ShareThis

Ever since Lost limped off our screens, I’ve been looking for a new drama series to get, well, lost in. I’ve tried and failed to get into a number of shows, including the unfeasible antics of Prison Break, and the uninspiring cop shows Southland and (whisper it) The Wire. Another much lauded U.S. series, Mad Men, is being repeated from the very beginning on BBC Two, with back-to-back episodes every Sunday night. The perfect opportunity, I thought, to harness the power of my Sky+ box and find a new world to escape to.

The TV world is full of glamor and beauty, with actors and actresses lining up for botox maidenhead but gritty programs such as Lost, Prison Break and Mad Men encompass an alternative world, they give a sense of escapism from the red carpet life style. The first thing I should point out is that Mad Men is really nothing at all like Lost. There’s little action, and even less mystery, and the storyline is grounded in the conflicted surroundings of an early ’60s New York ad agency. The story so far (four episodes in) is moving at a pretty glacial pace, homing in on how family life is affected by the flamboyant, glamorous world the ad men inhabit. I doubt time travel is going to come up in later series.

That said, time travel is certainly a theme for the viewer - Mad Men’s outstanding attribute lies in its direction. Beautifully shot, with accurate costumes, hairstyles and fabulous sets, it filled me with a sense of nostalgia for a time that I never even experienced. Watch one of uber-male Don Draper’s testosterone-fulled boardroom slugfests with slimy subordinate Pete Campbell, and long for the day you can be in a meeting that exciting.

I’ll certainly be watching the rest of the series, drawn in by the pitch-perfect setting, the office politics and perhaps most of all, Jon Hamm’s turn as a drinking, brooding enigma that is Don Draper. I’m not completely sold yet - the scenes in the Draper household are dragging, and the difference in values from the 60s to now is overplayed to the point that it begins to feel ponderous. I’ve still got a lot of the show to get through before Series 4 launches next month - let’s see if Draper and his band of ad men can get me sold.

ShareThis

Wallander is a TV series production being broadcasted by BBC in the UK. It is a Swedish production that has a different story plot in every episode and that has caought the interest of many TV fans. It is also broadcasted in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria and Greece), and has reached the top TV shows in the Scandinavian countries -especially Sweden and Finland.

The series tell the story of Kurt Wallander -a police investigator who deals with the crimes committed in his area. The approach in the criminal motives in Sweden is quite obvious in each episode -the production relies on quite a lot of moments rich in mysterious events, brain struggle to find the offender, long investigations to define the motives for the crime. The production lacks the stunning visual effects of the American productions and the classy action scenes which are not typical for the Scandinavian criminal authors, script writters and directors. The rely upon another tactics for the fans'love -the logical thought, the interest in solvoing the mysteries, the opportunity for the spectator to make his own concluions and prove them wrong or right ar the end of each episode. This is one of the features of the TV programme that is surprisingly fascinating for the TV fans and, even being ctiticized by many for the slowly developing action, is one of the main reasons why this serial is loved across Europe and followed with anticipation, you just have to look at the banner stands and marketing images to know that they have a diverse audience.

Another strong point in the episodes is that each one of them, along with the criminal case described, has an emphasis on the personal lives of the characters in the movies -both Wallander’s feelings and personal emotions and the others that he works with -a female prosecutor he is attracyed by, three police officers and two men working for the criminal laboratiry. Thus the movie is even more fascinating since it is not only the crime that keeps you staring at the TV, but the story of the main characters that develops each episode.

ShareThis

The Big Brother show was first launched in the Netherlands in 1999 and gained significant success in the European audience as a whole, later being followed by millions of television fans throughout the world. The Tv show serves a great example resource on how our society functions, how different individuals interact with each other, ho they resolve the disputes that arise from the clash of different views. The rich and the poor meet, the upper class representatives are being equaled with the middle class individuals thus unpredictable situations are being created. There have been various pop up displays around London to signify the shows last season.

The show’s main idea is to isolate in a house representatives of different social groups, allowing them to live together, to form a small communities within the house they inhabit, to socialize and communicate with each other and try to adjust themselves in circumstances far more different from the everyday home atmosphere.

Of course, after gathering so many different people with so many different views and understandings it is completely natural for them to interact with each other with negative consequences. The different episodes do not lack neither colorful and insulting expressions and fights nor the birth of feelings like love, friendship and attraction. All of the participants nominates another to leave the house, the nominated are being put under the vote of the watchers and thus at the end of the game only one would be left to win the sum of money awarded for the last man standing.

The show is now famous throughout the whole world with its editions in many European countries (such as the UK, Spain, France, Bulgaria, Romania), a US format etc. It is the perfect way to observe how individuals from the society interact with each other, how relationships are formed and maintained, how the social responsibilities are understood differently by the separate social classes. And after all, the show promises a lot of fun when the clash of views takes place.

ShareThis

If you like strange, and rather surreal shows then you will love this, in my mind no TV show (possibly with the exception of Carnivale, but that is not Universal so we will ignore it) has been this well written since. I think the key to that is that they entire series (which is supposed to be six seasons, unfortunately they stopped it at two) was written before the first episode was shot! So the character arcs and storylines are not only believeable but also intensly interesting!

That aside, watch this space for all the news and exciting events that are happening in the world of Universal!

ShareThis