01 Jun 2010
Anne Or The Boy?
Biopics are ten a penny nowadays and if I wasn't getting enough of an 80's love in with Ashes To Ashes, the BBC decided to do an 80's season with the Boy George story, Worried About The Boy being one of it's centrepieces. I liked Douglas Booth as Boy George and there were some good supporting roles for Matthew Horne, Marc Warren and Mark Gatiss but maybe I was expecting more because this didn't really float my boat. The writing was good, the acting fine and some of the stuff about Boy George I didn't actually know but it just didn't grip me to be honest. Still it was better than anything the rival channels wer doing at the same time on that night.
Is it me or are the BBC giving us a fair amount of gay themed biopics? We've had Worried About The Boy and Matt Smith is currently filming Christopher And His Kind, which should air in a few months times but last night's The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister was interesting. Britain's first modern and largely out lesbian in the 18th century. I've always liked Maxine Peake and she seems to be snagging a lot of interesting roles and she played a blinder here as Anne went through 90 minutes of losing and loving different women (Mariana, Ann Walker) and generally asserting her independence in a male dominated world. Sadly I missed Sue Perkins documentary about Miss Lister's diary (largely written in code) but for a 90 minute story, this was a treat from BBC2.
Okay, we're nearing the end of Brothers And Sisters fourth season (four episodes left) and it's been mostly strong enough. In the last couple of weeks we've had flashbacks to Kevin's past. I didn't see the whole bit with him inadvertantly paralysing someone coming either. And then there the birthday episode we learned that both him and Scotty were becoming closer to having a child. Sadly that means more of Roxy Olin, who really is a bad actress (and super-annoying in that spin-off of The Hills).
FXUK have finished up all of True Blood's second season and it's now available on DVD, so was it any good? Er, actually, yeah, I loved it loads. Maryann might have overdone it with the orgies but she was a far more engaging menace than the Fellowship loons were and the best relationship of the season was undeniably Jessica and Hoyt instead of Bill/Sookie/Eric, which wasn't as great. Lafayette probably could've had more to do in the season but he was great during his attempts of getting Tara away from Maryann and with the third season starting on HBO this month, it looks like he'll have more to do.
Over the last couple of weeks, the soap gay storylines have certainly upped the ante, so why aren't they engaging me? Maybe it's because I found the Syed/Christian a hot mess in EastEnders before the latter cruelly outed the former and the Masoods have been rendered unsympathetic (minus Tamwar) as a result. Similarly, I'm not as impressed with Aaron's coming out in Emmerdale, even if he has become less annoying in weeks and it's hard to get invested with Sophie/Sian in Coronation Street because it just doesn't seem like a real relationship. What are the odds that within in a year that Sophie will be dating a dullard like Ryan Connor and Sian will be a distant memory? Prove me wrong, I dare ya!