tellyjelly

Eastenders: 30 October 2008

Max has been left for dead by a hit and run driver and the moral of the story is: don't cross the road (ever) if you work on a soap. You need only ask Liam and Terry's girlfriend (whose name I can't remember) from Coronation Street; well, if they weren't fictional characters you could.

It is difficult to have any sympathy for Max and we can only hope the driver did us a favour and put us all out of our misery, but the big mystery is - and is going to be for months probably - whodunnit? The clever money has to go on Bradley having a personality transplant and deciding it would be a good idea to mow his dad down, but maybe it'll be Darren, or Jack, or Lauren, or... I'm sure we'll find out eventually after a drawn out, melodramatic investigation. Can't wait.

Died in the USA: Stephen Fry in America

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started watching the second instalment of Stephen Fry in America.  Having missed the first, I had a suspicion that I wouldn’t understand why he was there, it might be a pale imitation of a Palin travelogue or worse, it might prove Fry to be less than capable of turning his hand to this new venture.  I was pleasantly surprised and by the end I was doing that thing that this sort of programme really should aim for, making me wish I was there, sharing the spectacle and the experience – except for one particular section.

The bit I’m glad I missed was the rather surreal trip through some locked gates in Knoxville, to be met by what at first looked like your average American backyard (for average, read big), replete with shack, wheelie bins, an old car and an assortment of bin bags.  The twist - they all contained human bodies in various states of decay, some of which Mr Fry had the dubious pleasure of getting up close to.  This was effectively an outdoor laboratory for the study of human decomposition, ants, maggots and all.  Grisly and unpleasant, but well handled by Mr Fry, whose closing lines there made it clear how important the study was to helping to identify victims and ultimately to catch killers.  Amongst the banjo players, horse riders, bear up a tree, whiskey swilling, balloon ride and pomp of an American football match, this thought provoking section could have jarred, but didn’t.  I shall watch this again.

 

…and now the votes from the tellyjelly jury

Fringe Benefits

Sky+ is a wonderful thing, but it does mean that what follows is a few days after transmission!

Hyped as ‘from the creator of Lost’ by Sky, Fringe is supposedly the next big thing and I’m afraid the rather plodding and lacklustre season opener didn’t do it for me.  That may be down to trying to follow up a really good first ten minutes though.  I still gave the second episode a chance...and more or less the same thing happened!

 

Five minutes of tense and interesting set up, followed by much plodding and the already stale conceit of the mad scientist who has been involved with all sorts of strange shenanigans in the past that are coming back to haunt the world.  That said, the scientist character adds a much-needed quirk, strangeness and charm to the proceedings and John Noble was inspired casting (remember him as the mad Steward of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings?).

 

I find I can’t warm at all to the central character and do wonder whether it is the writing or the actress at fault.  Effectively she is Scully for the noughties, but without the lines or the emotional range.  And that may be where Fringe ultimately falls down for me.  Effectively so far, it is X-Files rebooted and minus the well defined characters.  I’ll stick with it to see how the story arc progresses, but found I was missing Mulder and Scully so much I had to watch the first X Files movie to remind myself what Fringe would so badly benefit from.

 

Heroes season 3 took another step back to the glory of season 1 with a real time-travelling twist and the best 5 minutes of TV I’ve seen for months.  Not giving anything away for the BBC2 viewers who will see that episode next week, but suffice to say if you’ve bought into the evil of Sylar, prepare to be blown away by his future incarnation.

tellyjelly ist auf einer Jury

Coronation Street: 13 October 2008

It's funny how sympathies can change so quickly when watching a soap. When Tony Gordon was evicting Minnie Caldwell's former lodger, we were ready to hate him and the same goes for when he was trying to put Kevin out of business. Now that he's turned his attention to killing Liam I can't help but think he's been misunderstood so far. If his plan succeeds, this will be one less of the black-haired gang on the Street and one more in heaven. It'll also mean we don't have to endure the pain of seeing Liam trying to be crafty. 

Eastenders: 10 October 2008

Only in soapland would the long lost adopted daughter decide to get a job cleaning for her biological mother and biological grandfather and think it would be a good idea to get to know them that way rather than TELL them she is who she is. Danielle, who only seems to be able to do mournful which is handy when working on Eastenders, was last seen clutching a photo of a younger Ronnie as she lay on the kitchen floor. I hope she realises it doesn't get better than this. And while we're on the subject, how is it nobody saw Archie being monstrous outside R n R as he burnt the letter from Joel - this is all too much melodrama for my liking and along with Tony the man deserves to be not just shot but dragged around the square and pelted with Ian Beale's rotten veg.

The Family: 8 October 2008

Despite initial reservations and lack of interest, I can't help being drawn back (against my will) to see how the members of this family ... have had their lives edited. Last night, dad got the short straw again as he was the main focus, but then again he might think he was shown in a good light compared to how he generally behaves. Who knows, but I think he should watch out for son Tom after we saw him alone in the kitchen wielding a knife as he imagined carving a message on his dad's brain. Teenagers have such vivid imaginations, I suppose, but his parents really should let him stay up later than 10pm 

Super Rich on BBC4

Robert Preston seems to be getting everywhere at the moment as the BBC call on him to explain where all the money has gone. It turns out the super rich have got it. This was all highly depressing stuff as he explained why everyone else will be hit by the recession, and apart from having a socialist revolution there's little we can do about it. It was only lightened by the information that incentivized is a word that other people use apart from Paul on The Apprentice.

It was a bleak night all round on telly last night and the only other highlight (apart from the incentivized one) was when Sunshine came to an end. With Steve Coogan and most of the cast from Early Doors this promised to be watchable, but in reality it came across as Murphy's Mob with worse acting.

Coronation Street: 3 October 2008

At one point in last night's hour of Coronation Street, it looked as though Rosie might have become food for the fishes at Mother Shipton's Well, or something like that. However, the plot has thickened enough for us to make an uneducated guess that she is, in fact, impersonating John Stapes' grandmother's cat. That is, he has not gone to the isolated house in the country to feed the cat as he claims but he has more than likely stashed her in the basement like the Collector he is. This week will probably prove me wrong, though, and Rosie will have been spotted in Moscow - just as some of the factory girls presumed.

Eastenders' Fred and Ginger

When something is about to be screened that is so painful to the eyeballs that you can't watch it directly, only with an elaborate use of mirrors or out of the corner of your soon-to-be-damaged eye, you'd expect to be given a warning by the continuity announcer. Either through a massive oversight or exceptional cruelty, innocent viewers were condemned to watch Ronnie attend her school re-union with Christian expecting her to perhaps get a bit tipsy. Instead, we were forced to hide behind the collective imaginary settee as they danced their hearts out to the applause of everyone gathered round. Of the very small segment I endured, I can only say someone might be hoping (unrealistically) to be on Strictly Come Dancing next year.

Losing It: Griff Rhys Jones on Anger

In Losing It, Griff Rhys Jones came across as quite jolly, avuncular even, despite protesting that he does get really angry sometimes. His anger management could have been solved in 10 minutes if someone would have just taken the time to say, you're not that bad really, but I suppose there wouldn't have been a programme then. He did reveal that one of his major trigger points comes when he receives emails from vicars in Norfolk asking him to open village fetes in six months time. For some reason, this sends him demented with rage, but he doesn't smash up his computer or track down the unthinking vicars and tell them off. He writes back politely informing them he has to decline the invitation.