TV REVIEW: Ripper Street - Become Man

This week’s episode of Ripper Street took a departure from the norm somewhat. The norm being the side-lining of the show’s female characters in favour of some dubious plotlines and questionable (at best) dialogue.

Become Man, however, saw Long (Tall) Susan (MyAnna Buring) take centre stage. The episode kicked off with her and her husband/partner/housemate/hanger on (nobody’s quite sure) Homer Hackson (Adam Rothenberg) taking a trip to  a local music hall where Series One regular and former prostitute Rose (Charlene McKenna) has taken a job  as a waitress in an attempt to make it as an actress. They’re scarcely there ten minutes when a powerful councillor is abducted by what Detective Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) remarkably quickly deduces to be a gang of women. It isn’t long until one of Susan’s customers is also abducted, with Susan herself being taken too. Jackson shows concern for her for a change, and the team tear across London trying to identify the women’s vengeful and in so doing locate their hide out.

Walter de Souza, the first to be abducted, turns out to have made a stand against the potential election of Jane Cobden, a real life Liberal politician, played here with aplomb by Leanne Best.  This forms the team’s first lead, and with it they identify a running theme as to the chosen abductees. Largely carried out by women angry at their treatment by men, specifically due to their mistreatment and lack of compensation from matchbox factory owners uncaring about their phosphorous poisoning, the episode allows some interesting questions to be raised about revenge, justice and the means by which to gain it. The subsequent return of Susan to Reid and the gang (a less breezy version of Kool and the Gang) also allows her to be used as bait by the men, adding to this idea of female worth in a male world. To that end, it is no surprise that she begins to sympathise with the women, developing an understanding with and empathy for Raine (Neve McIntosh) an actress usually found dressed as a reptile in Doctor Who.

It is this understanding which causes Susan’s loyalties to be questioned for good, and we can’t help but feel as an audience that if the Three Musketeers hadn’t swooped in (well, stumbled in behind  hefty and inaccurate battering ram) and rescued her at the last minute, she might just have stayed. This subplot gave a fascinating new dynamic to what at times can be a spectacularly dull show, as Jackson stepped up to the plate and behaved like he cared about someone other than himself, Myanna Buring had more than three lines, and was allowed not only to do more than pout, but to raise some real life serious points! Radical, I know. Rose’s return didn’t serve much of a purpose, I suspect perhaps the female focus of the episode meant that they simply had to get as many actors with breasts into shot at once as was humanly possible. Even her scenes with Bella (Gillian Saker), a woman who technically is her love rival, didn’t lead to anything at all, and the storyline was quickly dropped. Although to be fair, that’s pretty standard behaviour from a Ripper Street episode. (Don’t even get me started on the Joseph Merrick cameo).

This was a surprisingly enjoyable hour of viewing. It wasn’t perfect, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but it was certainly making strides in the right direction. If they can keep this up, they might just, just be on to something with this series.

Time, and you don’t have much of it left to wait, will tell.

Ripper Street is next on tomorrow night, BBC 1, 9pm.

Jen

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FEATURE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Lie To Me

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Angel's relationship looks to be going well, but the Scoobies are still under threat from Spike and the now roaming Drusilla.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon, Lie to Me is another strong entry in the first half of the second season, slowly starting the emerging theme of innocence, or rather, the loss of it. In this episode, Buffy's old friend from Hemery High, Ford (Jason Behr, Roswell alum and future co-star with SMG in The Grudge) transfers to Sunnydale for senior year and immediately seeks out his old friend. However, Ford has an ulterior motive; he wants to be a vampire and is willing to do just about anything to make that happen, including making a deal with Spike for Buffy's life.

Following on from Halloween was never going to be an easy task, but Lie To Me succeeds by going down the nostalgia route. Everyone has that one friend or crush you used to idolise and follow without question and this episode touches on that with Buffy discovering her friend isn't so great anymore. It is also one of the first episodes to really explore death and its certainty. Although Prophecy Girl dealt with Buffy's death, that was more from a supernatural angle because she is always fated to die (and it would be bad even by Whedon's standards to kill of the title character). In this, Ford is dying from a brain tumour and decides he wants to stay young and pretty forever. His reveal to Buffy is an emotional moment, one in which Buffy is forced to confront a person she can't save for the first time though she does her best to make sure he does the right thing.

There's a few moments in which we start to see the crashing realities about to hit Buffy and the gang this season. Perhaps the biggest of all is the revelation that Drusilla is alive and wandering around, talking to Angel no less. The Angel/Buffy relationship is a lot rockier than I remember and after they seemingly get along famously at the end of Halloween, they're back in a rough patch here as Buffy confronts Angel and he tells her the truth about his past with Dru. It's a big, important reveal and starts to illustrate just how evil Angelus was back in the day (though of course, everyone's going to find out soon enough). It's interesting to see the pieces slowly fall into place this season; in a sense, it's amazing that the Angelus reveal is so huge because it's all here to find in the build-up. But we're not there just yet and Buffy is still fairly unaware of how bad its all going to get.

Ford's desire to be a vampire leads to an episode absolutely steeped with pop culture vampirism, even more so than it is usually. Ford is a person well versed in movie lore, living everything out like its his own personal film, particularly in his scene with Spike. There's The Lost Boys in there with Ford's reference to dying young and staying pretty, Dracula gets some screen time whilst some of the costumes have to be seen to be believed. However, the most fun is the skewering of the Anne Rice vampire type (already present in Angel's duality); Chantarelle makes references to The Lonely Ones, vampires as tortured souls alone in the world who are more interested in brooding than hurting anyone. It does lead to a great Angel joke as he derides their misconceptions and has a person walk past in the same outfit. If this is what Whedon does to vampire fandom in the wake of Anne Rice, imagine what he would have done with Twilight? Now that is something I want to see.

It's also an episode full of great smaller moments; Cordelia's sympathy with Marie Antoinette, Giles and Jenny's Nitro-Burning-Funny-Cars date, Angel's disappearing trick, Willow's realisation about The Divinyls' 'I Touch Myself' (I didn't get that joke for the longest time until I too had a similar moment of realisaton and it all made sense) and Angel in Willow's bedroom; "Ours is a forbidden love". There's a few dodgy moments too, mostly to do with Xander who is a real dick in this episode. I mean, Xander always straddles the funny/irritating line, but here he's just plain annoying with his knowing comments and rampaging jealousy. It gets tired very quickly, though I suppose he's in line with teenage boys and it builds towards his actions in the season's finale. But still, he's just really annoying here.

Largely though, it's another strong episode in the season and one that is not afraid to start tackling the darker themes. Everyone always goes on about the darkness of the sixth season, but there is a lot to be found in this one if you're looking for it, if not quite on the same scale.

Next Time: The Dark Age

Quote of the Week (had to print the entirety of this):

Buffy: Does it ever get easy?
Giles: You mean life?
Buffy: Yeah... Does it get easy?
Giles: What do you want me to say?
Buffy: Lie to me.
Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies and everybody lives happily ever after.
Buffy: Liar.

Let's Get Trivial: That's Jack Palance playing Dracula on the television in a 1973 adaptation.

- Becky

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TV REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - FZZT

Agents of SHIELD returns after a weeklong break and brings with it yet another episode which improves on what has gone before.

FZZT was exactly the kind of episode we needed at this point in the season, one which stripped away the fantastical and the action and focused in on the team's dynamics and how they work together to defeat a problem. Placing one of the team member's in jeopardy is a tried and tested method of doing this and SHIELD takes the concept and comes up with one emotional moment after another as Simmons is exposed to a Chitauri virus with little hope of discovering a vaccine. Sorry, I mean anti-serum.

It's fitting that Titus Welliver's Agent Blake returned for this episode as it bore a couple of similarities to the Marvel One-Shot, Item 47, in which his character first appeared. In that, a couple find a piece of Chitauri weaponry and go off on a bit of a spree whilst in this, a group of volunteer firefighters are exposed to an alien virus when they take a helmet as a souvenir from the Battle of New York. Blake's presence was another neat way of tying SHIELD into the wider Marvel universe without it becoming a bell-ringing moment. 

SHIELD seems to have found the balance now between carving a new identity whilst remaining part of the same universe as The Avengers. The inclusion of the helmet as MacGuffin didn't feel clunky though it does raise the question of whether we'll be seeing the virus again as I'm sure other people at the Battle would be affected. Likewise, the New York connection wasn't used to labour the point about the changes wrought by the battle, but was abandoned once the central plot regarding the virus took over. This bodes well for the recent announcement that a new episode would follow on from the events of Thor: The Dark World.

However, the clumsiest aspect still remains the mystery behind what happened to Coulson. It's through no fault of Clark Gregg's though who gives a brilliant performance throughout. We got one excellent scene in which he talks to the fireman about to die and reassures him that it's not bad at all, but we've still had no development other than the confirmation of a scar and Coulson recognising that something is wrong. This should feel like a bigger revelation, but it doesn't after weeks of hearing 'there's something different about Coulson...'

This episode was not confined to just developing Coulson though. I've loved the FitzSimmons duo from the start, but they've not warmed themselves to a fair section of SHIELD's audience so far. This episode sought to explore the pair's relationship by first splitting them up and then getting them back together as Simmons' life is put in danger. Throughout the show so far, they've done little more than bicker and spout technical jargon with abandon, which both Iain de Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge do with aplomb. This episode, however, is their first real test as characters rather than comic relief.

Both actors rise to the challenge and produce the best scene the season has had to date as the pair argue in their trademark way before they realise that they are inextricably linked and share a unique history and connection that they're not ready to sever just yet. Henstridge's stiff upper lip approach worked well and we got a good hint as to how far she is willing to go to protect her team. However, it was de Caestecker who really stole the show, particularly in the aforementioned scene as he slowly realises just how much Simmons actually means to him.

What also made a huge difference to the emotional connection to the episode was that we actually weren't sure whether Simmons was going to make. Executive producer Joss Whedon has a bit of a reputation when it comes to killing off characters and in a sense, this entire episode was a trolling exercise based on this fact. It raised the stakes a considerably amount for the characters and then explored the team's dynamics stemming from this. She may have had a smaller role this time around, but Chloe Bennet gave a strong supportive performance and I love that Ward really is just a stick in the mud. The impressions of him also helped and moments like those felt much more natural. They've really started to click and so too has the show.

The only trouble with the episode was that it took too long to get there. The scenes in which the volunteer fire officers succumbed to the disease were suitably creepy and as I said before, the Coulson scene was a good callback to the ongoing mystery surrounding his return. However, we've had some important character development and it's really starting to look like SHIELD is on its way now.

- Becky

You can read Becky's review of the previous episode here

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TV REVIEW: Ripper Street - Am I Not Monstrous?

After the untimely demise of Sergeant Linklater in ‘Pure as the Driven’, this week’s episode of Ripper Street, ‘Am I Not Monstrous?’ didn’t see life in Victorian Whitechapel get any easier or more appealing. A young woman turns up at a local hospital, seemingly having been living rough for some time. She’s heavily pregnant, in fact, she’s in labour, and gives birth to a son shortly afterwards. All would seem to be well, however, this is Ripper Street, so naturally a few hours later she is brutally murdered by being pushed down some stairs, with the killer disappearing into the night with the new born. The autopsy later reveals that the victim had an unusual physical deformity, leading the trail to a circus freak show. 

 The child’s father turns out to be the son of a famous eugenics doctor, causing the Inspector Reid (Matthew MacFadyen) and his team to muse upon abnormality, and leading to another, somewhat inevitable, cameo from Joseph Merrick, ‘The Elephant Man’, played here by Joseph Drake.

A few of the issues brushed under the carpet in the rather rushed feeling Episode One were re-addressed here, namely, WHERE THE HELL HAS REID’S WIFE GONE AND WHY DOES NOBODY SEEM TO CARE THAT SHE HAS TOTALLY VANISHED? Apparently she suffered some form of psychiatric episode after the end of Series one, after Reid gave her ‘false hope’ that their missing daughter may yet be alive. However given that it took twenty minutes locked in an iron cell with nosy ex mental health specialist Dr. Crabbe (Anton Lesser) for Reid to reveal even that much, we’re probably best not holding our collective breath for any more juicy, and frankly useful, morsels of information to be divulged anytime soon. This episode also saw the return of Long Susan (MyAnna Buring), or Long-Tall Susan as I’m calling her this week, in a little more depth, as her and Captain Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) had a good ol’ barney about the proprietor of Susan’s establishment, the slimy, sleezy Silas Duggan (Frank Harper).

There were some interesting aspects to the overall arc of the story, namely in the idea of eugenics, and also those of shame, being an outsider and accepting who you are. Unfortunately these were dealt with in every bit as clumsy a manner as we have by now come to expect from Ripper Street, using overly antiquated language in over complex scenes. There were some truly moving moments in the portrayal of Jospeh Merrick’s day to day life, however, particularly his being followed by the braying mob and subsequently passionately defended by H Division new kid on the block DC Flight (Damien Molony). Joseph Mawle continues to give an arrogantly sinister performance as Detective Inspector Shine, albeit a performance entirely devoid of any apparent enunciation. The production values, set design and connection between a smaller story and a wider societal context were as ambitious as ever, again as ever, with some elements achieved better than others.

Ripper Street, for me at least, continues to be overwhelmingly frustrating to watch. All the elements are there, and it has the potential to be an effective, well delivered, poignant and downright cool drama. It’s just a shame that, at the moment, anyway, it just isn’t quite managing it.

Jen

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TV REVIEW: The Paradise - Episodes 2 & 3

As The Paradise sashays on through Episodes 2 and 3 of the series, some distinctly unsubtle yet nonetheless valuable themes are beginning to emerge. I’ll come back to these later, but in the meantime, let’s browse through what’s been happening in everyone’s favourite fictional department store.

In Episode 2, with Miss Audrey (Sarah Lancashire) about to be wed and thus depart her position as Head of Ladieswear, there is much gossip as to who will replace her. A French business associate of Moray’s (Emun Elliott) by the name of Clemence (Branka Katic) arrives. Once safely ensconced in the town, she spends her time spouting some very progressive opinions and generally setting the cat amongst the pigeons by flirting dangerously with everyone in sight, whilst attempting to sell her own brand of fireworks. Quite literally. Tom Weston (Ben Daniels) continues to throw his weight around at every possible opportunity, flaunting his desires for both Clemence herself as well as shop girl Clara (Sonya Cassidy) in the face of his equally manipulative wife Katherine (Elaine Cassidy)’s face. Meanwhile Denise (Joanna Vanderham) frets about Moray’s feelings for Clemence, as well as Clememce’s treatment of Dudley (Matthew McNulty) in her business games. Disgraced but fiercely loyal former employee Jonas (David Hayman) returns in mysterious circumstances with a terrible fever, but quickly settles back into his old place in the store hierarchy.

Episode 3 saw competition for Head of Ladieswear really hot up, with Denise and Clara back at loggerheads as of old. Tom Weston managed to become even more sinister, shouting at his admittedly rather shrewish wife, barking orders at his young daughter and threatening to send her away to boarding school, much to lonely Katherine’s distress. Moray and Denise grew further apart as the extent of the Weston’s manipulative plans began to come to light, as his fears for her safety as his lover overshadowed his professional role as the employer of an ambitious young woman looking to get ahead. The charming Mr Weston, not content with treating Clara and Denise as pawns, then took it upon himself to cancel the annual staff outing, leaving it to Denise to find ways for the staff to have a good time. Naturally, she more than rose to the challenge.

Going back to those themes I hinted at earlier, the first and most obvious in these two episodes was that of a woman’s right to follow her own path, regardless of what society dictates. Clemence’s lovely speech in which she stated that ‘when we give in to our passions, we are free’ summed this idea up rather well, as she suggested to all the female member s of Paradise staff that they could do anything they wanted as well as, if not better than their male counterparts. More specifically, though, this particular theme was seen through the trope of marriage, especially in the idea of career versus matrimony. Miss Audrey, having long battled between the two, was the first to see the light, and to recognise that this ‘either or’ idea is fundamentally wrong. Denise wasn’t far behind, as it became clear that Moray still treats her almost as a child as someone to be protected. She too will have to choose one day we’re told, as Clara retorts ‘you can have the job, but you’ll lose the man’.

The other blindingly obvious theme in these two hours of Paradise viewing was that of competition. In this case, the rivalry was present in both genders. This was most apparent with the paired couples of Katherine and Tom Weston, and Denise and Moray. Whilst the latter’s relationship is erring more on the side of chocolate box than abusive, unlike their rivals, they still disagree on professional matters, and this affects their personal relationship. Katherine and Tom, on the other hand, are so desperate to outdo each other that their professional and personal lives bleed into one, with their ownership of The Paradise and relationship with persons in it at the centre of everything. There were also rivalries between men and men, women and women, as the arrival of the alluring Clemence set up Tom and Dudley, Denise and Clemence (initially, at least) and later Katherine and Clemence as love rivals. There was also the obvious streak of competition running through the proceedings of replacing Miss Audrey, not only amongst the applicants but amongst the decision makers as well.

Seemingly not content with being a blissfully silly escapist drama, The Paradise has actually begun to establish some rather clever ideas. Naturally, they’re not totally explored to their full, dark potential and everybody’s at home happy with a cocoa by bedtime (except the Westons) but then, what more do you want from a Sunday evening?

At the moment, at least, The Paradise’s department store dramas are balancing the books just right.

The Paradise is next shown on Sunday, 8pm, BBC One.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vhpsv

Jen

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FILM REVIEW: Romeo & Juliet

Julian Fellowes, he of the popular Sunday night entertainment and now morality play Downton Abbey, has written an adaptation of William Shakespeare's most famous romance, the tragedy of Romeo & Juliet. It turns out, tragedy is entirely the right term, though not necessarily in the context meant by the Warwickshire wordsmith. For Fellowes has crafted what I am confident in saying is the worst adaptation of a Shakespeare that I have ever seen. And that's a list that includes She's The Man.

When tackling a play with such a lengthy, memorable performance and cinematic history as Romeo & Juliet, it is necessary to take a new approach to the material and provide audiences with a chance to look with fresh eyes at this giddy teenage (and very silly) romance. Zeferelli provided a beautiful, timeless adaptation that took a historical approach to the material, casting teen leads and giving us a story for the ages. Laurents, Bernstein and Sondheim gave us an all-singing, all-dancing version in one of the best musicals ever.  Luhrmann cranked it up to eleven and brought the play screaming into the modern day, launching stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the process. All wildly different interpretations of the same play and each with something to say about the material. So what do Fellowes and director Carlo Calei give us? The flattest, dullest and most bog-standard interpretation of Shakespeare's text.

Now I am no Shakespeare purist by any means; he is one of those rare writers that can be transported into a wide variety of locations and situations that bring new meaning to his centuries-old words. Fellowes and Carlei could have taken us anywhere, done anything with the text that they wanted to. So we got 16th century Verona. Right. Not only that, but Fellowes kindly did us the honour of each character repeating all the major plot points first in modern(ish) language and then the actual Shakespearean line. Sometimes, just in case we poor souls were completely lost, he even let us hear the same line in modern English again. Thanks Julian. It's just so hard to pay attention to films these days. It's nice to have it repeated at great length.

This insulting and arrogant attitude to the audience was not confined to Fellowes' additions to existing scenes, but also in his creation of entirely new ones. Sometimes, this can be used to great effect, much like re-setting the play in a different location. Here, it seems to have been simply to give supporting cast member Damian Lewis more scenery to gnaw through. These extra scenes served little to advance the plot beyond making sure the audience knew exactly what was going on at any given moment. There were odd scenes such as the one in which Tybalt (a hilariously growling Ed Westwick) swore Juliet's honour was his only care. It set up an odd dynamic to their relationship that was picked up and dropped again as Tybalt's corpse hit the ground. Poor Natascha McElhone got saddled with the brunt of these scenes in an attempt to flesh out her character of Lady Capulet. It didn't work.

It also ensured that the pacing to the film was completely off. Big moments like Romeo (Douglas Booth) and Juliet's (Hailee Steinfeld) meeting at the dance is sped through and culminates in a scene my friend memorably described as a 'kissing behind the bike sheds' moment. Likewise, Mercutio (Christian Cooke) is barely a footnote in a play in which he's one of the most popular characters. His death scene that is full of fantastic language and damning speeches is reduced to about three lines and a bloody cough. Even the many fencing scenes are boring, badly choreographed and over far too quickly. Instead, we get the lengthy scene in which the Friar tells Juliet of his plan that gives us an alternate reality version of climax of the play for seemingly no other reason than to labour the tragedy of the ending. 

Scenes that should carry some emotional heft barely even register; Mercutio and Tybalt's deaths carry so little weight that as the turning point of the play, it feels like a slight bend rather than the complete hairpin that it should do. In fact, Fellowes seems in such a rush to get to the final scenes, because we all know how it happens, that he forgets to make us care about these characters. None of the family dynamics are present, none of the conflict that family loyalty brings is present for the central pair beyond the words they speak. For someone so confident in his audience not understanding the play, Fellowes has managed to completely misread it in just about every way possible. Relying on the tragic ending alone to inspire sympathy for your characters is just lazy.

The butcher's approach to the text bled into the performances of the cast, a random hotch-potch that felt like every single one of them was in a completely different film to the next character along. Westwick tries to bring a weighty gravitas to Tybalt by scowling and stalking through every scene he's let near; the effect is rather comical and I defy anyone not to laugh when he appears for the duel, hair blowing in his face and dust rising from his heavy footsteps. Paul Giamatti's Friar Lawrence manages to bring actual gravitas to his role and seems to be the only person who understands the emotional beats of the scenes he is in. Damian Lewis, on the other hand, veers from comical to patriarchal tyrant so fast, it feels like he's filming various different films at once.

As central duos go, there could have been a less appealing combination than Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth. Though their delivery of the Shakespearean dialogue occasionally reminded me of many an afternoon sat listening to classmates murder blank verse, they imbue their characters with a wide-eyed enthusiasm that carries them through the film as the rest of it falls apart. She is pretty and floaty, he is heroically masculine yet sensitive. Just to hammer that home, Romeo's introduction finds him carving a statue whilst wearing a shirt open to the navel, bearing his sweaty, manly, manly chest for all to see. I think I was supposed to swoon, but instead I rolled my eyes. It was the first of many.

Perhaps the only positive that can be salvaged from the film, and I am really struggling to find much more, is that it looks beautiful; light casts down in angelic beams that highlight the production design. The costumes are beautiful though the colour schemes seemed a little confused when it came to distinguishing Montagues and Capulets. The fact that it looks so pretty softens the blow slightly as you are watching Shakespeare's text ripped to shreds in front of your eyes.

A film so heavy-handed, it feels like being bashed over the head with a copy of The Complete Works, Romeo & Juliet will do absolutely nothing to challenge the existing iconic adaptations of the play. In fact, it may just make you appreciate them that little bit more.

*

- Becky

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TV REVIEW: Ripper Street - Pure As The Driven

Owing to the fact that Becky now has far better things to do than take the whatsit out of a show we’ve grown to detest week on week (actually that’s not strictly true, she’s now reviewing it in a much more serious manner over on Den of Geek) I’m afraid you’re stuck with me and my jokes about corsets for the time being, as we enter Series 2 of BBC Period Crime Drama, Ripper Street.

Admin aside, let’s crack on with the episode.

‘Pure as the Driven’, opened with a spot of traditional Ripper Street grit, as a Limehouse detective by the name of Maurice Linklater is thrown from a window and impaled on a nearby railing. I sincerely hope that nobody was eating their dinner at that point. It transpires that the house belongs to a mysterious yet beautiful (aren’t they always?) lady by the name of Blush Pang, of Chinese origin. Who is she? What was Linklater doing there? How on earth did he end up with his leg attached to the business end of an ornamental fence? Inspector Reid (Matthew McFadyen), Sergeant Drake (Jerome Flynn) and Homer Jackson, “the American” surgeon (Adam Rothenberg) set out to investigate, uncovering a shady drugs plot in the process. Meanwhile, brawls break out down at H division for seemingly no apparent reason and Long Susan (Myanna Buring) has run into a few issues with her landlord.

Just another day in Whitechapel, then.

The dynamic between the three principals was pleasingly well established from the off, with Reid touchingly referring to Jackson as “my American”, whilst pulling once of his earnest faces, Drake hanging off Reid’s every word whilst looking tough, and Jackson making sarcastic comments at every possible opportunity and generally behaving somewhat recklessly. Other than that, though, there really wasn’t much of an ‘in’ for new viewers. The overall arc of the plot was clear enough, predictable even, but, as has all too often been the case with Ripper Street, individual scenes were over-complicated, hard to follow and at times downright inaudible- whether you were a new viewer or otherwise. It was apparent whereabouts it was going, it was just the journey there that was utterly incomprehensible.

To find a positive point upon which to hang one’s bowler hat, the sets were as stunning as ever, with the jerky violin music making up the score only adding to the sense of atmosphere. As always, there’s a real sense of place to the London of Ripper Street, echoed well in Reid’s passionate protectiveness of his patch. Joseph Mawle was also fantastic as the authentic seeming Inspector Jebediah Shine, Reid’s be-bearded district neighbour and delightfully evil villain. Unfortunately though, the show as a whole tried a little too hard to appear authentically Victorian. Again. The endless corsetry (from 15 minutes in, if anybody is interested) walking hand in hand with the undercurrent of grubby prostitution, the mucky streets and murky taverns are, again as always,  a little too carefully put together, a little too obvious for any of it to feel real. And that’s without me even mentioning the ridiculously over done dialogue, and the apparently random, gratuitous appearances of John Merrick, The Elephant Man, in case you hadn’t 100% spotted the endless Victoriana, and still thought there was a chance you might be watching Downton.

Some of the enjoyable parts of Series One were present in this Series Two opener, the chemistry of H division, the sets and camera work as well as the overall whodunit aspects in particular. Despite that though, it veered between attempting to be Game of Thrones with some added saucy scenes (perhaps the presence of Jerome Flynn caused some confusion?) and trying to out-gore fellow local crime drama Whitechapel, which shares Ripper Street’s postcode if not century. The cast can’t be faulted, especially if they speak up a bit, and the episode felt rounded, even ending on a tense note to cajole us (I could certainly use the encouragement) into tuning in next week.

It was just the bits in between that were the problem, and unfortunately those bits accounted for far too large a chunk for the hour long show to be much in the way of an enjoyable experience. And without that, what is really the point?

Jen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wk6pq

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