Fun and Jeopardy

Well this week saw the return of Lost, one of the most infuriatingly overrated programs ever to be made. It didn't start out bad, in fact I really liked it at first and then it started to dawn on me, none of the writing staff knows what’s going on. They have no better idea about this island than anyone else, that’s why they answer every question in the series with about three more. It's like playing a game and just when you think you're winning someone changes all the rules. Also if you take away the mystery you're left with a lot of clunky dialogue, a list of poorly constructed characters and acting that’s sub-par at best. Solving mysteries in programs is entertaining, but when all the characters are so dull and unlikable (with the exception of Hurley) it feels like instead of watching TV I'm reading a series of long essay questions. It also reeks of the worst kind of pretension, at a quick glance it's a smart program full of mystery and intrigue but on closer inspection it's a poorly written soap opera hidden beneath a cloud of absurdity. It's dull and utterly lacking in any kind of heart, I have no attachment to these one dimensional caricatures and so I don't give a toss about what happens to them on their sodding island.

Modern British telly at the moment seems to be governed by two words, fun and jeopardy, this seemed absurd when I first heard it (Boys from the Blackstuff was without fun and so was Threads but Funhouse was full of it) but with BBC’s Ashes to Ashes it all makes sense. Thank god for this, it's everything it needed to be and more, the writing is crisp, there's mystery and bucket loads of nostalgia. The acting is great, Keeley Hawes is brilliant and Phillip Glenister is a dream to watch playing the role he was born to play. I love the way they've taken the fun to a new level (the music swells as the camera pans to a statuesque Gene Hunt) and actually managed to up the jeopardy with DI Drake having to get back to her life because of her daughter. Hawes performance with her onscreen daughter brings real heart to the new lead that was always lacking in Life on Mars. It's also really scary; the David Bowie clown will now haunt my dreams along with Zippy and fucking George. Ashes to Ashes has managed to perfectly capture both fun and jeopardy (Gene Hunt on a speedboat under Tower Bridge clutching an Uzi), the only problem with it is that it raises the question of why is nothing else on British telly able to do it right?