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VariFrank Recommends: Waking The Dead

I'm not big on TV Shows. If the Tivo hadn't been created I doubt I would watch anything on a regular basis. As it is, the majority of my TV time is spent with The History Channel, Discovery Wings and so on. I get most of my movies via netflix or from movielink.com, if I can't be bothered to wait for the DVD to arrive.

I used to enjoy the various flavors of CSI , until the cases got increasingly unlikely and the plots seem streched to their limit of reasonableness. Truth be told, I watch it now largely because it's in HD. And Emily Proctor, Khandi Alexander...

But there is one show that I think is absolutely perfect. BBC Americas "Waking the Dead"

The episodes are 2 hours in length, but after commercials, it ends up being about an hour and 40 minutes. The show is about a "cold case squad" in London. "Cold cases" are supposed to be cases that were never solved in the past. Trevor Eve plays Detective Peter Boyd, the leader of the unit. In the backstory, Det. Boyd suffered the loss of his teenage son 7 years ago, and many of the episodes tie his experiences as a bystander and victim of crime as well as his role as a solve of crimes.

The show is very precise and very crisp in its writing. I dont recommend trying to watch it with other things going on. In many respects the show reminds me of trying to watch the 1960's show "The Prisoner" where even a minor distraction would cause you to miss a key plot point where you would find yourself mired in confusion for the rest of the hour.

The show is very well written and is very engaging. I value shows that I cannot predict the plot in the first 5 minutes. In every episode I have seen so far, I have been surprised by the way the plot has gone and the direction given in the story. For me, this is a highly unusual occurance for the average TV show.

For those of you inclined to watch other shows when a show goes to commercial or you dont care if you catch the last 5 minutes because you already know the story is resolved, do not do this with "waking the dead' In every episode, the closing scenes of the show unwraps the rest of the story that you thought you had all figured out.

Catch it if you can. I highly recommend it.

Posted @ December 14, 2004 06:09 PM | Current Events

Posted by: beloml at December 15, 2004 08:29 AM