Blackpool...

[fajrdrako]

I finished watching Blackpool this morning. I loved it. As a genre, it pretty much defies description: murder mystery, soap opera, black comedy, musical, psychological drama - bits of all of that mixed together, and I'm not sure it wasn't a morality play more than any of the rest, though what the moral was, I'm not sure.

My only complain is that I wanted it to be the story of DI Peter Carlisle, played by David Tennant - imagine a sexy Columbo with a ruthless edge, who likes ice cream.¹ It was, in fact, the story of Ripley Holden, played by David Morrissey, who runs a games arcade in Blackpool and has dreams of creating a big-time Las Vegas-style hotel-casino complex. But his dream reaches a stumbling block when a man is found murdered in his establishment. Bit by bit Ripley Holden's life takes a turn for the worse: his daughter wants to marry a man his own age, who has hated him since school; his wife is having an affair with the homicide detective, his son is dealing drugs, his business is badly in debt, and his shady past comes back to bite him.

A couple of days ago, maaseru said something to the effect that British TV is always about horrible people, and I found myself remembering this. No one is all good, and though at first I thought Ripley Holden was pretty much all bad, by the end of the series the story was making every effort to make him sympathetic - which is basically to say he stopped abusing his wife and kids. On a 'Have you stopped beating your wife yet?' basis, I didn't find this much to write home about.

My interpretation of the ending was that Ripley Holden felt cocky and triumphant because he had successfully manipulated events to the betterment of his family, and had come to terms with his relationships. So was he then going to kill himself? Or leave town and start again somewhere else? Did he have a future, and if so, what?

I had very much wanted Natalie to decide to leave Ripley for Carlisle, which would have given me a romance. But though she loved him, she lacked the courage or conviction to change her life, and in the end practically had to be forced by Ripley to go to Carlisle - a reunion we never see, which, given the nasty parting scene we did witness, seemed a bit of a cheat to me.

The subplot about Ripley's daughter Shyanne fell rather flat for me, but had a few good moments.

The subplot of the relationship between Ripley and his son Danny was somewhat more interesting, and I really liked the performance of Thomas Morrison as Danny. From the beginning it's hinted that Danny might be gay; I was a little disappointed that we saw nothing of it. And a little horrified, in fact, that Daddy Dearest, in the end, outs his son as gay (in a joke) to all the guests at hi sister's wedding. This, when they were happily reconciled.

The most interesting relationship of all was between Carlisle and Ripley Holden, playing a game of hunter and prey. Their scenes together had the electricity of angry wolves snarling at each other. The dialogue between Ripley and Carlisle was more interesting that the dialogue of either with Natalie. Though perhaps my favourite scene in the whole series was when Natalie admits to Ripley on the phone that she 'betrayed' him, and then we discover that he and she are talking about completely different types of betrayal. A brilliant scene.

But that was the kind of interpersonal ambiguity the movie was full of. Was Carlisle a bent cop from the beginning, or was it that he was so desperate for Natalie's love that he'd do anything to get it? If DC Blythe was as earnestly upright as he appeared, how was it that Carlisle could corrupt him so easily in the end?

I ask these kinds of questions, but the answers don't really matter: I found the story engrossing even without the answers. I wanted more Tennant and less Morrissey, certainly, but what I really liked was that I couldn't guess from minute to minute (let alone episode to episode) what was going to happen. I was convinced half a dozen times that Ripley Holden was the killer, and then changed my mind another half dozen times. Oddly, it wasn't a case of "Who Killed Lily Kane?" being an ongoing theme - I could barely remember the victim's name and he, and his story, were irrelevant. The murder was a catalyst for the rest of the story - though perhaps only insofar as it brought CI Carlisle in to the picture.

I'd say: forget the town of Blackpool, forget the story of the unfortunate Holden family, and make a series about the sexy, ruthless, ambitiously twisted DI Carlisle.

~ ~ ~
¹ It was great to see Tennant doing sex scenes, even if some of them were wonky. Made me wish they'd stop aiming Doctor Who at kids.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

An American version of Blackpool.

My goodness. My mind is boggling.

How? I mean, isn't Las Vegas already Las Vegas?

I'm not sure whether to laugh - yes, I'm laughing - or to despair.

If it has David Tennant in it, I forgive everything.

[karra.livejournal.com]

It's called Viva Laughlin, so I imagine it's about one of those small towns suddenly getting gambling casinos

ACTUALLY. It appears to have some clips up on Youtube, leading me to wonder if it's already aired or is airing SOON.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k41ys4hjFT4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr1Gw3emoKk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxVczQsjwos


Am I like...completely insane, or is...is that Hugh Jackman?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That is Hugh Jackman. Amazing. Turns out he's one of the executive producers.
See the IMDB listing at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878801/fullcredits#cast.

The tone is so different. It looks so weird. And the guy playing Ripley Holden is so unlike David Morrissey. I think I'm even more mind-boggled and incredulous after seeing this than I was before.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

It airs this fall on CBS. http://www.cbs.com/primetime/viva_laughlin/

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

It's called "Viva Laughlin", and has ongoing appearances by Hugh Jackman. :) It airs this fall on CBS. (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/viva_laughlin/) There are lots of clips and stuff up on youtube as well.

[karra.livejournal.com]

I'm torn between it looking absolutely horrifying and then I see a clip where it looks pretty damned awesome.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's Hugh Jackman. I'm not sure it that makes it more strange or more attractive. At least he's good at the musical bits.

I see no hint of a character like DI Carlisle.

[karra.livejournal.com]

I put a thing up on my journal about characters in Laughlin. Carlisle IS in it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Thank you!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Where is your icon from - a show, or a photo shoot?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know where the picture came from - I certainly love it! The icon was by daedream_fanbot.

[karra.livejournal.com]

My icon? It's a promo pic from Sex Traffic, and I made it. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What is Sex Traffic?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Ooooo Sex Traffic is a miniseries from the Beeb about, well, the sex traffic trade out of Eastern Europe. Simm plays a journo who gets deeper into the story than his organization wants him to. If you like, I can mail it to you on DVD-R -- they're .avi files, so if you don't have a DivX DVD set-top you can't watch them on tv, but they'll play in a computer.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I always wonder why they remake Biritsh shows with American actors. To keep the actors busy? Because it's fun? Why not just show the original?

This is intriguing just because it's so... bizarre. I mean, doing it once, a British version, is strange enough.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Why not just show the original?

Because the majority of the American viewing audience won't get any of the cultural references and will immediately tune out the minute they don't understand something. Americans aren't used to network programs that aren't set in America; you'll only find one character with an accent on any given show (most have none; maybe a smattering have two). A program in which no one speaks "American" must be Masterpiece Theater or something and is of no interest to Middle America.

While the original could certainly be aired on BBC America or on any of the premium cable networks (HBO, Showtime, etc.), American television producers want to make *money*. If they think that a concept and plot is good, and viable for relocation to America, then they have to remake it with Americans. The same thing is happening with Life on Mars.

This is why I just download British tv.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Because the majority of the American viewing audience won't get any of the cultural references and will immediately tune out the minute they don't understand something.

Really? I wonder if this is true also in Canada. I suspect not, because after all, we are used to watching American stuff with its many strange accents and cultural oddities. It's all strange, but US TV is so ubiquitous we're used to it. Goodness knows we don't get a lot of Canadian TV with the cultural references we can easily understand. That's one reason watching Bon Cop, Bad Cop was such a treat - I don't even know if it's a good movie, but it was such fun to watch something that bespoke my culture with every word, even if I don't hang out with cops and gangsters in waterfronts.

This is why I just download British tv.

And why I'm doing that more and more!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

after all, we are used to watching American stuff with its many strange accents and cultural oddities.

Yes; like it or not, American television is everywhere -- American cinema as well. Our cultural references are known worldwide because of this, whereas other countries' are not known to most Americans because we don't air anything but American television and (most of us) never see any movies except American movies.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

like it or not, American television is everywhere

Mostly, I like it, particularly since there are many, many brilliant American shows now - Firely, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, to name a few from the last few years. There are very few Canadian shows of - well, not only on equal quality, but that could even pretend to be in the same ball park. For a lot of reasons - including that the good Canadian writers and actors tend to go work in the States.

We do get British TV, and our French channels get TV from France. Now that the US has BBCA, more British television is probably available to Americans, but we get a lot of it on regular stations. Which is cool.

I like an international mix of options.