Saturday 11 July 2009

TV Review: Is This Really What The BBC Thinks Of The Audience?

Sheep.

Passive, helpless, human sheep.

Capable only of cowering at home, away from all-powerful authority in the shape of the State's minions, who don't even need to so much as fire a gun to get the populace to do their bidding and hand over their children.

Yeah, I'm talking about the 'Torchwood' finale. Now, I'm not much of a fan, having seen the first season (and I only really enjoyed the episode 'Out of Time', because I'm a sucker for time travel).

But I quickly grew bored with the writers 'Look at us! Aren't we daring!?' attitude and the weakness of the plots and the unlikeableness of the characters, so gave up at the start of season 2.

However, the premise and structure of the latest one (mini season? tv movie? who knows?) intrigued me, and I got hooked. And as expected, it was utter rubbish, though grippingly directed and edited.

*spoilers coming - if you taped it, look away now*


But dear god, it didn't have anything good to say about the UK, did it? I don't mind bleak, I don't mind 'we need to sacrifice people because we face impossible odds', I don't mind 'the government is evil!' in my drama, but at least some nod to the innate cussedness and refusal to surrender to authority that has been a hallmark of the UK population ought to shine through, surely?

The best anyone can do, in the face of impossible odds, is run away? And not even be successful at that?

You are one of the few with access to a gun, so you slaughter your family and then kill yourself, without even attempting to take a few of the people giving the orders with you?

Soldiers turn up to take away your children, on rough, tough housing estates, and the best resistance to soldiers who don't seem to be armed with anything more than riot shields and batons is a few lardy blokes and one cop who removes his body armour first? While the mothers wail helplessly or thrash about (notably not drawing any blood, ever) in the arms of soldiers?

US tv drama is often criticised for the gung-ho, 'we can achieve impossible odds if we all pull together' aspect, and their love of a happy ending, but I think they understand the human condition a little better than the BBC's scriptwriters...

Which begs the question - is this how they see things? Or how they want to see things?

Or is it how they want us to see things?

7 comments:

Pavlov's Cat said...

is this how they see things? Or how they want to see things?

I think it's the latter and it's all pervading.

Take the politically correct lamentable re-hash of Survivors. ( or even '28 days later' )

Not one person thought of popping along to the local TA , Cop shop , Army barracks and getting themselves decently armed.

Perhaps not to put ideas into peoples heads for when the revolution does come.

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed the revived Dr Who series (under Russell Davies), complete nonsense only spoiled by the 'gay is good' theme running constantly in the background but amplified when Captain Jack appears and of course more explicit in Torchwood episodes which grew tiresome after a promising start - principally because of Barrowman/Jack. Barrowman is equally as tiresome and I now switch off whenever he appears. The gay agenda is everywhere now from Hollywood right down to British domestic television and I find it annoying. Of course, it is my problem...alone...I have to accept that.

As for the new 'Survivors' - words fail me.

Ross said...

The three things I learnt from Torchwood:

- Is anyone getting a little bit tired of invincible alien invaders who it turns out have one flaw which means they can be totally defeated at the last minute? Even the Belgian army is more formidible than that.

- The screenwriters don't seem to have a high opinion of the army do they?

- People who support school league tables do so in order to identify the most worthless children.

JuliaM said...

Oh, yeah! 'Survivors'. I'd forgotten about that.

"Perhaps not to put ideas into peoples heads for when the revolution does come."

It does seem that way, doesn't it? Mind you, they were all urbanites.

I imagine the country dwellers would have been better prepared.

"..complete nonsense only spoiled by the 'gay is good' theme running constantly in the background.."

That kind of overdone propaganda is actually counter-productive. Far better, if you want to push it, to make it seem normal and unremarkable. As it mostly is in real life.

Calling attention to it all the time is just epic fail...

"The three things I learnt from Torchwood:"

Heh! Spot on.

I also learned:

a) when choosing my squad of elite military henchmen for a crucial mission, pick only the ones who can hit a running man at 100 paces with an assault rifle. The ones who can't can stay back at base, washing the floors.

b) it would be good if they also remembered that they have more settings than just 'single shot'. I'm sure the UK government can afford the ammo.

c) that you can place a small child in the middle of a room full of scary armed men and potentially dangerous equipment, and he'll stay where he's put and not attempt to run away, even as his mother screams his name in terror.

d) avoid Cardiff like the plague. Actually, that last is good advice even when there isn't an imminent alien invasion..

Anonymous said...

Yes!

I've been trying to formulate what is wrong with British TV for long enough and you've exactly got it.

Every drama series ends with most of the best characters dying, every action generally fails and every outcome is usually bad. You don't even usually get a heroic death, just a pointless one.

I've pretty much given up on British TV :-(

JuliaM said...

"You don't even usually get a heroic death, just a pointless one."

I guess we don't want to encourage heroism any more. Wonder why...?

Pavlov's Cat said...

d) avoid Cardiff like the plague. Actually, that last is good advice even when there isn't an imminent alien invasion.

Heh, seconded