Last week's TV - the inthenews.co.uk view
Reunited made a promising opening on the BBC
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Monday, 05, Jul 2010 10:28
Matt Robinson on the BBC's hope for a new Cold Feet and a fine but formulaic cop show.
So it's been eight years since you last saw your university flatmates, your lover, who also happens to be your boss, has just been shot by his wife, you're stuck in Japan, and your university sweetheart is now engaged? What do you do next? That's easy - clearly your only option is to organise a reunion with your old mates, dig up the past and hope for the best. Why not? What could possibly go wrong? Well that's certainly what Hannah (Zoe Tapper) does and thinks when she gets her five former housemates together for a few drinks in Reunited (BBC1). Naturally it leads to a boozed up evening, where everyone's dirty laundry comes to the table, ending as most reunions do, with a bit of casual sex.
They're an interesting bunch of characters, although admittedly there are no surprises in this comedy-drama, penned by Mike 'Cold Feet' Bullen. There's serial shagger Rob, over enthusiastic Sara, who has recently discovered Jesus off the back of suffering a nervous breakdown, Hannah's former lover Martin and a married couple with kids who are unsatisfied with life. Oh, and because of that, naturally one puts up with it and stays at home with the kids while the other secretly hops into bed with their Spanish tutor. Standard behaviour in a comedy-drama.
This is just a pilot though, so there may or may not be a series to follow. Judging by this first hour, there is certainly promise. Each of the six friends is harbouring secrets, they all have eight years of past to catch up on, which may or may not come back to rock the boat, and of course they all have their unresolved feelings for one another and history together to contend with. Mix all that up and you're bound to have a rather volatile cocktail to fill five more episodes.
However, whilst Bullen delivered a strong opener to a potential series, as a stand-alone hour of television Reunited fell flat. The main problem was that there was no resolution. Had that been the case, an hour's drama focusing around six friends reconnecting after eight years may have worked - after all, that is the most interesting part. Here though it serves more as a catalyst, creating drama amongst the unhappy individuals, hence all the bed hopping that follows. It's this, which to be fair we knew going in, that made it rather unsatisfying, because we were left hanging without any answers. Therefore, why should we care what happens to these characters next? We may never see them again. The plots that developed were a little formulaic and it was difficult to feel for any of the characters, but nonetheless it was still a rather enjoyable romp. Ed Byrne stole the show as loveable rogue Rob, while the secrets and lies that each of the six is hiding created tension and familiar awkward comic episodes.
Judging by the pilot's poor ratings though, a series looks unlikely, which is a shame, because despite its flaws, Reunited shows promise. It was certainly far more enjoyable than the first episode of ITV's recent failed series Married Single Other. People may say Cold Feet is over-rated but it has been seven years since it ended and nothing has captured the British public's heart in the same way that James Nesbitt, Helen Baxendale and John Thomson did for five years on Sunday nights. Whilst I doubt that Bullen's latest vehicle will be anywhere near as influential, it would be nice to see a full series playout. Hopefully we will be Reunited soon.
Since The Wire, it is impossible to review any new offering to the gritty cop show genre without drawing comparisons to it, because it is undoubtedly the benchmark from which any show will now be judged.
While the most recent British contender, Luther, was an unintelligible mess, which got progressively worse, the latest addition to the mix, More 4's Southland is the complete opposite; sadly it once again comes from across the pond.
The show certainly doesn't shy away from grittiness;, instantly opening with a night-time scene packed with flashing lights, blood-splattered streets, shouty crowds and a dead teenager. Standing over him is young panic-stricken cop Ben, aka The OC's Ben McKenzie. Just to add to the tone of the whole thing, there's a missing girl and a paedophile as well.
It certainly fits into the show's premise well. The show opens with the statistic that there are only 9,800 cops in Los Angeles, patrolling 500 square miles inhabited by four million people. This is clearly a mechanism to emphasise the sheer corruption, violence and horror of LA's gang culture. The OC and 90210 this is not. That part of California is a distant dream in Southland, where the streets are mean, dark and tough.
McKenzie plays posh new recruit Ben who, fresh from the shelters of the academy, has to prove he is mean enough to face the realities of southern LA. Whilst he does step up he does has a sensitive side, which no doubt is set to become a major conflict throughout the rest of the series.
Whilst it's dark and intense, and has a sense of ER about it, Southland doesn't bring anything new to the genre. There is a sense that we have seen this all before, but it is a decent cop show, which includes some strong performances and clever writing. Sure it's not great or even that original, but it does provide a good alternative to the sport and the annual season of repeats.