In 2003 I purchased a ReplayTV DVR unit after watching an interesting show on the now defunct TechTV network about DVRs and hacks available for the ReplayTV units.
The ReplayTV has a lot of faults, but the technology was quite new for the time, and its execution was better (in some respects) than the generation one Tivo DVR units. Generic ReplayTV systems made their way into numerous cable and satellite system customer premise equipment, becoming the basis for early DVR receiver/decoder offerings for these systems.
I purchased the nearly $400 unlimited service activation (required to get access to electronic programming quide data, without which a DVR becomes little more useful than a traditional VCR), figuring I would own the unit more than two years, the time necessary to earn back the money spent on the month-by-month service option.
Overall, it's been a really good experience. The unit fulfilled its promise to change the way we watch TV. It did that instantly. At my house, we were chained to the TV schedule. A VCR alleviated some of this, but programming it successfully required error-prone transcription of a paper or web schedule. Even then, you only had 2-7 hours of recording time to work with, assuming you start a new tape.
VCR technology was game-changing for its time, and DVRs like the ReplayTV re-revolutionized the TV viewing experience, allowing one to watch-pause-instant replay live TV. Traditional VCR-like functions of recording individual shows were made an order of magnitude simpler by integrating a guide grid into the unit's user interface. No more scanning a paper or web table and manually entering times. Scroll to your show with the on-screen guide and press record. Done.
The DVR further revolutionized TV by harnessing the power of database-driven scheduling of recordings. The ReplayTV and Tivo units diverge slightly in this area, and some regard the Tivo as being stronger in this regard. But, the ReplayTV is pretty decent at this too, allowing for variable-priority theme channels, which attempt to record shows on supplied criteria, giving way to other such themes you set at higher priority (record Scrubs, unless Mythbusters is on, then record that instead), and giving way once more to specific individual or repeated-timeslot recordings you specify.
I was able to pore over a generic TV lineup at the beginning of a season, and setup this database to essentially automate our TV watching. After a few days, the ReplayTV started to fill up with a library of constantly updating shows of my interest. I stopped watching TV and began watching the ReplayTV. I was unchained from broadcasters' schedules. If there was first-run programming coming on which I was desperate to see that night, I made sure to wait at least ten to fifteen minutes into the show before starting to watch the recording as it was being made. This way, I could watch the show from start to finish without waiting during commercial breaks (advertisers note: I often found myself entranced by some commercials, and never skipped them, even though the skip button was always under my thumb).
While groundbreaking tech for 2003 on, here in 2011, much has advanced. Were it not for some specific hackability of my model unit, I would have lost the use of my ReplayTV within the first two years. Its original hard drive failed rather alarmingly quickly, and a replacement drive I installed myself failed after several years in service. In both cases, thanks to backups I made of the unit's software, I was able to return the unit to service after replacing the drive and its factory software.
My ReplayTV unit was designed before HDTV standards were solidified, and almost no providers were offering HD programming. Today, over-the-air TV has transitioned to digital broadcast, and most broadcasters have adopted an all HD format. I am a cable customer, and my provider, in addition to having a standard-def. lineup, over the last few years has made continual improvements such that essentially the entire lineup is available also on HD channels further up the "dial." There are also plenty of the earlier special-purpose HD channels which originated from day-one as an HD only offering (when HD was still new and quasi-experimental), and have no SD equivalent.
Anyone who has bought a TV set in the past few years has purchased an HD model, with QAM digital tuners able to get the OTA broadcast and in increasingly-many cases even new digital cable programming without the aid of a special receiver.
I am still using a quite serviceable SD tube-type analog TV. And ReplayTV, designed for the analog SD TV world, is becoming increasingly irrelevant in this universe of digitally delivered HDTV. However, if you don't mind the SD, this legacy equipment still works great when paired with a receiver from my cable provider.
I was saddened then to hear the news that after many years of near-trouble-free operation of my ReplayTV, the corporate entities behind it were going to finally switch off the internet servers delivering the electronic program guide data that make the DVRs so useful. Forever.
After July 31, all ReplayTV units still functioning out there will lose guide data, and will (gracefully, we all hope) fall back to functionality equivalent to a VCR, just with random-access digital storage.
The die-hard user community has been working tirelessly toward an alternative solution to deliver guide data after this date, and with ReplayTVs corporate stewards offering some modicum of help (or at least not standing in the way), appear to have forged a likely workable path forward.
Your home PC, with special software, will stand-in for the outgoing ReplayTV guide data servers. It will get its guide data for a minor fee paid to a non-profit company with a mission to promote open-source DVR technology.
Last night I endeavored to set this software up on my home PC and give it a test. After a lengthy series of hiccups and other not-insurmountable minor gotchas and snags, I was ultimately able to start my own server, and get my ReplayTV DVR to accept it. The server ingests schedule data from a third-party (right now I am testing it with software known as an XMLTV scraper, which reformats publicly available TV listings into a format which this server software can ingest), and offers it to my ReplayTV upon request.
The result? So far, it's working beautifully! I have cut-ties 100% from the corporate-sponsored ReplayTV guide data servers, and have every expectation that after July 31, I ought to continue to be able to run this way.
The server need not run continuously, but often enough to keep the ReplayTV DVR's schedule database populated as far into the future as data availability and convenience dictate. On the server-side, the experimental XMLTV scraper doesn't download much data, but requires a good 15-20 minutes to assemble and reformat it, making it the slowest and weakest link in this chain.
During this testing-phase, I imagine initiating a manual update about once-or-twice a week, given this. After July 31st, assuming everything continues to work, I will likely buy a cheap subscription to the third-party data service, replacing a 20min free scrape with a cheap download lasting only seconds.
One problem likely solved, but still uncertain, is the ability of this home surrogate-server software to set the time-of-day clock in the ReplayTV units. I believe this has been solved, based on an experiment I did.
As part of its nightly network connection, the ReplayTV units use the NTP protocol to reset their clocks by polling an NTP server also maintained by ReplayTV's corporate stewards. You wouldn't want this clock to become off, or the DVRs idea of the current time would yield partly or completely missed recordings.
The community forums speculated that the NTP time updates were cryptographically signed with a key maintained in the corporate servers, and the DVRs would not accept unsigned NTP time replies. I don't know if this is the case or not, but I did notice that the home surrogate-server software came preconfigured with the address of the ReplayTV corporate NTP server, but that this was changeable.
I updated the configuration to point my server at my favorite NTP source: north-america.pool.ntp.org, a domain-name that reverses (in the load-balancing mechanism of DNS) to any of a number of publicly available NTP servers aimed at covering the continent.
The server software accepted this address without complaint, appeared to use it in the logs, and offered the time derived from it to my ReplayTV DVR, which likewise "appeared" to accept it (there's no easy way to tell, except to enter a hidden code to get the unit to display its clock onscreen, which had previously been 5 seconds off, but is now less than one second offset from my radio-controlled wall clock).
So I have every reason to be optimistic that after July 31st, I will be able to continue enjoying my ReplayTV experience in all its 2003 analog standard-definition shininess!
In the future, I expect that once my existing SD TV goes, I will modernize my whole viewing experience. I expect to become a Roku box customer, perhaps even playing with the idea of ditching my cable-TV subscription in favor of a combination of OTA digital signals and a more expensive, but higher-bandwidth cable-internet offering with a Netflix account riding on top. To be the best, the Roku or similar solution would need to be able to ingest OTA HDTV signals in addition to having connectivity with my home network to play media stored their or stream content from the internet. That way I get full DVR-style flexibility with local broadcast content too!
Until that heady future, I'll enjoy a replay of the future circa 2003, and continue enjoying my ReplayTV, faithfully (more or less) recording content for presentation on my analog TV!
(My analog TV is a 32" model from Sharp. I bought it in 2000, and it's still bright and saturated, undistorted and color accurate. I've been astonished how many newer-model tube-type analog TVs have degraded to unsuitable picture quality after far fewer years in service! It's only problem is a stuck relay, which prevents it from being turned off occasionally. I have to get up and pull its plug, but other than that, it's still going strong. In fact, it's outlasted a couple of Sony Trinitron models my folks have owned!)
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
"Blue Bloods" Blues: how CBS can't do drama.
"Blue Bloods" You know the TV's bad when you find yourself wanting, trying hard to like the show...but the magic is not there. It feels like there's something special about to happen when the opening title music rolls, but the intensity is doused.
The actors/casting is perfect. The character stories underlying the episodes are intriguing and have huge dramatic potential. But the meat...the main plot each episode...uugh! I want to gouge my eyes out! What is this, CSI:Miami, in NY dress? It's all point and tell, rather than show, imply, and feel. There's nothing for the viewer to do, nothing to think about. "This feels like TV," I said to my wife. "Law and Order, at its very best, that felt dramatic. You got lost in the show."
With this, I'm just watching the clock, hoping it breaks through and becomes spectacular. TOO BAD! Put Sellick and Wahlberg into some stuff they're worthy of. When there's been TV out there like Nip/Tuck, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, 24, Rome, The Tudors, Deadwood...heck even great cop shows like Third Watch, this simply doesn't measure up.
I watched the 3rd episode, "Privilege" tonight, waiting for a spark. There was a scene near the end where the young cop, Jamie Reagan (Will Estes), is on the couch looking through old photo albums with his grandfather, Henry (Len Cariou). As Jamie notices a photo of his detective older brother, Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), wearing a lapel pin emblem of the mysterious "Templars" cop-club, a thought occurred to me: why is the show spreading itself so thin trying to be seen giving all these great characters something to do each week?
Why not stop trying to do everything at once, and narrow the focus? Let each episode be a vignette more zeroed-in on just one of these major characters, and the work they must do to execute a case, from their perspective. Make the story more about these characters. Not about these so far ridiculous crime plots. You can allow one or two of the other major characters to intersect in the story, if it becomes the obvious and logical thing to do, but stop trying to FORCE it together for everyone, in every 10 minute segment!
Think how much more rich and engrossing you could make the stories then. You'd have time to carefully orchestrate the scenario that's going to propel the story of that week's character forward. Think about "Homicide: Life on the Street" in that sense. The show didn't try to cover everyone in the whole homicide squadroom each week. It used the squadroom as a touchstone, opening and closing the show, coming back to relieve the tension. We get to see everyone there. But then, for the real story and plot development, the show narrowed the focus and kept on just a couple of the major characters for the evolution of the episode.
Like that.
CBS's got a really great concept here, with Blue Bloods. I don't want to stop watching, because the underlying characters, and the larger picture that is tying them together, is so captivating. But the weekly stories and scene setups that these characters must wade through...so far it's just devastatingly BORING!
I don't have any faith that'll get better. So I best stop with the show now, or grow bitter over the future of serial disappointments that await.
The actors/casting is perfect. The character stories underlying the episodes are intriguing and have huge dramatic potential. But the meat...the main plot each episode...uugh! I want to gouge my eyes out! What is this, CSI:Miami, in NY dress? It's all point and tell, rather than show, imply, and feel. There's nothing for the viewer to do, nothing to think about. "This feels like TV," I said to my wife. "Law and Order, at its very best, that felt dramatic. You got lost in the show."
With this, I'm just watching the clock, hoping it breaks through and becomes spectacular. TOO BAD! Put Sellick and Wahlberg into some stuff they're worthy of. When there's been TV out there like Nip/Tuck, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, 24, Rome, The Tudors, Deadwood...heck even great cop shows like Third Watch, this simply doesn't measure up.
I watched the 3rd episode, "Privilege" tonight, waiting for a spark. There was a scene near the end where the young cop, Jamie Reagan (Will Estes), is on the couch looking through old photo albums with his grandfather, Henry (Len Cariou). As Jamie notices a photo of his detective older brother, Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), wearing a lapel pin emblem of the mysterious "Templars" cop-club, a thought occurred to me: why is the show spreading itself so thin trying to be seen giving all these great characters something to do each week?
Why not stop trying to do everything at once, and narrow the focus? Let each episode be a vignette more zeroed-in on just one of these major characters, and the work they must do to execute a case, from their perspective. Make the story more about these characters. Not about these so far ridiculous crime plots. You can allow one or two of the other major characters to intersect in the story, if it becomes the obvious and logical thing to do, but stop trying to FORCE it together for everyone, in every 10 minute segment!
Think how much more rich and engrossing you could make the stories then. You'd have time to carefully orchestrate the scenario that's going to propel the story of that week's character forward. Think about "Homicide: Life on the Street" in that sense. The show didn't try to cover everyone in the whole homicide squadroom each week. It used the squadroom as a touchstone, opening and closing the show, coming back to relieve the tension. We get to see everyone there. But then, for the real story and plot development, the show narrowed the focus and kept on just a couple of the major characters for the evolution of the episode.
Like that.
CBS's got a really great concept here, with Blue Bloods. I don't want to stop watching, because the underlying characters, and the larger picture that is tying them together, is so captivating. But the weekly stories and scene setups that these characters must wade through...so far it's just devastatingly BORING!
I don't have any faith that'll get better. So I best stop with the show now, or grow bitter over the future of serial disappointments that await.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Law and Order | UK - Part 2
In my earlier post, I wrote of the potential of the new spinoff of L&O, the UK edition. It was off to an auspicious early start, but rapidly lost momentum as it couldn't seem to find a voice to communicate the same level of drama as its American forebears.
Happily, two additional episodes' play after writing that post, I'm pleased to report that the ship is righting itself, and its promise to be a great addition to the L&O franchise, is renewed.
The characters are finding voice, the plotlines are less 2D, and there is reason to be optimistic that it will quickly approach the level of production quality we see in the American versions.
It's not now being run on BBC:America, so about the only way to see the show is via the BitTorrent scene. There's a great private community which is easy to join called "TheBox" which promotes sharing of exclusively British generated television content. You can find the show there.
Off topic: One thing I hate about BBC:America is it's complete disregard for the integrity of the production season for the shows it rebroadcasts. Once a show's run long enough on the BBC, BBCA may pick it up for the American audience, but will only run a smattering of selected episodes from a mix of various production seasons already in the can. Only after discovering TheBox, did I realize just how much "Top Gear" I was missing, and how its ongoing UK run was not getting any sort of timely pickup by BBCA.
Also, if BBCA makes a mint reselling BBC content into the American market, why must brit taxpayers continue to subsidize the BBC via their insane "yearly priviledge of owning a TV" type taxes! To the extent American's find the content popular and pay cable and satellite operators to carry it, I think the brits who pay those TV taxes are entitled to some dividends.
But then, don't get me started on this, because the whole way in which TV in the UK is state-controlled and socalized, while the brits can put out _some_ good content in spite of themselves, if it were wholly privatized, there would be soo much more to love!
Happily, two additional episodes' play after writing that post, I'm pleased to report that the ship is righting itself, and its promise to be a great addition to the L&O franchise, is renewed.
The characters are finding voice, the plotlines are less 2D, and there is reason to be optimistic that it will quickly approach the level of production quality we see in the American versions.
It's not now being run on BBC:America, so about the only way to see the show is via the BitTorrent scene. There's a great private community which is easy to join called "TheBox" which promotes sharing of exclusively British generated television content. You can find the show there.
Off topic: One thing I hate about BBC:America is it's complete disregard for the integrity of the production season for the shows it rebroadcasts. Once a show's run long enough on the BBC, BBCA may pick it up for the American audience, but will only run a smattering of selected episodes from a mix of various production seasons already in the can. Only after discovering TheBox, did I realize just how much "Top Gear" I was missing, and how its ongoing UK run was not getting any sort of timely pickup by BBCA.
Also, if BBCA makes a mint reselling BBC content into the American market, why must brit taxpayers continue to subsidize the BBC via their insane "yearly priviledge of owning a TV" type taxes! To the extent American's find the content popular and pay cable and satellite operators to carry it, I think the brits who pay those TV taxes are entitled to some dividends.
But then, don't get me started on this, because the whole way in which TV in the UK is state-controlled and socalized, while the brits can put out _some_ good content in spite of themselves, if it were wholly privatized, there would be soo much more to love!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Law and Order | UK
I've just finished the second episode of this newly launched series on Britain's ITV. As a huge fan of the US franchises, how is the UK version stacking up?
Not well, unfortunately. But it's still early days.
A reviewer on IMDB wrote that he didn't expect a spin-off of a show to be as good as the original. But, this is Law and Order we're talking about! In my opinion, each of the spinoffs (exception to the ill fated "Trial by Jury") has taken on its own unique flair and become just as successful it their own right.
Before I comment on the UK show per se, I would like to quickly recap what to me makes the US franchises continually successful:
The original L&O has run nearly 19 years now. Crap! And it's still fresh as ever, because it's allowed to evolve but the production crew also remains true to the elements that give it its verve.
The platform upon which the characters act is going to be what draws you in and gets to interested. It's why some like L&O but not Battlestar Galactica. You have to enjoy the surroundings. In this case it's the legal process. Curiosity about crime, motives of perpetrators, process of investigation, the working of the legal system. The legal maneuvers are always great TV. Courtroom dramas aren't new, but we enjoy watching the system.
But, character development is key to any successful series, above pretty much everything else. The L&O staff in the US have deeply understood this. The pains taken to weave the complex stories of the lives of the characters gives them depth and dynamism. It's part of the acting. It helps the acting to be more subtle, and then often better, because we know the thoughts occurring behind the characters eyes.
The L&O staff also are not afraid to gamble their characters. We see them in challenging situations which, at first, may not seem to fit into the greater premise of the show, but when they pay off (as happens more than not), it's big. There have been many character swapouts over the life of the franchise. Each time I've approached the new character with guarded suspicion (how could they be better than Lennie Briscoe or Robert Goren?), but after a few shows grew to love the new people just like the old. Chemistry between the pairings is important also, in this regard.
The other major aspect which L&O gets right consistently is storyline. They are adept at having simultaneous threads weaving a tapestry and having multi-episode arcs featuring an overhanging plot, or having some bit of plot return regularly, perhaps many episodes later (like DA McCoy's struggle with the Governor and his political machine, or Goren's battles with nemesis Nicole Wallace).
The overstory elements add richness, continuity to the characters lives, and believability overall. The episodic plots are never ordinary, even when they appear so at the outset. A subtle twist of purpose, situation, or reveal of the mundane bit as piece in a larger and more interesting framework is frequently involved. Above all, it's captivating and believably plausible. Their technique of "ripped from the headlines" story ideas has helped them beat out writing doldrums to great effect. As you watch, you realize the action feels as though it's mirroring a well publicized real dramatic crime.
The last bit for me is the operation of the system. The narrator's sole appearance is to tell you in a few seconds that you're about to enter into the specially structured world of criminal justice, here are the groups, and these are their stories. Hook!
Now: the UK version
My first thought as I watched the titles and the narrator spoke a variation on those famous words was, "Oh boy! I'm going to learn all about the UK system. Virgin territory!"
Well so far, the show's plots haven't helped illuminate how the mechanics and structure of the UK system differ from the US. That may not be the goal, I understand, but the US show is better at showing you how the US system is organized...and that's for the US audience. I mean, not all of us came out of public school with perfect scores in our American civics classes. If the UK show gave the same treatment to it's audience, both they and myself as a foreigner, would likely learn a thing or two, and find it more entertaining.
The first episode featured too much ragged camera work. Handheld shots are good for building tension in the field, but more polish of setup dolly and steadycam shots for office, interior, and building work would give the visuals more credibility. Episode two was an improvement in this regard.
"Dun-dun!" Any fan knows that trademark breathy, ominously dramatic clink-clank sound. It serves to keep the tension up, while linking widely diverse settings. But UK...don't overdo it. Frak! In episode one, it was "dun-dun"-ing with practically every cut (except, strangely, the very first cut from the titles to scene one, which is mandatory on the US shows...it serves to be the opening of the doors to the start of the story). You have to know when to hold back. In the US, the dun-dun sound is reserved for major setting shifts, primarily between the groups of actors, like the police vs. the DAs vs. courtroom. It usually also signals a shift between whole plot aspects. More minor or naturally following scene changes do not require it. Use sparingly for best effect UK! Episode two was better at this.
Most disappointing of all so far have been the central plots. What a letdown. There may be a bit of culture distinction to this, but I've found them contrived. Mundane overall, but also preposterous in certain aspects. Passerby finds unattended bag, notices it wriggling, thinks its a bomb? Police find baby inside? Well...obviously he'd've been crying like crazy, huh? And...bombs don't wriggle. At worst, they tick. The episode was based on S02E18 from the US version, and the US plot is much better and better executed by the action (even then, it wasn't the best the US either).
The plots also would be better if they were designed to connect with and be more relevant to present real life situations and current events. This is why the "ripped from the headlines" episodes in the US versions have been very popular. The audience can easily relate to what they're seeing.
The second episode dealt with the nature-nurture question, but in a clumsy and ham-fisted way. The interaction with the young child murderer was well acted, but over-dramatic and assumed a more adult style of relationship which was inappropriate for a boy.
Time is growing short for me tonight, so let me wrap by saying this: with a great show, you know it when you see it. You feel it. It finishes and you say, "dang, that was awesome!" For the US series, my wife and I have exchanged these moments often. If it's particularly good, we find ourselves continuing to talk about plot points well on after the show.
So far for the UK version, I've found myself wanting, badly, for it to be good. I realized it hasn't so far been working out when I noticed that during the show, I was mentally trying to convince myself it was good. In short, I wasn't "feeling" it.
On characters, so far I don't care for DI Natalie Chandler. She doesn't have much chemistry with the DS's and saps their energy. This is an important role. Think of Lt. Van Buren, Captains Cragen, Deakins, and Ross. They're all hard-bitten career veterans of the force. You sense their history in the way they herd their "cats" and act as liason between the political worlds of the chiefs and DAs, and the raw realities on the ground faced by their officers. The relationship can be poignant at times, as all of these characters have fallen on their swords to protect their people at one time or another.
I get none of this energy out of DI Chandler. See seems a simple gov't bureaucrat to me. I don't sense a history of a veteran cop in her. The police force also seems to end with her. She makes it seem like the post office. In the US, the police are a force, not merely an institution. You sense the overhang of an organization which extends far beyond the Lieutenant or Captain in the squad room.
DS Devlin...well, we've got the star power in Bamber. But in the US, not all the Det.'s were obvious stars, but if they weren't noteworthy before taking their role on the show, they certainly became so because of it. I can't write Bamber off, but the stories haven't played well to him (or any of them, frankly) so far. DS Brooks, however, has character which is seeping out. I'm growing to like him much faster.
The whole team on the Crown Prosecution is great. Fells much like the US shows here. But they're all being let down by the poor plots at the moment.
Writers, writers, writers! Listen up! The show is ready to roll. The team need you to bring it for success to happen. Steep yourselves in the best eps from the US versions and then translate that into the UK sphere. I want depth, I want outrageous, ethically challenging, yet believably plausible stories. Take the most sensational of your true crime and stamp its elements into this mold. How about: confronting the nanny state, struggle against islamofascism, touchy political relationships (aren't their thorny conflicts at times between England and Scotland and Ireland? What are the hot-button political issues in the UK? Craft a stories that probe deep into them unapologetically and without fear at-all of being politically correct!) Challenge the viewers! We're smart. Hide details and create dramatic revelations. Make it hard on the audience. One of the things we love to do with the US show is guess about the plot developments to come. It's become a social game when we have friends over!
Intrigue! We need intrigue!
Meh... I'm hopeful it will find its legs. I want it to be good. But within a few more episodes, if I'm still not feeling it, I'll need to write it off. Season 8 of L&O:CI is coming, and I cannot wait for it!
Not well, unfortunately. But it's still early days.
A reviewer on IMDB wrote that he didn't expect a spin-off of a show to be as good as the original. But, this is Law and Order we're talking about! In my opinion, each of the spinoffs (exception to the ill fated "Trial by Jury") has taken on its own unique flair and become just as successful it their own right.
Before I comment on the UK show per se, I would like to quickly recap what to me makes the US franchises continually successful:
The original L&O has run nearly 19 years now. Crap! And it's still fresh as ever, because it's allowed to evolve but the production crew also remains true to the elements that give it its verve.
The platform upon which the characters act is going to be what draws you in and gets to interested. It's why some like L&O but not Battlestar Galactica. You have to enjoy the surroundings. In this case it's the legal process. Curiosity about crime, motives of perpetrators, process of investigation, the working of the legal system. The legal maneuvers are always great TV. Courtroom dramas aren't new, but we enjoy watching the system.
But, character development is key to any successful series, above pretty much everything else. The L&O staff in the US have deeply understood this. The pains taken to weave the complex stories of the lives of the characters gives them depth and dynamism. It's part of the acting. It helps the acting to be more subtle, and then often better, because we know the thoughts occurring behind the characters eyes.
The L&O staff also are not afraid to gamble their characters. We see them in challenging situations which, at first, may not seem to fit into the greater premise of the show, but when they pay off (as happens more than not), it's big. There have been many character swapouts over the life of the franchise. Each time I've approached the new character with guarded suspicion (how could they be better than Lennie Briscoe or Robert Goren?), but after a few shows grew to love the new people just like the old. Chemistry between the pairings is important also, in this regard.
The other major aspect which L&O gets right consistently is storyline. They are adept at having simultaneous threads weaving a tapestry and having multi-episode arcs featuring an overhanging plot, or having some bit of plot return regularly, perhaps many episodes later (like DA McCoy's struggle with the Governor and his political machine, or Goren's battles with nemesis Nicole Wallace).
The overstory elements add richness, continuity to the characters lives, and believability overall. The episodic plots are never ordinary, even when they appear so at the outset. A subtle twist of purpose, situation, or reveal of the mundane bit as piece in a larger and more interesting framework is frequently involved. Above all, it's captivating and believably plausible. Their technique of "ripped from the headlines" story ideas has helped them beat out writing doldrums to great effect. As you watch, you realize the action feels as though it's mirroring a well publicized real dramatic crime.
The last bit for me is the operation of the system. The narrator's sole appearance is to tell you in a few seconds that you're about to enter into the specially structured world of criminal justice, here are the groups, and these are their stories. Hook!
Now: the UK version
My first thought as I watched the titles and the narrator spoke a variation on those famous words was, "Oh boy! I'm going to learn all about the UK system. Virgin territory!"
Well so far, the show's plots haven't helped illuminate how the mechanics and structure of the UK system differ from the US. That may not be the goal, I understand, but the US show is better at showing you how the US system is organized...and that's for the US audience. I mean, not all of us came out of public school with perfect scores in our American civics classes. If the UK show gave the same treatment to it's audience, both they and myself as a foreigner, would likely learn a thing or two, and find it more entertaining.
The first episode featured too much ragged camera work. Handheld shots are good for building tension in the field, but more polish of setup dolly and steadycam shots for office, interior, and building work would give the visuals more credibility. Episode two was an improvement in this regard.
"Dun-dun!" Any fan knows that trademark breathy, ominously dramatic clink-clank sound. It serves to keep the tension up, while linking widely diverse settings. But UK...don't overdo it. Frak! In episode one, it was "dun-dun"-ing with practically every cut (except, strangely, the very first cut from the titles to scene one, which is mandatory on the US shows...it serves to be the opening of the doors to the start of the story). You have to know when to hold back. In the US, the dun-dun sound is reserved for major setting shifts, primarily between the groups of actors, like the police vs. the DAs vs. courtroom. It usually also signals a shift between whole plot aspects. More minor or naturally following scene changes do not require it. Use sparingly for best effect UK! Episode two was better at this.
Most disappointing of all so far have been the central plots. What a letdown. There may be a bit of culture distinction to this, but I've found them contrived. Mundane overall, but also preposterous in certain aspects. Passerby finds unattended bag, notices it wriggling, thinks its a bomb? Police find baby inside? Well...obviously he'd've been crying like crazy, huh? And...bombs don't wriggle. At worst, they tick. The episode was based on S02E18 from the US version, and the US plot is much better and better executed by the action (even then, it wasn't the best the US either).
The plots also would be better if they were designed to connect with and be more relevant to present real life situations and current events. This is why the "ripped from the headlines" episodes in the US versions have been very popular. The audience can easily relate to what they're seeing.
The second episode dealt with the nature-nurture question, but in a clumsy and ham-fisted way. The interaction with the young child murderer was well acted, but over-dramatic and assumed a more adult style of relationship which was inappropriate for a boy.
Time is growing short for me tonight, so let me wrap by saying this: with a great show, you know it when you see it. You feel it. It finishes and you say, "dang, that was awesome!" For the US series, my wife and I have exchanged these moments often. If it's particularly good, we find ourselves continuing to talk about plot points well on after the show.
So far for the UK version, I've found myself wanting, badly, for it to be good. I realized it hasn't so far been working out when I noticed that during the show, I was mentally trying to convince myself it was good. In short, I wasn't "feeling" it.
On characters, so far I don't care for DI Natalie Chandler. She doesn't have much chemistry with the DS's and saps their energy. This is an important role. Think of Lt. Van Buren, Captains Cragen, Deakins, and Ross. They're all hard-bitten career veterans of the force. You sense their history in the way they herd their "cats" and act as liason between the political worlds of the chiefs and DAs, and the raw realities on the ground faced by their officers. The relationship can be poignant at times, as all of these characters have fallen on their swords to protect their people at one time or another.
I get none of this energy out of DI Chandler. See seems a simple gov't bureaucrat to me. I don't sense a history of a veteran cop in her. The police force also seems to end with her. She makes it seem like the post office. In the US, the police are a force, not merely an institution. You sense the overhang of an organization which extends far beyond the Lieutenant or Captain in the squad room.
DS Devlin...well, we've got the star power in Bamber. But in the US, not all the Det.'s were obvious stars, but if they weren't noteworthy before taking their role on the show, they certainly became so because of it. I can't write Bamber off, but the stories haven't played well to him (or any of them, frankly) so far. DS Brooks, however, has character which is seeping out. I'm growing to like him much faster.
The whole team on the Crown Prosecution is great. Fells much like the US shows here. But they're all being let down by the poor plots at the moment.
Writers, writers, writers! Listen up! The show is ready to roll. The team need you to bring it for success to happen. Steep yourselves in the best eps from the US versions and then translate that into the UK sphere. I want depth, I want outrageous, ethically challenging, yet believably plausible stories. Take the most sensational of your true crime and stamp its elements into this mold. How about: confronting the nanny state, struggle against islamofascism, touchy political relationships (aren't their thorny conflicts at times between England and Scotland and Ireland? What are the hot-button political issues in the UK? Craft a stories that probe deep into them unapologetically and without fear at-all of being politically correct!) Challenge the viewers! We're smart. Hide details and create dramatic revelations. Make it hard on the audience. One of the things we love to do with the US show is guess about the plot developments to come. It's become a social game when we have friends over!
Intrigue! We need intrigue!
Meh... I'm hopeful it will find its legs. I want it to be good. But within a few more episodes, if I'm still not feeling it, I'll need to write it off. Season 8 of L&O:CI is coming, and I cannot wait for it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)