Vampires bad, therapists good
Bloody disappointingGiving up on a TV series, especially one which has been praised to the skies and you feel you ought to like, is a strange business. True Blood has pulled in HBO's highest viewing figures since The Sopranos in the States, and being an Alan Ball creation it has an impressive pedigree. True, I never thought Six Feet Under to be quite the masterpiece that some reckoned (the stunning final sequence aside), and although American Beauty is a tremendous film, there was a story in Word magazine a while back that director Sam Mendes actually rewrote the ending because Ball's original script climaxed far less satisfactorily. But still, a Ball-produced, postmodern, Southern Gothic vampire melodrama - how could I possibly not like it?
Quite easily, as it turned out. Firstly, I don't find vampires inherently interesting. Although True Blood's central conceit - vampires co-existing with humans in modern-day America and living on artificial blood - is a good one, all the vampires besides brooding Bill, our leading man, are stereotypically pervy, leather-clad twats. Plus, the allegorical nature of the set-up is downplayed, with only the odd satirical gag standing in for genuine social commentary.
Instead, we get an overcooked melodrama that's too glossy and shallow to really engage the brain and yet, fatally, too slow-paced to be genuinely enjoyable on a superficial level. Journos have raved about its ripe, hyper-real atmosphere, summed up by Ball as "popcorn TV for smart people", but to me this is just a grown-up soap with all the gratuitous shagging and gore failing to compensate for the lack of three-dimensional characters you can actually empathise with.
Although it would be an outrageous lie to say I have a busy and productive life, I do watch an awful lot of sport (and wrestling) and even go out on occasion, so I don't have time to follow that many TV shows. And life is simply too short to stick with a programme that hasn't grabbed me after six or seven episodes. Some series do improve - Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is a great example of something which was subtly overhauled after an unsatisfying first few instalments, and is now a fixture on my V+ box. True Blood is not, and boy did it feel like a huge weight falling from my shoulders after I pressed that "cancel series link" button. I don't feel pressured to try and enjoy it anymore. All its legions of fans are, quite obviously, wrong.
Goes down a treat(ment)This is almost the complete opposite of TB - a quietly powerful character drama which mostly consists of two-handers between Gabriel Byrne's Dr Paul Weston and his various clients. The series has a unique format, running five nights a week with a different patient in the chair Monday through Thursday (Mondays feature the aforementioned Laura, then gung-ho military pilot Alex on Tuesdays, teenage gymnast Sophie on Wednesdays, and Jake and Amy on Thursdays, a couple going through pregnancy troubles), whilst Fridays see Paul having sessions with his own therapist and mentor Gina.
What could be an incredibly worthy and dull series with one good gimmick is made captivating by taut scripts and bravura performances from all concerned. Byrne is fantastic, betraying all sorts of emotions with simple expressions and gestures, but every character rings true. I'm most interested in seeing how Sophie's sessions play out - the Wednesday episodes see Byrne reveal a more paternal side as actress Mia Wasikowska (another Aussie) also shines as the damaged young gymnast, simultaneously hard-edged yet painfully vulnerable.
This is drama stripped of all superfluity and pared right down to the rawest of human interactions - people trying, and usually failing, to make sense of their emotions. And of course, in his own way Dr Paul is just as "screwed up", or whatever psychobabble term you'd care to use, as his patients. In other words, it's television you can really sink your teeth into.
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