I got a bit sick, to be honest, of seeing ads for this show returning, and decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about when one of the channels started it from the beginning. I really couldn't see what was likely to be so great about it, and once I had watched the first episode my mind had not changed. Okay, okay! I didn't
finish the episode! But it had nothing to say to me. I found the title character annoyingly smug and condescending, and he wasn't the worst of them. In an era where we're all fighting for our economic survival, I found it aggravating to look at a show about people who spent money like it was water, and seemed to live the high life and not have a care in the world.
Sure, people like it, and it has a huge following, but then, so does “Gray's anatomy”, and you wouldn't catch me watching that! So I decided to delete all my episodes of it, but to add insult to injury, my Sky Plus box didn't understand, and instead deleted all the episodes I had up to then recorded of season two of “The Borgias”! God damn it, “Mad men”! You gave me another reason to hate you!
Verdict:
There have been those which have gone on the “delete” pile purely because they have been cancelled, after having built up a plot or story arc which I now know is not going to be resolved. It may seem shallow, but I'm tired of watching shows for a season to find out at the end that there's no payoff, and never will be: the show has been cancelled and the questions asked will never be answered. So when I find now that a show hasn't got a second season and ends on a cliffhanger or leaves important loose ends untied, I hit “delete” and it's gone. Sometimes, as in the case of the one below, without my even watching a single episode...
I really liked the premise of this show, that convicts who had “mysteriously disappeared” from the world's most secure prison come back forty years later, and there seems to be some sci-fi element to it. But sadly, even though it was one of JJ Abram's babies, “Alcatraz” has been cancelled, and so rather than get invested in it and be left hanging...
Verdict:
This I did enjoy, and was quite getting into, so I asked around, worried that it may have been cancelled, and ended badly. How right I (apparently) was: I was advised that the ending was pretty poor, I wouldn't enjoy it and that the show itself would not be returning for a second season. Sad really, as it was shaping up to be quite clever, sort of reminded me of “The Lost Room”, although at least that ended reasonably well.
The idea is that a number of people wake up one day in a strange place. They have no idea how they got there, or even where “there” is. Slowly they make contact with others in the group, and alliances form as suspicions grow. Cryptic messages are passed to some of them, telling them if they do something they can go free. Sort of variation on the idea of what depths will people sink to in order to secure their freedom? But as the plot thickened, the execs said no, and the series was pulled, so again, rather than go all that way for nothing, I hopped off the bus and hit the delete key, not without some sense of regret, as I think this could have been a very interesting show. But then, I don't run any TV networks. Yet.
Verdict:
And finally, it's good to relax with an old favourite, a classic. Yeah, ok, I didn't really watch it --- at all --- when it was on originally back in the 80s, but now it's being rescreened and I'm enjoying every minute of it. The great thing about “Minder” is that it's so
un-PC. Everyone gets it, from gays to the Irish, Indians to blacks, jews to muslims. Nothing is sacred. Men are real men. Women are “skirt” or “birds”, and someone's always “ripe for a kickin'”, men aren't afraid to be “handy with their fists”, and there's a lot of football terminology. Back of the net! But it's all done in the best possible taste.
Well, no it's not, but you have to say it's not done to offend, and “Minder” is nothing if not a product of its times. With unemployment rampant throughout Britian in the 80s, strikes and riots all over the place, the police seen as the repressive tools of the government (so what else is new?), the writing on this show captures the spirit of the times, the resentment and anger of the populace, while at the same time lightening the darkness with some hard-nosed comedy and satire. Lovely! As Arthur would say, “A nice little earner.” Can't beat it son, can't beat it.
Verdict:
Well, that's as much as I've managed to get through in the last month or so. Hopefully next time round I'll have decided whether to keep such shows as “Unforgettable”, “Lost girl”, “Being human” “Sinbad”, “A touch of cloth”, “The newsroom” “Teen wolf” and “Good cop”. Stone me! I'd better get a move on! Where's me telly remote?