BBC Pilots

Total Pilot overload! Thursday night saw not one, but two brand new BBC3 pilots. These follow the pilot of Pulse I reported on last week in BBC's whole procession of new drama. I was busy Thursday night, so I've been catching up on the trusty old I-Player.
Dappers is a brave attempt by the BBC, directed by Catherine Johnson (writer of Mamma Mia!), to get a bit of sympathy for a social group that is mostly looked down upon. Ashley and Faye are young, un-married mothers, struggling to raise their kids in a council flat in Bristol. They are sold as the new Delboy and Rodney. Looks like it's going to be a new get rich quick scheme each week. Following in the footsteps of Pulse, Dappers is also trying to set itself out to be "edgy". This time it's drug use and casual swearing. I've got to admit, I didn't really warm to the girls, and their respective love interests repulse me. The girls are irresponsible and childish, to say they are meant to be in charge of toddlers. The show is trying to avoid the doom and and gloom of this sort of life, and show the girls trying to make the best of a bad situation. It's funny in a cartoonish sort of way, as disaster after disaster unfolds on screen. I'd say give it a shot if you enjoyed Only Fools and Horses, but only if you can stomache the strong Bristol accent. For those playing along, you might recognise Lenora Chrichlow who plays Ashley. Seems the BBC just can't get enough of this girl at the moment, this is her third recent drama after Being Human and Material Girl. Those with better memories will also recall her appearances in Sugar Rush, several episodes of Casualty (but everyone's been on Casualty :P), and even an episode of Doctor Who. Keep your eyes open, I've got a feeling we'll see a lot more of her yet. At the very least, filming has started on Season 3 of Being Human!
Finishing thought, what is a dapper? Answers on a postcard... or you know... in the comments section.
Next up is Stanley Park. It's another drama about those lovely college kids. These annoy me no end. I went to college with 2000 other teenagers. While I've no doubt that some lived the sex, drugs and rave lifestyle, we didn't all. These dramas make out that even the tamest and nerdiest students are stoned every other night and in and out of each others beds like it's a game of musical chairs. Debbie fancies herself as the Carrie Bradshaw of Croydon and is deeply in to fashion design. For some reason no-one tells her she looks like a cheap hooker... maybe that's the edge of style in Croydon?
It's pretty painful watching in parts... like I said, I'm pretty sure we weren't that messed up at that age. You've got the two who should be together, but aren't, because they never say the right thing. Then he does the dirty with Debbie and everything gets really messed up. The situation isn't helped by Ben. I couldn't help but wonder what decade the show is meant to set in. Ben is clearly at least very camp, and all his friends say they know he's gay, but he insists he's not, like he's ashamed or something... At the end of the day though, the characters are annoying, whiny and unrealistic. I won't be watching again.
You get double points for getting the familiar face in this episode. Nick Blood is briefly featured as Harry Stevens. You might recognise him as a supporting character from Material Girl, acting oposite our girl Lenora.

Pulse- New BBC drama

Well something mildly interesting happened to me this weekend. I got a nice little alert requesting I watch a pilot for a new BBC show and offer my opinions. The show is called Pulse and is described as Supernatural, Medical, Horror Drama. That seems a bit wordy for a genre. I'm not sure it'll catch on. I'm not really fan of the whole horror scene and medical horror is the worst to be honest. It's the cutting and implanting and... it's icky. However I am fond of the supernatural drama side, and since it's on the BBC, I didn't really think it could be that scary.
For a pilot, it was pretty good, and like most BBC shows, I expect it will get better from here. The first episode follows a girl called Hannah who has just resumed training at a hospital after "going crazy". Well, I'm not sure how crazy she went, but this immediately makes me wonder whether or not she's really cut out for medicine... but I guess everyone deserves a second chance. Long story short she finds out there's something weird going on at the hospital to do with a patient being given injections in the middle of the night that aren't recorded on his chart. Of course you can see it coming straight away that no-one is going to believe her because she's "the crazy one".
Looks like this is going to be one of those "edgy" BBC3 dramas where "edgy" means everyone is having sex with everyone else. Just once I'd like to see drama with "edgy realism" where not everyone was a slut. I don't live like that, and neither do my friends, so why do so many people on tv? Alright, maybe one or two people in a group might behave like that, but not everyone! Balance is key.
If you're worried about the horror side, I'd say not to worry. Obviously it's not suitable for kids, but anyone over the age of 16 should be okay. There's a lot of blood splattered about, but I'd say the worst part would be when the guy wakes up on the operating table... but that might just be a personal phobia.
A fun game when watching any BBC drama is looking out for people you've seen before. Spotted in this episode was Gregg Chillin as Rafee Hussein. You might recognise him from The Queens Nose, Being Human or Nearly Famous (a channel 4 show that no-one else in the world seems to have seen). Nothing wrong with using the same actors over and over again, he's a good actor, though it does distract me for several minutes while I try to figure out where I've seen them before.
In conclusion, it was a strong show, and I certainly want to find out what's going on at that hospital. If you're interested, you can watch the pilot online now, and send your own comments direct to the BBC just click HERE. Or you can wait until it's BBC at 9pm on thursday the 3rd of June. Me? Well I'll be watching The Big Bang Theory on Channel 4, so this might be one that I follow on the i-player.