Series 3 review (spoilers)
(That's Season 3 for all of you Americanised people.)
Excuse any rambling... I'm just putting my thoughts on the page. Complaints first... compliments after. Just got a copy of this out of a shop.
I could have done without Dennis Paterson introducing each episode and the "coming next week" feature too. Just grates. The writing is rarely as snappy as series 1, or even series 2. One of the few bits that sticks out is when the woman at the hotel asks Joe if he has a reservation (and Barry says "Yes, right next to the Navajo")
The biggest mistake is the Wyman character. A mistake if ever there was one. I've nothing against having a black character on AWP, but it would have been better to have a different actor playing one, especially someone from the same age group as the boys. The guy who plays Mickey Startup's bodyguard would have worked IMHO. Wyman's just an attempt to get "down wid da kids", and it fails miserably. Wyman's integration into the group is never fully justified... and to rub the point in, even the theme tune seems to refer to him... Knopfler may be singing "Why aye man", but it sounds damn close to "Wyman"! When Wyman disappeared, I wasn't really that interested.
Also, it barely seems as if series 2 ever happened. There are a few references, such as Barry's ex-wife Hazel becoming a lesbian, but in general, most of the other references are "oblique". Other events that you'd think would be pretty major e.g. being kidnapped by criminals and taken to Morocco, the horrible Derbyshire landlord etc barely get a mention or the pornography manor. And you would have thought that Oz's affection for country music would be big in series 3... yet the only mention it gets is when Wyman guesses that Oz likes a bit of C&W.
The Eastern European angle was not played very well. I suppose it was supposed to be ironic given the nature of series 1. There's a slightly xenophobic undertone... it's not only that "black labour" is stealing everyone's jobs, it's that notion that the Russians are bringing most of drugs into the UK. Cue also a really annoying, and stereotypical journalist character (most journalists don't do decent investigative stuff in the UK, I'm afraid - they just quote agency copy and the editorial line.)
Then there's the whole "the north east is depressed" stuff. We know that. But boy, does Dennis rub it in! In fact he comes across as a moaner throughout this. His love life, if he ever really had one, has completely disappeared. The notion that a Scouser would find Middlesbrough worse than some of the places on Merseyside is nonsense too. Oz has become stereotypical in some ways, but has developed in other's and become more Macchiavellian. Bomber barely features (did he do more wrestling? We hear him on the phone to his daughter, and we know he's a widower, but that's it). Barry is amusing, but his wife and brother-in-law are caricatures. Neville moans as he always did (and we get to see him naked yet again - why?!) but sexually frustrated. It's never quite explained why the Sarah character likes Oz so much either - and she could have been developed more. (The only female characters in this who come out well, IMHO are Joe's daughter and Brenda. As for Irene, amazing how she speaks excellent English and none of the other workers do.)
As for Oz's son, Rod... apart from the fact that he was a pretty good footballer once (and this is ignored)... it seemed a little contrived for him to be gay. But the thing is, Rod Osbourne is a bloody awful drag artiste. Apart from being unable to sing particularly well, Rod's performance is so wooden, he looks like Lady Penelope out of the Thunderbirds, not Dusty Springfield! (and what's with the Spennymoor thing? There was an obsession with that place in series 2 as well)
On the plus side... I quite like the native American characters. The Joe character is particularly likeable, and the Indians aren't really sentimentalised much. Also, Bill Nighy - you can't really go wrong with him. I think he is a better bit of casting than Bill Paterson in series 2, who came across as too nice in some ways (his genuine character shining through?) The policeman character's okay as well, and the Calhoun character is convincing if slightly stereotypical Ulster (did they ever have decent Irish characters on AWP?) The series after this one lapsed more into travelogue, but fortunately this one doesn't go all the way down that road like the Cuban episodes.
That's maybe enough for now. I'll add more later.
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It's not "Sci-Fi", it's SF!
"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker