First Post

So you watch a drama on telly – and not even a soap, or a long-running cop/doc show - a ‘quality, original drama’ etc etc – and you think or say or even yell, “That Would Never Happen!” maybe once, twice, or until you lose count.  The first fact is, that even after one TWNH you’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’, and the second fact is, when you read reviews from allegedly respectable sources, the critics often seem to have had a brain transplant while watching.  (We could wonder if they watched it at all or are just blagging it, but we’re not that cynical folks.  Or not always.)  We can’t think of too many current cinema films – with the same proviso of quality, original screenplays – that are quite so blasé about intelligent plots or anachronisms.  A matter of budget, perhaps?

There have always been a number of tv offenders, but we’ve noticed a lot lately; dramas with an interesting premise and a good cast that just don’t deliver on the internal logic front.  The ones that drove us over the edge, i.e. specifically prompted this blog, are: ‘Accused’ (some howlers spoiled an otherwise intelligent and provocative series); ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' (played fast and loose with facts, and with a sketchy script which managed to lose all sense of atmosphere in transition from book to screen); ‘Outcasts’ (OK, so we neither of us expected much, nor watched after episode one, but given that the 21^st Century has furnished us with both wireless and digital screen technology, why is the control room/command deck of a future off-world colony hamstrung by a very visible column of massive wires, a la ‘Dr Who’ c. 1977, and a videophone picture that constantly snowstorms?)

You can argue that we drift towards the pedantic now and then, but the fact is that once you’ve found one glaring no-no, others demand to be seen and heard.  Yes, you have to suspend disbelief sometimes, but without a good script as well as good performances, it isn’t going to happen.  And yes, some things could have various explanations, but without even a hint of why something inexplicable or unbelievable happens, why should you give it the benefit of the doubt?


So: the real reviews, like it is, no bribery etc etc.