The Perfect Ten

[llywela]

For the full episode recap: "Follow the creepy brick road."


Life on Mars 2.05: The One with Camberwick Green and the Perfect Ten

One word – awesome!

Man, how much did I love the Camberwick Green opener? Sat with this huge grin of delight plastered across my face, having flashbacks to my childhood. Except that the Camberwick Green I remember watching as a child never talked about nonces… *G* Plasticine Sam and Plasticine Gene should totally have a show of their own.

So Sam's comatose body in 2006/7 has been accidentally overdosed…or is it just that the 1973 Sam has accidentally ingested a lot of acid? As always, the show allows leeway for either interpretation, although playing the coma angle hardest. Either way, the result is that Sam spends the entire episode tripping out big time and struggling harder than ever to understand what's real and what isn't. Of course, the fact that he's never really believed that anything in his 1973 life is real doesn't help there. But despite all that, he has to at least attempt to be functional, because a woman and her daughter have been kidnapped and need rescuing.

Just another day in the life, really.

I really like the way 2006/7 Sam's state of health has always filtered back down to 1973 Sam, interwoven so intricately. Unless, of course, he really is in 1973 and the flashes he has of his coma self are just psychosis. Or something else completely is going on that we aren't aware of yet. The show is keeping its options open with three episodes still go to.

This episode gave us scenes for which Sam was not present – it's the first time in the show that has ever happened. And it happens here because of the overdose and tripping out thing, with Sam seeing 'visions' of what his colleagues had experienced in his absence, or on an older case, and then later – while in a much deeper level of coma while his medication was sorted out – watching them on TV as they continued to work the case without him. And it's all just so, so surreal, and marvellous.

And what was so awesome about that, the 'watching them solve the case on telly' thing, was that things Sam had previously said and done were used by his colleagues to solve the case without him – his input being crucial even when out of action. He has taught them and they've learned well from him, Annie and Chris especially. And that was fabulous on all kinds of levels. I mean, for one thing, it's great for Sam to see what a difference he's made here. And it's also good for him to see that the rest of the team is capable of working well on their own, without him there to nag them or tell them what they are doing wrong.

And…there's probably loads more I could say, but I'm still bouncing from the sheer surrealness and awesomeness, so can't quite gather any more thoughts just at the moment!

Primeval 1.06

Man, it was worth watching this entire series just for that one moment when Cutter starts to take pictures of Helen posing, and he realises and the audience realise all at the same time that the pictures he's taking now are the same pictures he developed from the camera he found in the first episode. That he's travelled to the past of the past he visited then, when he first found the camera he's using now, and also discovered the remains of a camp, and graves with human remains in them, and that the people he has with him now will be the skeletons that he found then, and just...damn.

Taken overall, the show never really lived up to the potential of its concept - the storylines were often clunky and the acting wooden at times. But then again, both writing and acting also have moments where they sparkle, and the character interactions are a lot more complex than they appear on the surface, with all kinds of different layers of interaction and connection between the various characters.

I was sad that Commander Ryan died. I really didn't see that coming, even after that realisation with the camera, and I kinda had a soft spot for him even though he was the woodenest character of all. And the cliffhanger ending sets up a second season quite nicely.

So...yeah. Not the strongest show ever, but entertaining enough to keep watching.

Other Stuff

I realised, looking at my 'what's on my TV' list, that a lot of what I watch tends to be medical dramas. Hmm. I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe that's why sloppy medical details in other shows tend to bug me more than dodgy legal details - I don't watch many crime/law-and-order shows at all.

but the medical dramas I watch are all very different. I mean, there's Grey's Anatomy, which is basically a soap opera set in a hospital. It's light and fluffy even when it tries to be serious. Bubblegum viewing. I can disengage my brain while watching, and if the characters aren't entirely consistent in their characterisation, it doesn't bother me because I'm not really attached enough to any of them to care. It's my 'one to watch while feeling poorly' show.

ER, on the other hand, I've started watching again this year, and am really enjoying it as a proper, heavyweight medical drama once again. It's what I watch when I want to see doctors who actually behave like adults, as opposed to five year olds squabbling in the playground, or thirteen year olds who've discovered the opposite sex for the first time, which is the impression the GA gang frequently give.

And then there's House, which starts up with season three on Five this week. That one is all about the mental hoops and loops you have to jump through trying to follow House's little mind games, although the cases themselves tend to be pretty formulaic.

And that's enough about TV for one morning!