You see, I was always a big fan of the original American version of which this series was a close copy, and upon which most (if not all) of its stories were based. There had been several years of showings of the old shows on Channel 5, and we had come to enjoy the adventures of Detective Lennie Briscoe and his revolving door of sidekicks and the courtroom shenanigans of Prosecutor Jack ("Sam the American Bald Eagle") McCoy and his own ever-changing roll-call of assistants as they put away the bad guys after negotiating the twisty-turny plots week after week after week.
Even though the faces changed, the series never seemed to falter and achieved that comparative rarity of running consecutively for twenty seasons in the USA until finally being laid to rest only a couple of years ago.
The UK version also suffered from several changes of cast throughout its eight-year run, despite having far shorter seasons of around seven episodes a year rather than the twenty-two or more on average in the States, but at its heart was that perhaps surprisingly warm and earnest performance of Bradley Walsh as Ronnie Brooks, and, I suppose, in the very different UK market, his character might have been difficult to replace in the affections of the viewers.
Still, ITV Drama, heh? It's always difficult to judge whether a good one is going to come along. Yes you've got the rather wonderful "Lewis" and the sublime "Poirot" productions, but for every one of those, there's some tabloid-based nonsense, or something that's either far too shouty, far too "issues-led", or far too contrived to be taken at all seriously.
Even though the faces changed, the series never seemed to falter and achieved that comparative rarity of running consecutively for twenty seasons in the USA until finally being laid to rest only a couple of years ago.
The UK version also suffered from several changes of cast throughout its eight-year run, despite having far shorter seasons of around seven episodes a year rather than the twenty-two or more on average in the States, but at its heart was that perhaps surprisingly warm and earnest performance of Bradley Walsh as Ronnie Brooks, and, I suppose, in the very different UK market, his character might have been difficult to replace in the affections of the viewers.
Still, ITV Drama, heh? It's always difficult to judge whether a good one is going to come along. Yes you've got the rather wonderful "Lewis" and the sublime "Poirot" productions, but for every one of those, there's some tabloid-based nonsense, or something that's either far too shouty, far too "issues-led", or far too contrived to be taken at all seriously.
Now before you go off and cite the multi-award-winning bloody "Broadchurch" (and its American remake "NoPoint") at me as a shining example of a "brilliant" ITV Drama, I ought to mention that, having watched all of it on first transmission, I'm really not its biggest fan, and find it a little bit over-rated, if I'm being honest, proving once again - to me at least - that "popular" really is not the same thing as "good..."
Oh it was well put together and nicely acted and all that, but… I did find it rather predictable and cliche-ridden, and was concerned that it had that tendency towards "shouting rather than emoting" that seems to be a fairly standard acting style in much that passes for drama on TV these days.
And, despite being "watchable" enough, I don't really think that it was all that "rewatchable" once the central mystery was solved (if you see what I mean?), and I certainly didn't find the characters were ones that I would be fussed about seeing again.
Mind you, that's possibly because I don't find "ordinary family life" as inherently fascinating as most viewers seem to, I suppose, which kind of skews my perception as those dreary little "moments" that so many viewers seem to find relate to their own lives, just leave me stone cold and wondering what anyone could find so appealing about something so utterly banal and mundane.
(If you really want "banal and mundane", by the way, there are over a thousand post right in the archives of this very blog page to keep you more than unhappy…)
Oh I know that, as a layman, it's easy for me to criticise… I've never had to create a popular drama, and, furthermore, am probably never likely to, but I do know what I like and, to be perfectly honest, a lot of what I see, I don't like very much at all.
Which is why it's a shame to have one that I did quite like fade into history.
(If you really want "banal and mundane", by the way, there are over a thousand post right in the archives of this very blog page to keep you more than unhappy…)
Oh I know that, as a layman, it's easy for me to criticise… I've never had to create a popular drama, and, furthermore, am probably never likely to, but I do know what I like and, to be perfectly honest, a lot of what I see, I don't like very much at all.
Which is why it's a shame to have one that I did quite like fade into history.
Agreed - Law and Order was a good watch.
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