John Byrne caught up with some returned shows as well as a new US drama about people coming back from the dead. Does that constitute a theme?
Reviewed: Enlightened (Fridays, Sky Atlantic); Perception (Thursdays, Alibi); Resurrection (Mondays, Watch); The Graham Norton Show (Fridays, BBC One)
It's almost become a cliché that we're living through a golden age of television. Anyone who's got a story to tell that could do with more than the couple of hours or so that a movie provides, is swapping the big screen for the small one, and getting themselves involved in a cool, clever or occasionally very smart or unique TV show.
Depending on your age, Laura Dern is best known for her part in Jurassic Park or the role she played in David Lynch's Wild at Heart. And although she's dipped in and out of TV over the years, she's certainly more associated with film than the goggle box. Until Enlightened, that is.
Already dropped by HBO after two seasons (it got the chop in March 2013) due to poor viewing figures, it's taken some time for the second run of this award-winning and critically-acclaimed comedy-drama to wing its way across the Atlantic, but I do recall raving about that first season when it was originally broadcast on Sky Atlantic almost three years ago. By all reports the second season's even better than the first, and the first was great.
Dern plays Amy Jellicoe, a self-destructive former executive, who tries to rebuild her life both personally and professionally, following a blow-out at work. Determined to make a difference in a world that has capitulated to corporatism, she tries to encourage fellow workers to take on big business, while her mother (played by Dern's real-life mother, Diane Ladd), who's basically given up on society and leads an isolated life, looks on in despair.
Now working in a minor role at Abaddonn Industries, she spends her days processing data and trying to expose her employers' insatiable greed and environmental crimes.
Season two of Enlightened (Fridays, Sky Atlantic) opened with a double episode and Amy, eager to expose Abaddonn's unethical practices, turns to an investigative reporter for help after she hacks into and prints off executives' e-mails.
In the second episode, Amy's co-worker, the previously timid Tyler (played by Mike white, who created and wrote every episode of Enlightened) defies his inner fears and rescues Amy when a team of computer experts is brought in to find out who hacked into executives' e-mails.
If you haven't seen Enlightened, I would encourage you to rectify that matter and enjoy its unique vision. Dern is magnificent, and the story's a mirror of the stultifying, fearful, soul-destroying times in which we live. And it can be extremely funny, too.
Far less serious – though enjoyable in its own way – is Perception (Thursdays, Alibi), a typically quirky US procedural that follows the genre's rigid rules, and effortlessly supplies comfort viewing. Put on a onesie, flop on the sofa, open some ice cream and you're laughing. It's a great watch at the end of a hectic day.
We're up to run number three and after a season opener that saw Daniel Pierce (played by Eric McCormack), a talented but eccentric neuropsychiatrist, leave his crime-solving behind for a new life in Paris, we're right back into the standard set-up. In other words, Doctor Pierce is back in Chicago offering advice to FBI agent Kate Moretti (Rachael Leigh Cook) and being enlightened by a series of hallucinations. If you like The Mentalist, Psych, Castle, or Monk, then this is for you.
In this week's episode, Pierce is brought in to interview a young bank robbery hostage with a developmental disorder, and a couple of dead bodies and an angry father later the case is solved and everyone goes home happy. Now, if only real life were that simple . . .
The new shows are coming thick and fast, and Resurrection (Mondays, Watch) has been on the go for a few weeks now. Not quite an American version of the superb French drama The Returned (Les Revenants in France), whose brilliant first season was screened last year on Channel 4, it does follow a similar path, as it's about a small town that suddenly and inexplicably begins to see previously dead citizens return to life.
It's not a patch on The Returned, in fact it's been a little dull so far, but it's starting to get interesting, and moving on from the initial storyline into something broader.
In the latest episode Rachael (played by Kathleen Munroe), one of the people back from the dead gets killed, but returns again - which implies that these guys are back, period. As the episode ends it becomes apparent that the handful of returned is now growing, and across an expanding timeline, as people from various times in the past begin turning up around town. If this keeps up, the 'dead' will soon outnumber the living.
Pity there's only one episode left of the first season's meagre eight-episode run now that something almost Lost-like is happening . . .
Finally, a quick hat-tip in the direction of The Graham Norton Show (Fridays, BBC One), which is back for another run. Given it's the number one chat show on UK TV, it's the BBC, it's based in London (a place with more stars plugging product than anywhere else outside of Hollywood), and it has a simple-but-seamless structure and an ideal host, it's no wonder this show rarely misses the mark. It's quite possibly the most consistent non-scripted TV show around.
In the new season opener gregarious Graham had Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington (who's currently in the pretty disappointing The Equalizer), the current Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, and actress Gemma Arterton, who's starring in a London West End musical version of Made in Dagenham. As ever, a great mix. And worth it just for the finger injury discussion:
Now, while the cynic in me thinks that having three actors as guests must make things easy for a presenter, Norton's ability to juggle between the guests and get a really fun and interesting series of conversations going never fails to impress. This show is just fantastic and Norton has found quite a remarkable niche for himself. The 50 minutes just flew in, and it was hugely entertaining.
If only all TV was as flawless . . . I'd probably never leave the house again. Well, except for more ice cream.
John Byrne
