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. 

DVD reviews

Martin Clunes plays a brilliant socially inept surgeon who has developed a minor phobia about blood so he leaves his successful surgery career behind in order to become the GP of a tiny town in Cornwall. It's a classic 'fish out of water' premise that's done incredibly well. Clunes is fine in his role as Doc Martin and Caroline Catz is not only easy on the eyes, she's super great in her role as the teacher who is also Clunes reluctant love interest.

Caroline Catz, my new imaginary British celebrity girlfriend. Hubba hubba!

The thing I love about this show is that it makes no attempts to make Clunes's character lovable. He is what he is, and what he is is an irascible cranky doctor who has been thrust into a small town full of oddballs and eccentrics. I just finished watching the first series and I can't wait to see it over again. I'm also looking forward to seeing the rest of the series of this fine comedy.

Oh by the way, if you're watching this show on a local PBS station, you're missing part of it because most PBS stations cut this show down to fit in a 30 minute time slot.

Years ago, in the dark ages before I had cable, I saw part of an episode of The Flame Trees of Thika on PBS. I didn't see any of the other episodes but that one part of the one I saw stayed with me. I was mesmerized by it and when I finally this that it was out on DVD I wanted to buy it but I didn't want to pay$30 for it. Then the other day before Giftmas I saw that my local super corporate book mega store had it in sale for half off so I bought it for Sparky. And I have to say that after finally watching the whole thing, I loved it.

It's based on the Elspeth Huxley book of the same name and it's about a Edwardian family's life in Kenya right before World War 1 breaks out. Yes, it's racist at times, the British were horrid racists and classist, but it's a good story full of fine performances by everyone involved. Holly Aird, who plays young Elspeth, is one of the most expressive actors I have ever seen and it doesn't hurt that was as cute as a button when they made this series. Hayley Mills is adorable in this production as well.

I recommend this series because it's a good look at what life was like in colonial Kenya under the British. And it's a good look at the cost of empire to a world super power.


I haven't finished watching the third and final series of Clatterford (if one more person tells me that the name of this show when it airs in Britain is Jam and Jerusalem, I'm going to punch them in the face) but I've seen enough to tell you that I love it and it's possibly the best one yet, with the exception of Maggie Steed's hair do.

Nobody does 'small towns full of eccentrics' shows better than the British and this one if one of the best. Jennifer Saunders is brilliant in this edition of this series, as are Sue Johnston, Dawn French, Pauline McLynn, Suzy Aitchinson, Salima Saxton, and David Mitchell. I'm sad to see that this is the final series of this show because I like these characters so much and because this is the type of show you'd never ever see on youth and tit obsessed American television. Oh well, at least we can watch it over and over since we have all three DVDs.