The Idiot Box
Thoughts on TV shows and my current viewing habits.
The last instalment of Idiot Box was back in September 2019. Despite the Christmas holidays and being very busy in general, I have managed to watch some good TV shows over the last five month. As ever, there has been plenty of quality material to choose from and I still have an ever growing “watchlist” for all the content I cannot currently accommodate. It is interesting to note that most of the shows I watch are via streaming services. Out of the various titles I discuss in this post, only one was viewed via digital terrestrial network television. Furthermore, we started watching an hour after the broadcast commenced, so that we could bypass the commercial breaks. Watching anything in this fashion is my least favourite means of viewing television and because it happens so infrequently, it is quite jarring when it occurs.
The Crown: The third season of this prestigious Netflix show covers historical events from 1964 to 1977 and the role the UK Monarchy had to play in them. These begin with Harold Wilson's election as prime minister and ending with the Queens Silver Jubilee. The Aberfan disaster was a standout episode and explored how the precedence of Royal visits in such situations, was established. There was a greater focus on Prince Charles and family interferences in both his investiture as Prince of Wales and his personal relationship with Camila Shand. The change of cast to more mature actors was seamless and the standard of writing remained high and insightful. I find myself oddly invested in this show mainly because it covers a period of time during which I was growing up. Many of the historical events that are depicted, I was aware of as a child but had little interest or understanding of their significance. To see them in a wider context now is most illuminating.
The Witcher: My initial point of contact with this franchise was via their video game adaptations. However as television is an entirely different medium, I adjusted my expectations accordingly. Broadly I enjoyed the first season of The Witcher, although I was initially confused by its non-linear timeline. The character development was more in depth than I was expecting and rather than being given swathes of exposition about the “Continent” and its history and customs, the viewer was simply exposed to elements of these as the story unfolded. There was a lot of sexual content in the show but it is entirely relevant to the proceedings. Witchcraft is often entwined with human sexuality and free from the restrictive dogma of traditional religions. By the last episode I was left with my interests piqued and clearly wanting more. And as for casting Henry Cavill, it worked out fine as far as I’m concerned.
COBRA: This UK set drama proved to be far better than the sum of its parts. The initial premise set out in the first episode appeared to frame the narrative as a disaster story with borderline science fiction elements (the calamity afflicting the UK in the story being a solar storm). However, it quickly changed into a political thriller about civil unrest brought about by power outages. It touched upon many “hot topics” such as migrant detentions, anti-establishment sentiments and the economic and social divide between London and other parts of the UK. It was odd and vaguely compelling to see Robert Carlyle as a Conservative Prime Minister and David Haig was excellent as duplicitous and scheming Home Secretary. There were also some rather good low key CGI visual effects that worked very well. As I said, it was all unexpectedly entertaining.
Star Trek Picard: Star Trek has always reflected the world in which we live. During the sixties TOS channeled many optimistic, inclusive and progressive narratives which were still prevalent in the post Kennedy years. TNG was broadcast while such events as the fall of The Berlin Wall took place. Thus the show often explored concepts of reunification and forging uneasy truces. For me, what I like about STP is not only the central character, who is still multifaceted and engaging but the bold storyline in which the Federation has lost it ways due to an excess of “politics”. It is a world weary show, where social contracts have failed and the future has lost its utopian status. It isn’t to everyone's taste and it is clear that a lot of people just wanted more TNG in an identical idiom. However, that is not what Patrick Stewart wanted to do, so that is not what they got. I like it and am interested to see where it goes and whether any optimism will manifest itself.
Endeavour: The latest season of Endeavour sees the arrival of the seventies and a serial murderer prowling the towpath of the local canal. Is this one brutal muder to many for DI Fred Thursday? The cumulative effect of investigating violent crime seems to be taking its toll and also causing division between Thursday and Morse. Season seven covers a lot of ground in just three episodes and strays into rather bleak and unhappy territory, especially for Chief Inspector Bright. As ever, it is smart with lots of pop culture references and superb performances. I suspect that next year’s season will be the last of this period police drama.
Unforgotten: Because Endeavour came and went so quickly, Mrs P and I decided to revisit the first series of Unforgotten. We subsequently watched all available seasons and eagerly await the series four which is currently being filmed. What make’s this show so different from others is that the actual solving of the crime is only half of the narrative. The other 50% of the story is the “emotional splash damage” and “fallout” caused by investigating these cold cases. The level of technical accuracy in depicting real policing is outstanding and the acting is always top drawer. The central characters of Detectives Cassie Stuart and Sunil "Sunny" Khan (played by Nichola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar) are both credible and likeable. Over 18 episodes we get an insight into their very normal personal lives and an understanding of the emotional stress that solving historical cases causes to all involved. Often the subjects explored are incredibly sad and disturbing but the writing is so measured and intelligent that events never spills into melodrama, nor denigrate the difficult subjects.
As an addendum to this post, we abandoned a couple of shows that we were watching previously. We stopped watching Instinct as it really didn’t have anything new to say. I suspect that is why it was cancelled by the network. We also stopped viewing Evil, mainly because of time constraints. We may return to it later on in the year. I decided not to proceed with season 2 of Project Blue Book. Despite a good cast and fine production values, the show just seemed to be retreading familiar ground and not offering anything different within the confines of the “alien conspiracy” sub genre. Time is always precious therefore I strongly advocate dispensing with shows you’re not enjoying.
