Tuesday 10 July 2007

Cape Wrath

It appears that there is a bit of a surge of new dramas on our television screens, the new one on More 4 with Chandler out of Friends will be starting soon, everyone's been harping on about 'Dexter' with Michael C Hall as a charming likeable serial killer (I'm hoping for an everyday television version of Chopper) and tonight (after Big Brother) began 'Cape Wrath'.
I was intrigued mainly because this has got to be one of the most interesting situations to form a drama serial around: Take a creepily fake looking town and throw in a few misfits, families and individuals unable to live their daily lives as they had before, misfits who, for some reason or another, are placed under witness protection. In amongst these misfits are families, those caught in the crossfire of horrific violent crimes, alongside them are the criminals themselves, those who dish out the violence. The resulting drama is, if it's successful a thrilling and at times squeamish sequence of events, one which I am hugely looking forward to obsessing over.
I didn't pay my full attention this evening I must admit, but I did see the climactic event on which I can only assume much of the series, or at least the next episode will be based around. It was gruesome, bite-into-your-cushion-or-nearby-friend's-shoulder terrifying, in between the rape and the blood and the bizarre psychological suffering of the young (emo) boy it's an admirable and enticing piece of programming which channel 4 have done very well to pick up. It's exciting when they bring us British drama; where the US dole out the somewhat over-the-top 'Desperate Housewives' and the frankly overrated and utterly confusing 'Lost' (I never got it and I never want to get it) it's great to see the Brits bring real monsterous bite. It's' neither cheap nor overdone, it's dark and it reminds me in part of 'Funland' which has got to be another of our home-grown masterpieces. What impresses me most is it is starkly different from anything that is currently flashing on and off our screens and as long as the characters grow and develop as well as I am hoping they do this could be the thing I come home on a Tuesday for.

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