Paul Abbott is the writer du jour, with State of Play being widely praised last year, not least by me. Channel 4 has had a lot riding of Shameless as a result, with a supposed recasting going on some way into shooting meaning that it needed expensive reshoots. They've been plugging this series pretty heavily and to be honest I wasn't at all sure I was going to like it. You got the feeling that they wanted to make you think it was the new Royale Family.
Well guess what. It's excellent. I loved it to bits. The family is terrible, but loveable. They're crude, mixed up, and mad. The father is useless, mostly passed out on the floor. Jame McAvoy from State of Play is a key character of the outsider Steve who enters the strange domain of the Gallagher family (that was another aspect of the series that Channel 4 were playing up and was really going against the grain from my point of view). I would have watched the next episode on E4 were it not for the fact that I was recording Nip/Tuck on Sky One at the same time.
It's new series time at the moment, and last night Channel 4 also showed the first episode of Without A Trace. It's not too bad in a fairly average US series way. It comes from Jerry Bruckheimer, who's hit TV gold with CSI franchise. I'd put this series as a cross between CSI and that either great television franchise stalwart, Law & Order. To that extent, it's perfectly watchable but nothing special, and it's surprising that C4 have given it such a high profile. I'd be surprised if it lasts long in a 10.00pm slot on Monday evenings - I simply don't trust C4 with imported series any longer. I suspect that another station will take on the multi-channel rights (if C4/E4 doesn't already own them), and do things properly. Still I'll watch the odd extra edition when I get a chance, although Sky One launch The Handler up against it at the same time next week.
Posted by adambowie at January 14, 2004 12:01 AM