Dilemma! BBC1 and ITV have pitted their big drama debuts of the new season against each other! Which to watch? Well, given the recent track records of both channels in *ahem* Quality Drama I would normally suggest neither, but today I’ve decided to try an experiment. I’m going to flip between the two and see which one grabs me for longest.
Cop show ‘Serious and Organised’ has got the jump on legal drama ‘The Trust’, having started last week. It’s the creation of ‘Queer as Folk’ script editor Matt Jones and stars former ‘Eastenders’ villain Martin Kemp. ‘Trust’ stars Robson Green and was created by Simon Block, previously known for Channel 4’s ‘North Square’ which was, you may remember, another legal drama. (Shall we needlessly pigeonhole Block as the John Grisham of British TV? Yes, let’s.) I didn’t see ‘North Square’: Mark tells me it was bobbins but I am determinedly unprejudiced. Really.
I have tossed a coin to see which show to start off with. It came up tails, which means ‘Serious and Organised’ gets the nod. I’ll flip as soon as I get bored.
9:00 OK, I didn’t see the first episode of this (I’m very very busy writing a book on the Coen brothers – rest assured there’ll be a pre-order link just as soon as it’s available) but I gather the hook is that the two cops are brothers as well as partners, and Martin Kemp is in love with Joe Duttine’s wife. They’ve just collared some dodgy geezer and they’re trying to make him talk.
9:07 Hey! The plot’s started moving. The guy in the cells is a hired assassin and they’re setting up a sting to catch his boss. All the cops cheer and go down the pub. Joe Duttine shags somebody who isn’t his wife in the toilets. I haven’t turned over yet, which must be a good sign.
9:12 Ooh, a twist! The assassin’s just turned up at Joe Duttine’s house unannounced. First ad break and the show’s doing OK so far – a bit bland, Kemp a bit subdued. He’s playing a little against type, although he’s a hardman he’s definitely supposed to be the good guy. It’s a bit unsubtle in the way that it guides your sympathies between the two leads, though. Let’s look at what’s happening on the other side.
9:16 Four minutes of ‘Trust’ and I really don’t like the sets. If I had to work in their office I’d probably throw up. And ooh, it’s edgy! They’re talking about drugs. Robson Green, whom I’ve heard is quite good in ‘Wire in the Blood’, seems bland as ever. But! This has Neil Stuke from ‘Game On’ in it. I like him. Oh, but he’s only got a really short scene. Welcome to the world of BBC1 primetime, Neil.
9:19 A couple of minutes later, he’s back! Stuke’s character isn’t up to much, they’ve given him a football obsession in place of a personality. It’s really flat so far, with a visual style that looks like a half-asleep ‘ER’. Let’s have a minute of ‘Serious and Organised’.
9:22 Joe Duttine’s posing as a drug dealer in a stupidly risky strategy. Blimey, this is macho. There’s been three fights since I turned over. They’re about to arrest some local crime lord, but I don’t particularly care if he gets caught or not, to be honest.
9:28 Back to ‘Trust’, then. Fortunately Stuke’s on-screen. Ah! He’s playing a gay man! I get a sense that they’ve created the characters to a quota here. There’s a real lack of freshness to them, they’re rather reminiscent of the ones from ‘This Life’, ‘ER’ et al. Or maybe it’s just because the dialogue is so bland. Stuke’s character has just made an incredibly clich?d reference to Liza Minelli and, lo and behold, I turn over again.
9:35 Joe Duttine’s womanising is endangering the operation. What’s noticeable so far about this show is that it’s a cop drama, but the story seems more based around the characters than the actual police work. Interesting approach. The structure of the episode seems slightly bizarre though, it doesn’t seem to know which way it’s going.
9:41 Yeah, this is really macho. The female characters are just pawns in male power games and the portrayal of Duttine’s desertion of his family is heavy-handed. The character knows that the assassin guy knows where he lives and yet – the cad – he’s just spent the night with the woman from the pub toilets (who is another cop). So of course, the assassin breaks in to his house whilst he’s away and tries to murder his family. Even more heavy-handedly, it’s Martin Kemp who barges in and saves her. DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE HOW HE CARES MORE ABOUT HER THAN HIS BROTHER DOES? DO YOU SEE HOW HE’S ACTUALLY MUCH MORE DESERVING OF HER LOVE?
9:45 Ad break again, so it’s back to ‘Trust’. I’m really not grabbed by this at all. Isn’t Ian McShane supposed to be in this? I haven’t seen him once so far. The idea of corporate lawyers being heroes is a bit of a weird one, I mean I’m not one of those people who hates lawyers and I loved ‘This Life’ but… There isn’t really any human interest in the cases they handle (it’s not like criminal law, where the lawyer can be cast as detective, seeker of justice, defender of the little man and so on) and it’s much more workplace-oriented than ‘This Life’. No, I’m sorry, I find it quite hard to relate to these people. I’m flipping back.
9:51 Just in time for a vital piece of evidence! They’ve cracked the case. Is their soft-top Mercedes standard police issue? Joe Duttine certainly appreciates it – he’s just jumped in without opening the door. You may be brothers, boys, but that doesn’t make you the Dukes of Hazzard.
9:55 Drama! Duttine’s wife is confronting The Other Woman, who I’ve just noticed looks a lot like Alanis Morrisette. I bet she gets shot in a minute – I’m fairly impressed by how quickly they’re moving the character plot along, I’d expected them to drag the affair out for a whole season.
9:59 Alanis hasn’t been shot, but the assassin did just punch her out. He levels his gun at the wife… but Kemp and Duttine save him at the last minute! Yeah, not at all clich?d, the way they shot that (close-up on the intended target of the shots, shots ring out, target doesn’t die, turns out that the gunman is the one who’s been shot). Cheesy. But Duttine’s wife is leaving him and it’s only episode two! And next week it’s about illegal trade in human organs! It’s OK, but I probably won’t watch. As for ‘Trust’ – as far as I call tell, a complete waste of time.
Final Score
‘Trust’: 23 minutes on-screen
‘Serious and Organised’: 37 minutes on-screen
