2 posts tagged “tv”

So we've watched the first three episodes of Drive, and I have to say, I'm really impressed... what they've essentially done is they've stripped down the "unfolding mystery" element that has enervated some modern shows since Twin Peaks and later, The X Files really took advantage of it, and made it something that doesn't dominate the concept in the way that it does as a matter of course in a show like Lost or Heroes. Those shows are so concerned with misdirection, obfuscation and interconnected secrets that if a major piece of hidden information isn't dropped every episode, less patient viewers start to get fidgetty. But Drive only really has one dominating mystery, which is all about the organisation running the race, and in some ways can be ignored for weeks at a time, because you don't really NEED to know it to enjoy the frenetic action and self-contained nature of the episodes.

Of course, each character has their secrets, but they aren't the focus of the show, and we're already finding out lots about them, which is refreshing when we spend so much time rivetted week after week to Heroes and Lost, grateful for scraps. Unravelling these characters IS an important part of the fun, but so far Drive seems more concerned with where the players are going as much as where they have been... The race bits are a lot of fun, the fairly basic detective work involved with each car working out that day's destination is engaging and light, so the exploration of the protagonists' backgrounds and motives are just little pockets of data that inform the decisions that they make, rather than being the core of the text.

Both Heroes and Lost do the same thing, but the ratios are shifted around in Drive, so that where those shows are focussed about 20% forward/80% back (and of course, by using time-travel, Heroes manages to fudge that further, so that actually even the 20% forward is also filling in backstory!), Drive is 80/20 the other way.

Plus, the major crash at the beginning of the second episode of Drive is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen on a tv screen... It was such a cool example of taking movie sensibilities and production values into a tv setting, in the way that BSG used to do in every single episode, and the way Lost does every time they revisit the actual plane crash, but at the same time, it genuinely felt like something that we had NEVER seen quite like that before. For me, it was like the first time I saw the plane being ripped apart in Alive, or further back, when the failing aircraft rips through the other plane, spilling occupants, in Memphis Belle. Horrific, intense and chillingly authentic all at the same time.

Also, thus far, the cast and scripts are very good indeed...

And by the way, if you are one of the people on IMDB who keeps complaining about the re-use of locations, or the fact that it's obvious that they're just reusing the same stretches of road, well, you're an idiot. I'm not going to tell you that you should have low expectations of your entertainment, but at the same time, this is tv, with tv budgets. If the choice is between telling a cool story but making reasonable compromises to practicality and cost, or not telling that cool story at all, I'll always choose the opportunity over the resignation. I'll suspend disbelief, because my imagination's strong enough to take the cast all over the US, even if the budget can't.

I'm posting this very quickly here in response to a series of comments that I saw on Wil Wheaton's vox post of over a month ago, simply because no-one that I know in the real world is watching Heroes yet, and it's driving me nuts...

The thing that seems to have caused the most irritation among the people who posted there a few weeks back is the nature of the premonition "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World".

That said... how freakin'* cool was it when Hiro and Ando were discussing the premonition, and realised that they might have been getting it wrong all along; that it might be two seperate hints to the future in one?

Someone on Wil's blog suggested that the time might be ripe for a drama with too much information causing problems, instead of ones with too many hints at information in lieu of actual closure or plot movement. I kind of agree, but in a way, I think that's what that episode of Heroes showed... the protagonists were all so wrapped up in the piece of information about the future that they already had, that they may have jumped to the wrong conclusion based on their initial reading of that information.

(I'm not going to mindlessly cheerlead for the show, by the way... I have my own issues with anything that involves time-travel or warnings passed back down the timeline. But so far, I'm enjoying Heroes quite a lot, from the viewpoint that I had low expectations of how thoughtful the show might be, and thus far it's exceeding them.)