Click here to go to the episode list for series two.
Series 3 - an apology and a few comments
Please note - this is not an overview, review, or anything else you'll find useful.
Firstly, my apologies to all the people who asked if I was going to review series three and to whom I said 'yes - probably'. Blame a combination of writing/revising/proof-reading another book (Clairvoyance), hunting for an agent for my serious fiction, working on my own material, and still trying to run house, child and partner. My time - always scarce - is now even more limited. That being said, if I'd enjoyed this series as much as the first two I would have made the time, somehow. But I didn't. I gather a number of other people also found it less than satisfying, too.
So what happened? Well, the medicine took a back seat as internal politics came to the fore. (Not that I have a problem with politics. But I watched A&E for the realism of the medicine, and the characters and interactions. I feel just a little cheated....) The most intriguing new character - Jack Turner - ended up acting so out of character it had me gaping at the screen in disbelief. Robert lost control of the department (mind you, if he'd bothered to get more involved in the politics that needn't have happened. I find it difficult to believe the character would have been quite that naïve, not where his beloved A&E was concerned...) And what happened to Christine's dignity and common sense? I'm sure I'm being far too harsh, and that there were highlights and good episodes, but thinking back over the series all I can remember is a dull sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction. And I don't have the enthusiasm or inclination to watch the series again. I can't say I'm overly surprised that some characters wanted to be written out....
Such a pity after such a promising start. I don't think I'll be watching the next series - assuming it still gets made.
Still, having a friend find Sting's single Russians, which I'd been trying to get hold of for a while, answered the question about that piece of music Robert was playing in his car. It's Romance from the Lieutenant Kije Suite by Prokofiev...
© 2001 Joules Taylor
The situation wasn't helped, of course, by the idiot writing for the TV Times who dropped bloody great spoilers into each week's summary...
It takes 4-5 hours to write each review - a couple of hours to watch the episode twice, around an hour to plan it, then an hour (or more, depending on how much I have to say) to write it. That doesn't include the amount of time Dr Irvine had to put in, of course. Coding and posting doesn't take all that long as I have templates set up for most large term projects: I do all my coding myself, having a healthy mistrust of web-editing software.
Well, wasn't that interesting? Back
What was with that awful 'woman in labour in stuck lift' scene? My partner's reaction was a bemused glance and the comment, "Instant loss of credibility". Back