Screen grabs: the TV year
LOVE IT OR HATE IT?
LOVE/HATE took a major step in the right direction for its second series, but there was still the feeling that a great TV show was waiting to burst out from the very good one we were presented with. We’re glad to see the back of Aidan Gillen’s character John Boy, but suggestions to further improve the third season include:
* All that money spent on Robert Sheehan’s eye-liner should be put towards elocution lessons to teach him how to do a Dublin accent. It’s not his fault he was born in Portlaoise, but every time his character Darren says something menacing, you’re expecting the person he’s threatening to break down laughing, slap him around the head and call him a bleedin’ pretty-boy culchie.
* Shoot either Darren or Rosie (Ruth Negga). Both are fine actors, but that on-off-on-off romance is getting more annoying than a flickering fluorescent.
* Let’s see more of Ruth Bradley. Darren’s sister is one of the best characters in the series, and has plenty room for development.
* Be careful with Nidge. Tom Vaughan Lawlor was a revelation, but we suspect he’s more suited to clown prince and mad sidekick than taking on the role of gang leader. Some of the scenes with his wife (Aoibhinn McGinnity) provide welcome comic relief, and it’d be a shame for him to go all top-dog serious. Perhaps he should have a torrid affair with John Boy’s vengeful-but-passionate dad, played by Finbar Furey.
END OF THE LINE FOR THE THREE WISE MEN?
THIS time last year we uttered the semi-blasphemous statement that RTÉ’s classic panel of John Giles, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy were getting past their sell-by date.
One year on and we are beginning to notice mould and cobwebs. In many ways, the trio mirror Giovanni Trapattoni’s team — not without their merits and often able to get the job done, but ultimately predictable and boring. The likes of Richie Sadlier and Kenny Cunningham have emerged as far sharper analysts who seem much closer to the modern game, and the approach of Euro 2012 offers the ideal opportunity to shake it all up.
The dream team would be Cunningham, Brian Kerr and Roy Keane — with Sadlier, the current incumbents and various others dropping in as occasional subs.
NATURAL WONDERS
FORGET about that controversy over that polar bear born in a zoo — Frozen Planet was a magnificent series that would be a fitting swan song if 85-year-old David Attenborough decided to call it a day. Natural history fans have become so spoiled, it has become very difficult to impress us.
But the co-ordinated wave of the orca pod, the epic battle between the wolf and the bison, and so many other scenes from the colder regions of the Earth were jaw-droppingly brilliant TV moments.
And if Attenborough does put his feet up with his fossil collection, a young whipper-snapper by the name of John Hurt, 71, showed in Human Planet that, while he might not have the knowledge, he does have potential as a narrator. That focus on the more extreme end of human living also had its magic scenes — from a man walking/fishing on a coral reef, 20m down, without any scuba gear, to the building of a family’s house high up in the canopy of a New Guinean forest.
AND HOW COULD WE FORGET ...
In April, Charlie Bird’s (below) seemingly self-centred attempts to follow in the footsteps of Antarctic explorer Tom Crean were widely panned. Debates raged on Twitter and Liveline, with the country split into camps not seen since Saipan.
It was easily the most explicit show seen on our TV screens, ever. A Girl’s Guide To 21st Century Sex on TV3 used sexperts, willing participants and internal cameras to combine practical advice with scenes, as the song says, that would make a pro blush.
From Bertie Ahern’s mea non culpa to Vincent Browne’s jousting with Joan Burton and others, there were plenty TV moments with our politicians to harden even the most solid cynics. The most significant came in a live presidential debate when the Fianna Fáil skeletons in Seán Gallagher’s closet were outed, ironically enough, by Martin McGuinness. Step forward President Higgins.
Sky Atlantic came with a lot of hype, but the US-focused channel largely delivered with top quality dramas such as Game Of Thrones and Mildred Pierce.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
DESPITE some falling ratings and much-denied rumours of a defection to Britain, Ryan Tubridy may have finally endeared himself to Late Late viewers with this year's toy show. It wasn't just that he helped attract the biggest audience for an Irish TV programme in 16 years. More importantly, he struck the right balance between proper presenting and a silly sense of fun. Could you imagine Gaybo or Pat Kenny dancing with abandon along with a video game? Or throwing a doll's nappy full of faux-pooh into the audience?
Sure, we still suspect that some of the heavier interviews just don't suit Tubridy, but there's hardly a queue of suitable replacements lurking around the RTÉ canteen. Or is that young Mike Murphy I see going up for another portion of subsidised ice cream?
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