Charlie Brooker, the Guardian newspaper's media critic, has reviewed the forthcoming Sarah Jane Adventures special ("Invasion of the Bane") and has added a review to the Guardian's own website.
He writes: "That's it. I'm through with cynicism. The world's been in a violently unpleasant shape since 2001, and the law of averages dictates we're all due a break. 2007 is going to be the best year ever made. All wars will end. We'll cure cancer and Aids - twice. In February it'll rain banknotes for a week. In July, rabbits will learn to talk. Better still, they'll tell jokes - hilarious jokes, jokes you don't need to be a rabbit to appreciate, jokes offering a fresh, rabbity perspective on human foibles, making us unite as one, laugh at ourselves and frig each other off for the sheer joyous hell of it. In December, we'll make contact with a benevolent race of aliens who **** chocolate and piss lemonade. You'd better be prepared to grin your ****ing face in half in 2007, because that's precisely what's going to happen.
Things look like getting off to a good start with The Sarah Jane Adventures (New Year's Day, 4.50pm, BBC1) which looks like a rollicking adventure for kids, if the work-in-progress preview DVD I've been sent is anything to go by. At this point I could whinge about receiving what is effectively an extended trailer instead of the full finished programme, but that's what the old, cynical me would do - so I won't. (New cuddly me has also noted that earlier on I unnecessarily used the f-word in an article about a show which might appeal to children, which is bad because they're more likely to be reading - so if you're a child, I'd like to apologise, because the f-word is evil, and if you ever say it aloud, the devil will chop off your legs with a spade, then force you to stand stumps-down in a tray of salt for a year - FACT).
Anyway, the Sarah Jane Adventures (TSJA for short, or we'll never get to the end of this) is the second spinoff from the unstoppable Doctor Who franchise. Unlike Torchwood, which looks like a kid's programme when it shouldn't, TSJA looks like an adult's programme - and should.
I loved Doctor Who as a child partly because I wasn't aware it was a kid's show at all; to me it was a dark, frightening drama for grown-ups. And the two most striking things about the glimpses of TSJA I've had are the production values (way beyond the reach of most children's TV) and a heartening emphasis on scares. It's more sophisticated and less patronising than you'd expect. And there's satire - the pilot storyline revolves around a sinister fizzy drink containing mysterious ingredients, advertised with the vaguely reassuring slogan "It's Organic!".
This is where my optimism cells go into overdrive: I'm hoping the series fulfils the promise of the preview and provides the nation's kids with weeks of barnstorming fun. A high-profile success could give children's TV in general a much-needed shot in the arm, just as the Doctor Who revival reignited an interest in imaginative populist drama - not among viewers, whose interest never waned, but among TV networks, which suddenly realised the audience was hungering for something beyond the regulation crime/hospital/ human-interest dramas that clog the schedules like cold slabs of fat.
Children's TV is currently dominated by animated sales pitches (if little boys bought tampons, you can bet there'd be a series called Tamponium-X Beasts or something) and anodyne Postman Pat clones (Bob The Builder, Fireman Sam, Ollie The Ombudsman, Proctologist Pete etc). Big, noisy British live-action kids' dramas are few and far between, so the bigger and noisier they can get the better.
I just hope TSJA finds room to showcase some really useful monsters, all the better to control young minds with.
How about a story featuring a fanged, howling beast that swoops from nowhere to disembowel children who shout and run around in restaurants? Actually, don't put that in a drama - run it as an item in Newsround and pretend it's real. Spend millions on the CGI. Make it hair-raisingly convincing. It'd make life better for all of us. That or smacking their parents in the mouth."
Can I just say how excited I am now about this series? I honestly believe that both Doctor Who and Torchwood are highlights of (retrospectively) the family and adult genres - and the SJA looks likely to be an ideal addition to children, and family, television.
Joins us for the ride, why don't you?
He writes: "That's it. I'm through with cynicism. The world's been in a violently unpleasant shape since 2001, and the law of averages dictates we're all due a break. 2007 is going to be the best year ever made. All wars will end. We'll cure cancer and Aids - twice. In February it'll rain banknotes for a week. In July, rabbits will learn to talk. Better still, they'll tell jokes - hilarious jokes, jokes you don't need to be a rabbit to appreciate, jokes offering a fresh, rabbity perspective on human foibles, making us unite as one, laugh at ourselves and frig each other off for the sheer joyous hell of it. In December, we'll make contact with a benevolent race of aliens who **** chocolate and piss lemonade. You'd better be prepared to grin your ****ing face in half in 2007, because that's precisely what's going to happen.
Things look like getting off to a good start with The Sarah Jane Adventures (New Year's Day, 4.50pm, BBC1) which looks like a rollicking adventure for kids, if the work-in-progress preview DVD I've been sent is anything to go by. At this point I could whinge about receiving what is effectively an extended trailer instead of the full finished programme, but that's what the old, cynical me would do - so I won't. (New cuddly me has also noted that earlier on I unnecessarily used the f-word in an article about a show which might appeal to children, which is bad because they're more likely to be reading - so if you're a child, I'd like to apologise, because the f-word is evil, and if you ever say it aloud, the devil will chop off your legs with a spade, then force you to stand stumps-down in a tray of salt for a year - FACT).
Anyway, the Sarah Jane Adventures (TSJA for short, or we'll never get to the end of this) is the second spinoff from the unstoppable Doctor Who franchise. Unlike Torchwood, which looks like a kid's programme when it shouldn't, TSJA looks like an adult's programme - and should.
I loved Doctor Who as a child partly because I wasn't aware it was a kid's show at all; to me it was a dark, frightening drama for grown-ups. And the two most striking things about the glimpses of TSJA I've had are the production values (way beyond the reach of most children's TV) and a heartening emphasis on scares. It's more sophisticated and less patronising than you'd expect. And there's satire - the pilot storyline revolves around a sinister fizzy drink containing mysterious ingredients, advertised with the vaguely reassuring slogan "It's Organic!".
This is where my optimism cells go into overdrive: I'm hoping the series fulfils the promise of the preview and provides the nation's kids with weeks of barnstorming fun. A high-profile success could give children's TV in general a much-needed shot in the arm, just as the Doctor Who revival reignited an interest in imaginative populist drama - not among viewers, whose interest never waned, but among TV networks, which suddenly realised the audience was hungering for something beyond the regulation crime/hospital/ human-interest dramas that clog the schedules like cold slabs of fat.
Children's TV is currently dominated by animated sales pitches (if little boys bought tampons, you can bet there'd be a series called Tamponium-X Beasts or something) and anodyne Postman Pat clones (Bob The Builder, Fireman Sam, Ollie The Ombudsman, Proctologist Pete etc). Big, noisy British live-action kids' dramas are few and far between, so the bigger and noisier they can get the better.
I just hope TSJA finds room to showcase some really useful monsters, all the better to control young minds with.
How about a story featuring a fanged, howling beast that swoops from nowhere to disembowel children who shout and run around in restaurants? Actually, don't put that in a drama - run it as an item in Newsround and pretend it's real. Spend millions on the CGI. Make it hair-raisingly convincing. It'd make life better for all of us. That or smacking their parents in the mouth."
Can I just say how excited I am now about this series? I honestly believe that both Doctor Who and Torchwood are highlights of (retrospectively) the family and adult genres - and the SJA looks likely to be an ideal addition to children, and family, television.
Joins us for the ride, why don't you?
1 comment:
TSJA - mmm not sure on the TLA but it was everything Torchwood isn't and more, fun, frolicsome with scary bits - A truely worthy spin off.
Torchwood remains too dark and stuffed with added Adult Entertainment just to make sure you know it's not for kids - my vote is to kill off Torchwood and give us more of TSJA
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