also give you the heads up on what to look out for.
 

No. 4 - 18th April 2008.

Sawasdee FrightFesters!

You know, I'm glad I don't have to write about the television programmes they have out in Thailand as they seem to fall into two basic categories: inane gameshows that make our own look sophisticated, and; dramas full of the worst kind of over-acting accompanied by cheesy 'comedy' sound effects. As my best friend said to me, "It's like watching the last ten minutes of Crackerjack (Crackerjack) when I was a kid.” Now that I'm back home after my jaunt to the Far East there's happily plenty of homegrown stuff for me to catch up with before the next batch of spanking new televisual delights begin.

One gem I stumbled across recently was Being Human (BBC Three), one of six one-off dramas that the channel commissioned for its recent relaunch. I won't dwell on one of the others, Phoo Action – created by Jamie Hewlett - which was the most unwatchable hour of television that I've seen all year, thus far. Being Human however proved to be a quality pilot with a very simple premise - a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost end up sharing a flat together. From the write up I was expecting a lame sitcom, but boy was I mistaken!

Mitchell (Guy Flanagan) is a reluctant vampire who befriended werewolf George (Russell Tovey - Doctor Who, Ashes To Ashes) when he left his normal life behind. The two of them work as hospital porters and as we meet them they're moving into a new flat where they encounter a nervous, housebound ghost called Annie (Andrea Riseborough - Party Animals). Through their own afflictions Mitchell and George are able to see and interact with Annie, so the first half of the programme shows their fledgling relationship and the boys giving Annie the confidence to leave the flat. It then takes a much darker turn as George runs into his former fiancée, whilst Mitchell is threatened by head vampire Herrick (Adrian Lester - Doomsday) and his eager new recruit - previously turned by Mitchell - who are planning to create a vampire army. As the drama comes to end it's up to Mitchell to decide where his loyalties lie.

Credit must go to the writer Toby Whithouse for coming up with a wholly original idea and creating three very different and engaging characters. Being Human also benefits from top performances from its young cast, especially Russell Tovey who is fast proving himself to be a name to watch. After such an assured pilot I sincerely hope that the BBC will now go on to pick this up for a full series as it certainly seems to have potential. If you missed it first time round then I urge you to keep an eye out for any repeat screenings across the network.

One programme that's successfully made the leap from BBC Three to BBC Two has been Torchwood which is fast developing a healthy fanbase and - so I've heard - proving particularly popular in the US where it has been trumping Doctor Who in the ratings. Now that we've come to the end of season two I can reflect on what's been another series of highs and lows, which I guess is inevitable when you have a clutch of writers helming individual episodes. Aside from Jimbo’s Sleeper episode which I reviewed in an earlier blog, I felt that the strongest episodes from this year were Meat (harvesting meat from an alien creature), Something Borrowed (the shape-shifter at Gwen’s wedding) and Adrift (Gwen uncovers strange disappearances in Cardiff). The common link here is that all three episodes centred around the character of Gwen and the effect that Torchwood has on her home life, and for me that is when Torchwood works best.

By contrast, the much-hyped Martha Jones trilogy was a huge let down beset by muddled plotting and the crazy notion of bringing Owen (Burn Gorman) back from the dead. This was never going to work, especially with the revived Owen unable to heal any injuries, so – spoiler alert – I was quite relieved to see his eventual demise at the end of the series. With the death of Tosh (Naoko Mori) also coming as a shock in the final episode it will be interesting to see how the team adapts to losing two key personnel. One obvious solution would be to bring in Martha Jones as the new Torchwood medic, but it remains to be seen what the series producers and writers have in store for us next.

Another show that’s just come to the end of its run is Ashes To Ashes (BBC One), the semi-sequel to Life On Mars which this time featured female DCI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) travelling back in time to 1981 after being shot by Creep’s Craig Conway. Now, to my mind everyone loves the character of Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), so why not just go the whole hog and have a complete spin-off in the style of The Sweeney which has Gene and his team chasing assorted scum in an appropriately un-politically correct manner? Instead we were given a rehash of what was a superior drama series which inevitably suffered from the law of diminishing returns.

Having further adventures with Gene and his team – especially Ray (Dean Andrews) and his frizzy perm – was certainly fun, but the individual cases were weak and focused far too much on Alex’s dealings with her family, none of whom were particularly interesting characters. Without the mystery element that gave Life On Mars part of its appeal, Ashes To Ashes simply seemed to be an exercise in eighties nostalgia aimed at achieving an, “Oh, I remember those!” reaction from the audience and a blatant attempt to sell the cash-in accompanying soundtrack CD.

And finally, carrying on from last month's column there's been another blast-from-the-past back on our screens, this time in the shape of Flash Gordon (Sci-Fi). Here Flash (Eric Johnson) is a triple marathon winner who alongside reporter Dale Arden (Gina Holden) goes through a rift in space to the alien planet Mongo to find out what happened to his Dad who he'd long since presumed had died in a fire. There they meet the tyrant Ming (John Ralston), a sinister gliding Abbott named Rankol and a beautiful slave girl, all involved in some hokum revolving around the Imex, a database which contains all the knowledge of the universe.

Now, one could hardly say that the previous incarnations of Flash Gordon were serious, edgy affairs, but this latest version is so poor that I didn't make it past the pilot episode, helmed by one-time Halloween: Resurrection director Rick Rosenthal. Its campy humour, exaggerated characters and laughably bad CGI might appeal to some tastes but it felt to me like I was watching a really bad B-movie from the Asylum studio (if you’ve had the misfortune to see Transmorphers then you’ll know where I’m coming from). Who knows, maybe it gets better after a few episodes but I just couldn’t stomach spending any more time in the company of these vacuous characters. Life’s too short.

In the next edition we've got the return of two of sci-fi's biggest hitters - namely Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica - so until next time,

Keep watching.

__________________________________________________________________________

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2008