TV Reviews

 We just finished watching all seven series of the British import Wild at Heart.  Overall I very much liked this show but I have a big problem with it.  The show itself is about a British veterinarian who heads to south Africa with his blended family on holiday.  They end up loving it so much they decide to stay and help a crotchety old Afrikaner turn his old homestead into a game park and animal sanctuary.  They all go through ups and downs and people come and go, some die off or get written off the show.  Like I said, it's all very entertaining, it's well acted, well written, and the scenery is beautiful.  But there is one huge glaring problem and that's how black actors on the show are credited.  Only white actors are given top billing in the opening credits.  Two black African actors are in most every series, the characters of Fatani and Nomsa, and yet they are never ever allowed to have their names scroll in the opening credits.  And it's not like they're incidental characters, they figure prominently in every series.  White actors who join for one or two episodes are given top billing in the opening credits but no black actor is allowed to be.  It kind of sucked ass and made me hate the show a little. 

After a month of Wild at Heart episodes, we began the slow weaning process by catching the very heavy British drama Torn.  Torn tells the story of a well off British family who's daughter is kidnapped when she is four.  They convince themselves that she's drowned but she was actually taken by a childless woman who raised her for 11 years.  Her birth mother spots her by chance one day and with the help of a dogged female police detective she gets her daughter back.  But things don't go smoothly for anyone for a while after that.  I won't go further into the plot because I'd be giving too much away if I did, you'll just have to trust me that it's a well told, well acted three part story.  The ladies in the photo all turn in great performances and Bradley Walsh as the partner of the woman who kidnaps young Alice is also pretty damn great in this series.

I highly recommend this one.

Both of these shows are on Netflix instant streaming.