The Wire, Arrested Development - Prototypes of a new type of telly?

yeah The Corner is properly sad.

all the cast are amazing in it tho..

Didn't enjoy first episode of Shadow Line, was just like some BBC writer who had seen a good HBO Show and thinking "I could have a stab at that.." had the complex, not quite sure whats going on style but not with the same depth or complexity, as well as the cast not being that consistent. Maybe i'm judging too quick though lol.

Can anyone shed anymore light on Treme? Box set may have to be purchased.

I'm no expert on drama, but I thouht the opening Shadow Line was bad -- even down to basic dramatic and production points. Some bits -- for example, the press conference scene, made me squirm with embarrasment for all involved. It's also hammy in its own way. After the excessive hype, I couldn't quite believe it. I haven't watched it since, so I have no idea if it has improved.

For drama, complexity and pathos, as well as comedy, you can't really beat this new breed of post-The Hills reality soaps, notably the two English examples, The Only Way Is Essex and Made In Chelsea, though I am also partial to The City. This is great telly.

i have devloped a strange liking for made in chelsea. have started doing my best hugo impression. you know, head tilted up, eyebrows delicately raised. cant get my beard as good tho. at first i thought it was just banal, crap drama AND crap (mock) docu, but now i find myself wanting to know whats going to happen. but it has so much empty space in it. theres barely anything there is there? so im not totally sure about it having drama, or complexity.

shadow line has made me wnt to watch episode 2 but some of it seems a tad silly. the guy with the mac who punched the other guy in the lift just doesnt seem believable as a ruthless sinister nutter. he seems like hed be better working in some office. but i like that its at least so differnet from other police dramas on tv, and has a lot of space and atmosphere, even if 'slow viewing'/pace doesnt necessarily = depth.

It's about as dramatic and complex as people are, generally -- which is, you know, not very but also really quite. I mean, if you trained a camera on me at the moment it wouldn't look very dramatic and complex at all, but in my head and for those around me, it's a Dostoevsky nightmare. You can see that living inside Essex and Chelsea. In The City you can see Jay McInerney right there, alive and lightly filtered, on screen.

The slow, overly mannered pacing of (admittedly Episode 1) Shadow Line would have worked better if the script, acting, sets and cinematography had all been signifcantly better quality -- but it was like a flimsy M&S overcoat trying to be a tough, stylish Mackintosh. Apparently, there's some Escher-esque, writhing plot that's going to suck everybody in, so if anybody can sell it, I may go back on iPlayer. I may.

Phaedo said:

Didn't enjoy first episode of Shadow Line, was just like some BBC writer who had seen a good HBO Show and thinking "I could have a stab at that.." had the complex, not quite sure whats going on style but not with the same depth or complexity, as well as the cast not being that consistent. Maybe i'm judging too quick though lol.

Can anyone shed anymore light on Treme? Box set may have to be purchased.

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The thing about HBO drama that Shadow Line seem to have missed completely is that, although they're complex, clever and flatter the viewers' intelligence, they're also based around recognisable people behaving in recognisable people manner. In Shadow Line (as in virtually every other UK thriller since Spooks) the cast aren't allowed to smile, laugh, ramble on, or do anything that might in anyway compromise the tone that screams WE ARE DEEPLY SERIOUS at you. Everyone speaks in whispered clipped sentences, like guys trying to defuse a bomb. It really is unbearable arse. At least the first ep was - I deleted the others unseen.

That said, Treme is also quite boring, though at least I got past Ep 1 before giving up.