The Randomness of Things Telly

The last few weeks have seen the announcement of a second series for 'Ripper Street', the departure of 'The Hour' after two series, the purchase of the third and final series of 'Borgen' and the release of the US remake of 'House of Cards' on Netflix.

Also quietly returning on Channel 4 was 'Black Mirror', Charlie Brooker's intelligent and inventive drama du jour, for a further three one-offs.

There are many more things in telly-land than we know of, of-course.  Perhaps 'Ripper Street' did unfeasibly well in a season of bad weather and scheduled against the soapy 'Mr Selfridge'. Perhaps Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai declined more of 'The Hour' in favour of James Bond and motherhood, respectively, but the always-fine line between art and commerce seems rather fecklessly and wantonly crossed these days.  'Borgen' is great, and the decision to end it after three series is probably the right one.  'Ripper Street' isn't as bad as we feared, but the second series of 'The Hour' was arguably much better than the first.  Democracy may mean that 7 million viewers in a multi-channel world can't be wrong, but it seems there is no such thing as a minority drama.  'The Hour' was not ostensibly a crime drama or a soap, though it contained elements of both.  Nor was it a homespun feelgood Sunday nighter like 'Call the Midwife'.  'Black Mirror' over on C4 is equally hard to define in terms of genre but is sold as Brand Brooker, whose foul-mouthed and quite nasty cynicism (gotta love him) has garnered a following on tv as well as in the Guardian.

Which takes us to 'House of Cards', being dealt a second hand, otherwise known as a reboot, with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in Washington replacing the late Sir Ian Richardson and Susannah Harker in Westminster.  The new series has broken ground by being the first Netflix release and available wholly on demand, i.e. it's like getting the DVD box-set before anyone else has even seen it: yours to watch in one gargantuan bite if you so wish.  A lot has been said about the delivery of the medium in the past decade or two, and it seems like old-fashioned 'event television' inspiring 'water-cooler conversation' is, to mix metaphors, like a chronicle of a death foretold.  Is this a bad thing?  Is there value in the old way, other than that of nostalgia?  Too early to tell, and yes, once we have the answer it'll be too late to turn back.  It already is.  Surely good drama is good drama, and will be recognised as such and watched regardless of its delivery?  In an ideal world yes.  In our world of commercial yardsticks of success, who knows?  Maybe.

Black Mirror

If only Rory Kinnear were PM.  He has all the attributes, namely the ability to keep a straight face while saying ludicrous things.  Cameron manages too, but would he simulate sex with a pig on television if the Duchess of C were kidnapped and de-fingered?  It ought to be the acid test.

We declare an interest as Charlie Brooker fans, but his űber-spiky cynicism seems even more suited to satirical drama than to column inches.  Elegant may be a strange way to describe a story involving scoop-hungry journalists, a prurient public and an MP’s bestiality with a sow, but it was a simple premise, fitting neatly into its fifty-minute slot and brilliantly served by its cast.  We wouldn’t play poker with any of them.

Does the fact that it’s satire negate TWNH moments along the lines of mistaking a man’s finger for Suzannah’s?  Or the security forces finding no trace of her kidnapper, whose talent for art was questionable beside his flair for publicity and skill at staging a crime?  Maybe not, but if the absurd realities of modern Britain aren’t slapping you in the face already, this should shift some cogs into action.

There’s also the matter of the PM rising to the occasion when faced with a porcine rear end, but we live in an age of duck-house moats, retail riots and the Murdoch media, and we can believe anything.