Following up season 2's sexed up mynad shenanigans with half-naked beefcake werewolves, fairies and more shapeshifters than you can shake a stick at, True Blood's third outing (which seems to only be taking place about a month after the first episode - a lot goes on in a short spell in Bon Temps) featured more bloody, soapy goings on for Sookie and the gang. Eric continued to be the most interesting of the main characters, mostly by virtue of his murky motivations and touches of humanity. He's still miles more exciting than boring old Bill, who became more intriguing as revelations of his relationship with Sookie came out towards the season end. Sookie got more and more kick ass, especially as she played 'who's lying to me now' with her suitors, as vampire king Russell, a deliciously camp, extravagant performance, went completely batshit crazy and instigated double-cross upon double-cross with our star vampires and their fairy friend. Elsewhere Jason had a rather boring relationship with some skank who turns into a panther for no discernable reason; Tara got to mash in a vampire rapist's head before thankfully heading off, alive, into the sunset; Sam had to deal with his hick birth parents and kinda-hot-but-irritating kid brother; and Lafeyette finally got a storyline - and a hot boyfriend - that looks like it may take him, and the audience, into some intriguing directions next season. Season 3 of True Blood didn't feel as 'must watch' as the last 2 but I enjoyed it all the same, there's nothing quite like it out there. And it's so much better than the bloodless Twilight saga.
Spread over 3 nights just before Christmas, the latest installment of Shane Meadow's distinctly British (comedy-) drama was also set during the 1988 festive period and featured the same gang as before, dealing with new issues and repercussions from 1986. So Lol (Vicky McClure) is a single mother, plagued by visions of the father she killed last series that are genuinely creepy - they could have been hard to swallow in a series that aims for realism, but it worked well to indicate why the unfortunate Lol was so depressed. Her nearly-husband Woody is living in supposed domestic bliss at home with his loving parents and sweet new girlfriend, who are unknowingly smothering the real Woody with kindnesses. He's one of my favourite characters - he tries so hard to be a good son, employee and boyfriend, but he's dying inside, longing to be back with Lol, back with the friends who 'betrayed' him. It's a terrific performance from Joe Gilgun, who steers Woody on a delicate course through humour, distress and anger without ever making him unlikable - I was rooting for him all the way. Young Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), with his permanently worried, Charlie Brown-like demeanour, is now at drama school and is fed up with girlfriend Smell (maybe because she's now Warwick Davis' PA?) and dealing with conflicting feelings about his middle class co-star. The supporting cast do not have as much to do in terms of their own storylines compared to '86 but that's ok because Lol, Woody and Shaun provide laughs, heartache and drama enough to make this series another must-watch drama.
It seems that I never wrote about this year's The Apprentice (series 7), which is a shame as it was a cracker, won by multiple task-loser yet most likable candidate Tom. Barely a few weeks (it felt like, actually a couple of months) after the end of this series came
There have been a few shows I've started watching this year and then ultimately decided I couldn't be bothered sticking with them to see if they got better, as there's plenty more readily enjoyable stuff out there. These included Outcasts, The Hour and a couple of things I've blocked from my memory, and very nearly Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's latest, Life's Too Short. I stuck with the latter though, through all 7 episodes, as I had faith that it would improve, and I also really liked Warwick Davis' performance. I'm not convinced it ever did improve, and the laugh ratio was fairly low, especially in comparison with The Office and Extras. The central premise, that Davis is down on his luck, going through divorce and struggling for work, leads to all sorts of embarrassing situations for the short-statured star, some of which poke fun at reactions to Warwick's size and some of which use his being a dwarf to mine for laughs. The problem with Life's Too Short is that so much of the humour comes across as just mean spirited rather than clever - there's too much 'oh aren't we cutting edge, we're not making fun of AIDs or disabled people, we're just pointing out the absurd things real racists/homophobes/sexists say for comic effect'. Sometimes Davis' performance is 'too Ricky Gervais', as in you could see the words coming right out of his mouth, and this is a detriment, as is every time the writer/directors turn up, shoe-horned in to all but one episode. Although I like a celebrity cameo (Keith Chegwin, Shaun Williamson and Les Dennis provided the biggest laughs in episode 6 discussing suicide), I reckon the show would benefit from less of them and concentrating on the promising romance between Warwick and his blind date Amy. My wonder now is whether to stick with a second series, and I think I might based solely on the blind faith that it will get better.
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