That was pretty good, wasn't it?
Sunday, April 06, 2008
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6 comments:
Yep.
The Adipose were brilliant. I'd love to see them when they're angry...
I’m still struggling to see what it is you like about the latest version of Doctor Who. I find it irritatingly camp and inconsistent in tone. It doesn’t seem to know what kind of thing it wants to be. (Is David Tennant the new Adam West? Can a show that’s so relentlessly camp have any real drama or pathos?) The writing is, at best, rushed and unfinished, with most of the episodes I’ve seen reading like first drafts.
The score is habitually intrusive and often simply incongruous. Instead of enhancing the drama, such as it is, the overwrought orchestration makes what’s on screen, including the substandard effects, look small and rather silly. Even the title music, which sounded fine for the Eccleston series, has been needlessly remixed and, again, diminished. A charitable soul might forgive some of this if the acting were substantial. But it isn’t.
It’s panto with pretensions.
It’s panto with pretensions.
I think that might be part of its charm.
Compared to shows like 'The Wire', 'Mad Men' or even 'Battlestar Galactica' it can be quite shoddily written, although I disagree with you about the acting (which is in synch with the tone of the show) and the special effects (which are pretty damn good for a British show). But there's just something about it that makes me love it more than those others (flaws and all) - a sort of gloriously silly surreality.
Well, I’m partial to kitsch and the odd bit of cheese, but it seems to me that the show pretends to be more than that and – in theory – it could be more than that. As a premise, Doctor Who has potential - most obviously, I think, in some of the Eccleston series, which at least nodded towards something more ambitious. But from what I’ve seen of it lately, which to be fair isn’t much, the producers have shied away from those ambitions.
First we had Tennant, which I thought was bad enough, and now he’s twinned with that mistress of understatement and nuance, Catherine Tate, who at times seems to be channeling her comedy pieces or doing monkey imitations.
Still, Sarah Lancashire’s hair was very impressive.
Still haven't seen it, Matt. Although the consensus seems to be "not as bad as it could have been".
I kind of agree with you and David about the writing, but it can also be fabulous - especially Human Nature/Family of Blood and Dalek and one or two others.
Hey TD,
I think you'll like it. It's not deep, but as season openers go it's pretty good.
For the record, Paul Cornell and Steven Moffat are, in my opinion, two of the finest TV writers around at the moment. 'Father's Day' and 'Human Nature/Family of Blood' are two of my favourite DW stories of all time.
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