It would be a shame if Wallander did not return for a third series. Much-publicized & so high profile you'd need to open the skylight, it nevertheless remains one of those projects that nobody asked for and no-one seems to regard with much excitement. "Ingmar Bergman meets Midsomer Murders" was the rather lazy Radio Times verdict.
Yet it achieves something that detective dramas tend to do every decade or so, which is strike a perfect balance between subject matter, imagery and music. Wallander offers pretty much what any modern police series offers - murky conspiracies, shocking violence, a lead character with a troubled home life - but transforms them via its highly distinctive atmosphere. In this
respect it can take its place alongside the likes of Inspector Morse and Twin Peaks.
Also it is the best part Kenneth Branagh has had for a very long time. The almost comic level of tragedy Kurt Wallander suffers requires someone you can really put up with for 90 mins. Now he's into middle age Branagh looks like someone who has been broken down but who still remains essentially decent despite the grinding self-pity. Like Robbie Coltrane in Cracker it's
a pleasure of sorts to be in his company, you just wish everyone would leave the poor self-destructive sod be.
The BBC haven't done themselves any favours scheduling the Swedish version of Wallander on BBC 4, which is generally regarded as superior - would you bother with a British version of Law & Order with Five showing the genuine article? The Branagh version finds itself in the odd position of being the slick Hollywood-style attempt, but in my view is a lot better than that
and deserves more respect.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Monday, 11 January 2010
DOCTOR BOO-HOO
Although you'd be forgiven for thinking that David Tennant's departure from Doctor Who was something akin to the Messiah falling, the massive End Of Time story was also the last script from Russell T Davies, widely-credited with reviving the series in 2005.
Whatever you think of Davies as a writer it's reasonably safe to say that his work for Who was not always of the highest quality. As his contributions went on they became a strange fusion of half-baked ideas from other things. To a greater extent a lot of the best Doctor Who has taken its inspiration from literary or pop culture sources, but at least other scribes finished their thought. Looking at something like The Next Doctor, which envisaged a meaty alternate Doctor played by David Morrissey up against a proto-feminist supervillain surrounded by yapping Cyber-blankets, hatching a vague plan which involved a gigantic mobile garage with legs, you get something that sounds fantastic in a paragraph, but over an hour of multi-million pound drama doesn't sit so well.
As a long term fan I was also surprised at how, well, fannish Davies' scripts became. From the throwaway use of random 1960s monster the Macra in Gridlock, the wish list of classic villains grew, to the Dalek 'n Davros mash of Stolen Earth/Journey's End through to the reappearance of the Time Lords in the latest outing.
Davies' departure may also herald a new chapter for TV fantasy writing in general. Taking their cue from the "telefantasy" series of the 60s & 70s, we've seen a resurgence of this type of show, albeit one rarely written by people with the literary and cultural experiences of their predecessors. Davies' generation are those that grew up with an instantaneous consumer culture, with arguably shallower references. The British TV sci-fi genre had died in the 90s and the meat and potatoes of the industry had been busy writing soaps and aspirational dramas.
There's no doubting Davies' power as a writer, but he had more an idea of what he wanted to do rather than a fully-formed plan. His successor Steven Moffat, could well be the man who puts Who back on the quality map for me. Like the telefantasy writers of old, he appears to understand what goes into the format as well as being able to pen a good solid adventure story. He may be biting off more than he can chew with some of the "big beasts" he has hired for story duties - Richard Curtis no less, & Simon Nye alongside the tried and tested crop of people like Gareth Roberts & Mark Gatiss. Curtis & Nye are hardly renowned for their fantasy credentials, but who am I to cast doubt at this stage? Moffat is also a big fan of Who across the ages and it will be interesting to see if he lets the "fan gene" overwhelm him as Davies did.
On the whole though, the signs look promising. Matt Smith as the Doctor could well be the most significant casting decision since Heath Ledger became the Joker. There's a masterly writer in charge. And in these recession-hit times the bloated excess of the Tennant years looks to be falling away.
Whatever you think of Davies as a writer it's reasonably safe to say that his work for Who was not always of the highest quality. As his contributions went on they became a strange fusion of half-baked ideas from other things. To a greater extent a lot of the best Doctor Who has taken its inspiration from literary or pop culture sources, but at least other scribes finished their thought. Looking at something like The Next Doctor, which envisaged a meaty alternate Doctor played by David Morrissey up against a proto-feminist supervillain surrounded by yapping Cyber-blankets, hatching a vague plan which involved a gigantic mobile garage with legs, you get something that sounds fantastic in a paragraph, but over an hour of multi-million pound drama doesn't sit so well.
As a long term fan I was also surprised at how, well, fannish Davies' scripts became. From the throwaway use of random 1960s monster the Macra in Gridlock, the wish list of classic villains grew, to the Dalek 'n Davros mash of Stolen Earth/Journey's End through to the reappearance of the Time Lords in the latest outing.
Davies' departure may also herald a new chapter for TV fantasy writing in general. Taking their cue from the "telefantasy" series of the 60s & 70s, we've seen a resurgence of this type of show, albeit one rarely written by people with the literary and cultural experiences of their predecessors. Davies' generation are those that grew up with an instantaneous consumer culture, with arguably shallower references. The British TV sci-fi genre had died in the 90s and the meat and potatoes of the industry had been busy writing soaps and aspirational dramas.
There's no doubting Davies' power as a writer, but he had more an idea of what he wanted to do rather than a fully-formed plan. His successor Steven Moffat, could well be the man who puts Who back on the quality map for me. Like the telefantasy writers of old, he appears to understand what goes into the format as well as being able to pen a good solid adventure story. He may be biting off more than he can chew with some of the "big beasts" he has hired for story duties - Richard Curtis no less, & Simon Nye alongside the tried and tested crop of people like Gareth Roberts & Mark Gatiss. Curtis & Nye are hardly renowned for their fantasy credentials, but who am I to cast doubt at this stage? Moffat is also a big fan of Who across the ages and it will be interesting to see if he lets the "fan gene" overwhelm him as Davies did.
On the whole though, the signs look promising. Matt Smith as the Doctor could well be the most significant casting decision since Heath Ledger became the Joker. There's a masterly writer in charge. And in these recession-hit times the bloated excess of the Tennant years looks to be falling away.
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