Stuff I Watched: 7th Nov – 14th Nov 2009

The more observant amongst you will have noticed that, as well as only having written about two TV shows in a week, the post title covers the 14th and I watched the last programme on the 12th.  This is intentional, as it is a symbolic end to a bad TV week.  I keep asking myself whether it has it been a slow week for TV or was it just a week in which I just didn’t want to write about it.  I’d managed to write about the two programmes, below, by Thursday, and then on Friday morning I had to delete loads of recorded programmes because there was no sound.  To say that I was annoyed is an understatement.  I’m a big fan of Sky HD, but you become so reliant on it that when it goes wrong it becomes a tragedy (I’m being hyperbolic).

Anyway, thanks to the wonders of endless repeats, I’ve managed to re-record most of the programmes that I deleted.  The one notable omission was Curb Your Enthusiam, which was, typically, the programme I wanted to watch the most and the one that had no repeats.  Thanks for that Channel 4, you misers.

Spiral: BBC4 (Recorded 1st Nov Watched 7th Nov)

It was the final episode of the French police drama and Samy went undercover with the Larbis to Spain, in the hopes of exposing their drug deal.  Meanwhile a suspended Laure successfully blackmailed evil Josephine in to dropping the charges against her.  C’est bon.

Everything was going a little too well for our Gallic police chums and it clearly wasn’t going to last.  Before too long, Samy was uncovered as an undercover cop and it’s fair to say that he was in quite a bit of trouble.  There was palpable sense of urgency as they tried to find out where he was, and, to that end, it was good to see that police brutality is still alive and viciously kicking in France.  Just as all looked to be lost, they found Samy and then…that was it.  The ending crashed down like a guillotine.

It was all well executed, as usual, but the ending was a total anti-climax.  We didn’t even see Josephine get her comeuppance and she didn’t make an appearance in the second half of the episode.  This was strange as she’d almost been the focal point for the entire series, and it left a few too many unanswered questions.  And then we get to poor Pierre who had even less to do than Ginger Josie.   I can’t help but feel that the writers dropped the ball.

I’m still looking forward to season 3 though.  Let’s hope it’s not another 3 year wait.

In Treatment: Sky Arts 1 (R 9th Nov W 12th Nov)

I wrote a few days ago that I didn’t think that Laura seemed very lovable, but, after watching this episode, I was left wondering if the problem is actually that it’s never seemed like Paul was actually in love with her.

It’s the beginning of Week 6 on In Treatment and they started with a weird feeling episode.  Now that she’s no longer his patient, Paul finally tells Laura how he  feels about her.  It was strange because this is a huge thing for Paul to do, considering the effect it could have on his career, yet he seemed as detached and clinical as ever.  I’m not sure that it felt like he was in love with her even with it all out in the open.  It left me a little confused as to what was going on.

I’m not too bothered by it, though.  The series has built up enough trust in me that I’ll go with it even when I’m not entirely convinced.