a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Sex and the City reboot is given its marching orders - what happened?
Just as the revolution was moving along nicely, along came the abrupt end of And Just Like That (Sky Comedy, Friday). And just like that, an entire female cast was packed into a minivan and driven off a cliff, Thelma & Louise-style (figuratively speaking, of course). What happened?
Showrunner Michael Patrick King said the third series of the Sex and the City reboot felt like a 'wonderful place to stop'. More than that, he did not say, but who would have blamed him if he had added 'and because I am sick to death of all the carping'?
Trouble dogged AJLT - even the abbreviation is clunky - from the opening episode when Big met his end on an exercise bike. The shame of it. No Big and no Samantha (save for one blink and you'll miss it appearance) made for a much duller show.
The new characters were either boring, annoying or, in the case of Che, Miranda's unlikely lover and the world's unfunniest stand-up comedian, plain unbearable. In the history of poorly received characters, poor Che made Jar Jar Binks seem like Brad Pitt.
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Aidan returned in a bid to summon some of the old magic, but that simple country boy schtick of his was now as tiresome as the family he was forever running home to.
By far the biggest gripe was the characters' appearances. Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte had had the nerve to grow older and look like what they were - women in their fifties.
Never mind that these older, wiser, more vulnerable versions were far more interesting, and self-deprecatingly funnier, than their sharp-elbowed younger selves. I also warmed to Seema (Sarita Choudhury), the estate agent with a Working Girl head for business and a body for sin. Plus, the wardrobe had improved enormously, with a return to high fashion and seriously sexy home interiors.
As new characters entered the mix and a couple of promising plots began to unfold, it seemed like foundations were being laid for the future, but it was not to be. Back to square one, sisters.
In Flight (Channel 4, Tuesday-Thursday) was the latest up in the air nailbiter after Idris Elba's Hijack and Red Eye. Created and written by Mike Walden (Marcella) and Adam Randall (Slow Horses) the six-parter was just the kind of muscular thriller to power you through mid week - familiar but not predictable, twisty but not impenetrable, and it had the good fortune of Katherine Kelly in the lead role.
The actor formerly known as Becky the barmaid from Coronation Street, among many other roles, played Jo, a flight attendant and mother to Sonny, 19.
Sonny had gone to Bulgaria for a holiday and got into a bar fight. Charged with murder, he turned to mum to bring him home. But with the cost of his defence spiralling, Jo was fast running out of money and hope.
With perfect timing, along came a stranger with an impossible-to-refuse offer. Unless Jo brought three kilos of heroin into the country for a gang of wrong 'uns, her son would not get out of jail alive.
In Flight was a hostage drama and a drug thriller rolled into one, which would be chewy enough, but Walden and Randall managed to squeeze more out of the story. For all that Jo seemed terrified, she was also coolly transactional with her 'handler', looking for any little thing that would give her an edge over him.
Kelly was terrific as the mum on the edge of a breakdown, still clip-clopping her way into work every day, pretending everything was normal. Ditto Harry Cadby as her son. At first terrified, Sonny was soon proving to be as resilient as his mother.
The last time most of us saw Kelly, she was part of the UK-wide acting ensemble in Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Closer to home, she was also in The Field of Blood, the 2011-13 adaptation of Denise Mina's novel. Fun fact: the tale of a cub reporter, Paddy Meehan (played by Jayd Johnson) was filmed in The Herald's old offices in Albion Street, Glasgow. For reasons I cannot fathom, none of us was plucked out of the subbing pool for stardom.
And so to Nicola Sturgeon: the Interview (STV, Monday), because we've not quite heard enough from Scotland's former First Minister lately, have we? Now she's even found her way into the ruddy TV review. I can only apologise and say that normal service, whatever that is, will resume next week.
The interviewer was class act Julie Etchingham. We like her. When the famously buttoned-up Theresa May admitted running through fields of wheat as a girl, it was to Julie she confessed. Prime Ministers, presidents, princes, Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie - the ITV News anchor has sat knee to knee with them all.
But how would the golden gal of British broadcasting fare against the big brass neck of Scottish politics?
While 'the' interview suggested something special, filming took place in Dunure, Ayrshire, more than a week ago. Since then, Ms Sturgeon has been all over the media, her book picked cleaner than a turkey on Boxing Day.
This, however, was the first broadcast interview, which meant the first chance to see Ms Sturgeon becoming 'emotional', as television folk coyly call it when someone cries on camera. Etchingham had dressed in cool neutrals for the occasion, with Sturgeon opting for a scarlet jacket. Perhaps she was trying to channel her inner Butlin's Redcoat to jolly things past the difficult stuff. It didn't work.
Certainly, there was no May-like confession to stealing from the pick n mix in Woolworths. She was rude about Nigel Farage ('odious'), but who isn't?
When she did get into difficulty it was all her own doing, as when Etchingham brought up the rapist Isla Bryson. You might have thought it impossible for Sturgeon to make even more of a pig's ear out of this subject, but boy, did she ever.
Etchingham began looking at the former First Minister as if she was trying to argue that the Earth was flat. Personally, I turned the same shade as Sturgeon's jacket. Someone had to shoulder the embarrassment, and it was not going to be our Nicola.
There was some moistening around the eye area when she spoke of Alex Salmond's passing. She still misses him 'in some way' - a quote up there with Charles's 'whatever love means' - for half-baked sincerity. The only time her voice truly faltered was when she was talking about herself and what she had been through.
As for her new love life, her lips were sealed. 'I'm enjoying being my own person for a while,' she burbled, sounding for all the world like some Real Housewife of Montecito.
Etchingham had a go at holding her to account on domestic policy, but she needed longer than the half hour allotted. The running time and the 7pm slot told their own story. If there had been anything juicy the programme would have been on at 9pm, not just before Emmerdale. Upstaged by sheep. It shouldn't happen to a vet, or a former FM, but it did.
The toe-curling was not quite over - there was still the matter of Nic's first tattoo. 'Midlife crisis alert,' she joked. You said it, dear.
It was an infinity symbol she designed herself, something about strength and resilience and moving forward. In short, your basic woo-woo BS. Come to think of it, that would have been a better title for her book.
Finally, a mention for Smoke (Apple TV+), which had its series finale this week. Written by Dennis Lehane and starring Taron Egerton as a fire investigator and wannabe thriller writer, and Rafe Spall as a police captain, the often brilliant Smoke has been one of the year's best dramas. Yet it is one that millions will have missed because it's on a streaming channel (and one of the dearer ones at that).
If, like the Sex and the City ladies of yesteryear, you have been holding out for the right one before taking the plunge on a streamer, consider Smoke 'it'.
