TV Review: DOCTOR WHO

This article was originally published in The Courier on 13th October 2018.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

DOCTOR WHO: Sunday, BBC One

“Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.”

And there it was. Just one brief, throwaway line to acknowledge that the 13^th Doctor is a woman. After months of hoopla - and tedious whining from some quarters - surrounding the introduction of Jodie Whittaker as the first female incarnation of the Time Lord, the latest series of DOCTOR WHO just got on with things. A smart move.

Drawing overt attention to the Doctor’s gender change would’ve reduced it to a self-conscious novelty as opposed to an entirely natural development. It would’ve undermined the integrity of Whittaker’s performance. She is the Doctor and that’s that.

So what’s 13 like? At heart(s), of course, she’s essentially like all the others: brave, eccentric, inquisitive. What Whittaker brings to the role are flashes of contagious childlike wonder, breathless energy, quiet compassion and smart comic timing. Her expressive face runs the gamut from goofiness to gravitas. She’s charming, funny and thoroughly commanding: everything you could want from a Doctor.

I personally never had any doubts about that, as Whittaker is a fine actor. She was always going to nail the part. My main concern with this new series is the arrival of Chris Chibnall as showrunner.

The brains behind Broadchurch and the wildly uneven Who spin-off Torchwood has five previous Doctor Who episodes to his name, the best of which were little more than adequate. His writing lacks the flair and ingenuity of his predecessors Steven Moffat and Russell T. Davies. 

However, after watching this rather elegantly plotted episode - demonstrably his best effort so far - I began to think that maybe Chibnall’s relatively straightforward approach might be just what Doctor Who needs right now. As much as I admire Moffat for the most part, his cerebral style of continuity-heavy storytelling alienated some viewers. My usual response to that would be ‘their loss’, but I’d like to see Doctor Who become a national talking point again.

More than anything, of course, I want it to be good, but I get the impression that Chibnall and his team know what they’re doing. Doctor Who has always thrived on change while feeding off successful elements from its past, and I welcome the decision to reboot the show as an accessible piece of blockbuster family entertainment unburdened by prolonged story arcs.

The plot of this first episode – a satisfyingly dark affair involving a Predator-style alien hunting on Earth – was merely a framework to support Whittaker's debut while establishing a brand new era. Chibnall has stated that he wanted the episode to function as a jumping-on point for new viewers while assuring die-hards that it's the same old show they know and love. In that regard, it was an unqualified success.

Whittaker is an engaging Doctor, her new companions - sorry, 'friends' - seem promising, and the production team appear to have a distinct vision for the show. Doctor Who always looked great during Moffat's tenure, but Chibnall's first episode established a new aesthetic. Set mostly at night on the mean streets of Sheffield, it was steeped in Nordic Noir-esque atmosphere. The cinematography, direction, visual effects and sparingly used score were very impressive.

It wasn't perfect - Chibnall's dialogue is occasionally quite clunky and rote - but overall this new era of Doctor Who feels confident and energised, a show reborn. The future looks rather bright.

TV Review: THE CRY + THE BIG AUDITION

This article was originally published in The Courier on 6th October 2018.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

THE CRY: Sunday, BBC One

THE BIG AUDITION: Friday, STV

Cast under a pall of deep, foreboding gloom, THE CRY is an anguished four-part drama about a mother on public trial.

Former Doctor Who companion and Victoria star Jenna Coleman plays Joanna, a first-time parent struggling to cope with her new-born baby, Noah. Joanna loves Noah, but can’t seem to form the nurturing bond that, so she’s been told, should be automatic. No matter what she does, she can’t stop him crying.

Joanna’s Australian fiancée, Alistair, is a busy government spin doctor who more or less leaves her to look after Noah alone. He’s also fighting for custody of his teenage daughter from a previous marriage. That’s why Joanna, Alistair and Noah end up on a flight to Australia, during which most of the passengers take an unsympathetic view of Joanna’s inability to control her son’s wails.

When they arrive in Oz, they stop at a minimart en route to their hired cottage. Alistair goes in alone, but for some reason Joanna follows him while Noah sleeps on the back seat of their car. When they return, he’s nowhere to be found. In that moment, Joanna is transformed from an ordinary mum into an international hate figure.

Clearly inspired by the Madeleine McCann case, The Cry thrives on ambiguity. We’re invited to sympathise with Joanna while questioning her behaviour. It basically places us in the shoes of those disapproving plane passengers; a deliberately uncomfortable experience. The Cry demands that we question our knee-jerk judgments, our trivial, selfish irritations.

It’s told in non-linear fashion, with scenes set before and after Noah’s disappearance. A potentially gimmicky and alienating narrative device, but it works in the drama’s favour by building intrigue and tension while reflecting Joanna’s fractured mental state.

We knew from the start that Joanna had done something wrong, something capable of attracting a frenzied press scrum on her doorstep and landing her in court while an angry mob protests outside. We knew it must have something to do with Noah, but we were kept in the dark until the last five minutes. Unravelling the story in this way proved terribly effective. The Cry, so far at least, succeeds as a mystery, a thriller, and a nuanced character piece.

I’ve never been particularly impressed by Coleman before - she's often too serene, too poised - but here she’s quite convincing as a traumatised woman in the eye of a hurricane. Ironically, Joanna’s inability to cry in public may prove her undoing. Parents are expected to act in a certain way when terrible incidents such as this occur, and woe betide them if they don’t.

Episode one implied that Alistair’s ex-wife may have stolen Noah, but I suspect the truth will be more complex than that. The Cry appears to be a thought-provoking drama etched in shades of grey.

That cross between Britain’s Got Talent and Dragons’ Den you’ve all been waiting for, THE BIG AUDITION is a light-hearted reality show in which various showbiz hopefuls vie for actual paying work.

Formats such as this are a magnet for ‘big personalities’, but thankfully most of the folk auditioning in episode one were harmlessly eccentric as opposed to thunderously irksome.

The undoubted star was Linda, a woman whose cup practically exploded with guffawing joi de vivre. You wouldn’t want to be stuck in a lift with her, but she deserved her new job as a bubbly shopping channel host.

Scoff all you want, but maintaining an incessant barrage of enthusiasm on live television is a tough gig. It requires an improvisatory skill-set beyond the capabilities of most mere mortals. Linda is a natural.