Blog From The Bench

I recently screened a trio of British efforts courtesy of Capital Entertainment. It is always fun to see what people are watching on the other side of the pond.

Footballer's Wives
Footballer's Wives is firmly rooted in soap opera tradition: it is trashy, melodramatic, and has that soap acting vibe. At the same time, it is racier and more exploitative than any soap on American television (for example, it pans across the bare asses of the entire football team as they shower) while somehow coming off as realistic. Footballer's Wives indulges our fascination with the social tribulations of professional atheletes and their families. The ride is laced with drama, sex, drugs, and screaming fans in a dizzying spiral of tension. Don't watch it at work. I did... people stared at me.

Bad Girls
If Gosford Park were crossed with Caged Heat, their offspring might resemble Bad Girls. The Women-in-Prison gets a fresh coat of paint as we watch the guards, administrators, and inmates of this British prison engage in political and social infighting. The cliches are here, but a new vibe of verisimilitude comes with them. It is hard to guage from one episode,but I can easily picture this series erupting into interpersonal mayhem.

Double Dare
Double Dare is a documentary about stunt women Jeannie Epper (aka Wonder Woman) and Zoe Bell (aka Xena, Warrior Princess). The dichotomy is clever: both stood in for popular Amazonian warrior women, but Epper is a pedigreed veteran while Bell is a brash, talented upstart. As the documentary unfolds we hear from "big" names like Spielberg and Tarantino, and from "small" names of people on the front lines of Hollywood. But Double Dare does a fantastic job of blurring those boundaries by depicting a democratic "behind the scenes" Hollywood. I was engaged by peeks at the stunt work behind some of my favorite shows and films, and came away feeling that I understood Hollywood better.