Oi, watch this!

15 Storeys High, UK, 2002-2004

The new episodes of Breaking Bad won’t be out for another four months, you have watched every second of Arrested Development (no, I haven’t, but I know you have), you have given up watching Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother years ago (like any sane person would) and you need a quick fix, because you are a TV-show-junkie? Well how about a bleak comedy set in a grey and barren block of flats, centered around a misanthropic lifeguard and his childlike and weird flatmate?

This might not sound like it can be very funny, but it actually is. The humour is bizarre at times, very dry and sometimes outright surreal, refreshingly different to the standardized sitcom-dullness we get on TV every day. Quite often the series reminded me of Jaques Tati’s Playtime or the films of Aki Kaurismäki and Roy Andersson. A lot of the series’ brilliance is due to the excellent scripts and the performances of Sean Lock as the cynical lifeguard Vince and Benedict Wong as the clumsy and hopelessly optimistic Errol. They seem like a very unlikely pairing but the chemistry and the inherent conflict between the two of them is really powerful.

The episodes are very slowly paced and the plots are quite bizarre yet somehow surprisingly close to life at the same time. They are full of odd but yet strangely familiar characters, most of whom you probably wouldn’t want to be stuck in an elevator with. In every episode there are also little surreal sub-plots telling the stories of people living in other the flats of the building, like a short-tempered father who tries to put together a relaxation tape but is constantly disturbed by his family, a preacher who sells underwear because nobody wants to listen to him otherwise, or a woman who makes up nightmares so that she can call her daughter in the middle of the night.
No matter how strange all of this might sound, the show never looses touch of the rather grim reality its characters are faced with. This contrast makes the humour stand out even more and ensures that the series never feels aloof.

There were only 12 episodes ever made, each of them only 30 minutes long. I found them to be very addictive, so much so, that I watched the whole series in only two days. It really makes a nice change from all the other things we watch every day and it’s very, very obscure, making it the ideal series for anyone who deems him or herself hip, in or different. Here is an example of how you might want to weave it into a conversation: “I guess you haven’t heard of 15 Storeys High? It’s this like post-modern sitcom about an Orwellian plattenbau? And omg, it’s so like about what Adorno and Nietzsche were like talking about? But like on TV, which is totally ironic?”. Well, at least I am going to say that from now on.

I have to be postmodern then

Modern Family, USA, 2009-?

There is someone out there who really hates me for watching this. But he is not alone, I also hate myself for watching it. But why do I watch it then? I would use the metaphor of the car crash but that one is a little bit overused, so let me put it like that: it’s like watching the birth of a very ugly baby.

The most frustrating thing about Modern Family is, that it could have been so good. SO good. Just think about it: a TV-series depicting families as they are today, as we know them? Through in a few funny characters, avoid the trap of gritty realism and there you go, something we can all enjoy and more importantly, something that tells us things about our lives. We can laugh and go “Hmmmmmm” at the same time because we are actually laughing at ourselves.

But it seems that the creators had something else in mind. They tought it would be a good idea to tie a new ribbon around the same old box. [Plenty of metaphors today] Yes of course, at the heart of the series, there is a patchwork family. Fine. But that doesn’t mean it is all modern all of a sudden. Sometimes you really believe that this is something the pope might enjoy watching while relaxing with a few handsome priests on a rainy saturday night. He would probably raise an eyebrow at the remarried couple and the two men who have adopted a baby, but that’s just because he’s contractually obliged to do so. He doesn’t really mind. (He told me so in one of his many text messages.)

For a show that prides itself to be very modern and in-touch, there are quite a few elements in it, that are really old. Like the fact that apparently nobody has to work a lot but everybody is rolling in cash. Or that all gay men an TV like musicals and they don’t ever kiss, they are just more the hugging-types. Or that Colombian women have sexy accents and make jokes about backwards and pitiful Colombia all the time. Or that if your daughter is beautiful, she can’t be intelligent and vice versa. Or that there has to be a patriarch in the center of every family. Or that housewife who cooks and cleans, manages her three children and her childish husband all at once.
I could go on but thankfully, I won’t.

Still there are some things in the series, that are a little redeeming [can something be a little redeeming though?]. There is Alex, the brilliantly sarcastic girl/teenager, there is the anxious and socially awkward Mitchell and yes, some jokes are genuinely funny. I’m still not sure if that is enough for me to continue watching.

You could easily rename the series “The All-American-Family” and sell it as a satire. All the elements are there: cliché characters (Cameron, the oh-so-flamboyant-gay-who-is-just-like-a-mother-for-his-baby-type is unbearable most of the time), commercialism (a whole episode that is basically a commercial for the iPad… really?), misogyny (the before mentioned über-mother Claire, Gloria, the pathologically sexy latina), you name it. If this is “modern”, then I don’t know if I want to live in this modern world. [So this must mean that I am postmodern then. Yeah, that seems to be right. I’ve even got a blog!] And yet I’ve still watched 4 episodes in a row yesterday. Maybe I just enjoy it more than I feel comfortable admitting. Or maybe would do anything to procrastinate. Even writing blog-posts on TV-series.

Oh great!…Oh no!

Awake (Created by Kyle Killan), USA, 2012

After a car crash the world of detective Michael Britten splits into two: in one of the two worlds, his wife is dead but his son is alive, but if he goes to sleep and wakes up again, it’s the other way around. In both worlds he goes back to work while seeking advice from two shrinks, who both try to convince him, that the other world is nothing but a dream. The cases he has to solve in both worlds are all connected through some details, which gives Michael a huge advantage over his colleagues.

So, we have got thriller, mystery, drama, fantasy, parallel worlds… it seems like a lot for one TV-show and it probably is. In the end you’ve got episodes that focus on the police work (they are nice but not very different to anything we are used to from the countless other cop-shows), some that focus on the pains of loosing someone in your family and letting go (add to that the conflict of seeing the person you think you have lost every second day. These episodes are really very good.) and strange in-between-episodes that try to be both and usually fail. Oh yes, there is also a conspiracy going on in the background, which is completely lost in between all of this until it is crammed into the last few episodes.

However you have to remember that the show was cancelled halfway through its first season, which is probably why some things just feel rushed and underdeveloped. Or you could just see it as a partly successful attempt to create a complex story with interesting characters while not explaining everything and leaving room for thought.

So, yes, you should watch it, even tough you’ll probably be disappointed by some aspects of the show. But… well, you ARE hard to please, aren’t you?