TV
Reviews
Bio LOVE Five, Mon 12 Jun. 9pm
Clockwise from right to left: Sven - The Coach, The Cash and His Lovers, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Saxondale, Mums Who Leave Their Kids
If those clever people at US cable channel HBO seem to be acting all cocky, you can hardly blame them. With glorious hit after glorious hit on their roster (Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood), they can now afford to usher in a new show which takes its time for anything at all to happen, yet has quality smeared across it. With Big Love, the premise is so jaw-dropping that it can afford to keep a foot off the gas
from its opening episode.
Bill Henrickson runs a successful superstore and is happily married. To three women. All at the same time. But rather than having to scurry around hiding his dirty linen (and much more besides) he and his missuses all live beside each other. But this set-up is positively lightweight compared to Bill‘s upbringing, a rural fundamentalist Mormon compound which he visits only when his dad falls sick (his mother fails to believe in modern medicine) and where men wed girls young enough to be their great-
granddaughters.
With the kind of stellar cast which simply proves how much the US takes its TV seriously (Bill Paxton, Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Harry Dean Stanton, Bruce Dern), all that happens in the opener is a business deal or two getting hatched, one of the wives buys some curtains and Bill struggles to get it up. But there is a solidity to the writing and a menacing quality to the direction and acting that gives you the sense that, within three or four episodes, Big Love will be your new favourite American
drama. (Brian Donaldson)
REMOTE CONTROL
Baa" ‘J’JT ol') ‘2’)“ t) ‘zl'-' '1') d
{Jar'o‘ a‘ the 'rJ'.’ 0‘." 'J' :J't’i'i
()3: ’_):J".‘: '1' tl'i‘: r)’)l
l)a\.rna Mcklar .-.>'~;t.‘:; t‘ial . l viii? ‘ Dermot O‘l ear, atraeth Marti: O'Nerlr'.‘ At the end c? cuer the nicerr to tea we that \x‘tl don“. reall\ haw to make a chm. e tret'-.'.t‘-en the drar\ room and tl‘e penalty box. as
l’lt‘ «My . “till {70
it's pertectw possible tc .xatcn exer‘. seccrta at World Cup action and keep up with ‘emrits' in the Big Brother house t‘:\‘.ltr:‘~t" It's on E4 and Channel .1 rust about all the Wilt}. With
90 THE LIST
(-‘ierrrram ‘llfi set to ignite. dcr‘urrrentan makers haw forgotten that they 're meant to whet our
ar petites before rt starts. rather than get in the way of the threehour highlights packages. Is there really any r‘ornt to having a World Cup Stories 48503. Sun r' 7 Jun. 70pm) on It;in or a Panorama iBBC 7. Sun 7 7 Jun.
'1). 75,:rrrir an l-"lFA bungs when the whole thing has already kicked off? Still. Sven - The Coach, The Cash and His Lovers rC/rarrrre/ 4. Thu Ju'l. ltln'rrr arirws or‘ the tournament's exe. merging the scary. doppelgangers of DOLib/e Take With a bunch of despairing talking heads (Keith Arlen. Max CliffOrd) gagging to
see the hack of the svelte Sun/ode More ot an over excitable Scot rs Andrey; ‘rarr. who presents The Age of Genius {BBC-i, Mar: 7.; Jun. 9pm.». :n ‘.'.'l‘rr(:l\i he waxes his garrgl‘, lrrrzhu all over the place to r_lrs<_;uss the Enlightenment. recalling that Edinburgh was once little more than ‘Tehran vrrth heayy rain' before the likes of Davrd Hume and Adam Smith helped Auld Reekre become a philosopt‘rrcal centre of excellence rather than a stinking pit of dysentery.
In Mums Who Leave Their Kids (Sky One. Wed 27 Jun. 9pm). Journalist Jane Moore is beSIde herself wrth rage that some people don't feel the same way she does for her darlrng three kids. Moore presents the annual Wonder Mum awards and meets mothers wrth crippling drsabilrtres who still manage to be good parents. so when someone's heart )USI isn't in rt any more and they flee the nest to pursue a career or new partner, there can only be one conclus‘ion: they're either selfish or mentally ill.
Steve Coogan has made a showbusiness career out of indivrduals on the edge. and hrs latest creation looks set to rival messrs Partridge and
ljalt a‘, paratrcnt. it {rr‘il' ul‘ rrrir it (writ Tu", Saxondale titlit ,. 9 3r rprrrr teatures (\Zootian at; a kllt', haired, faded denrrrr pent t irritrcllwr '.‘.'hose past as roadie to the ropk legends of the [Us keeps, llr'tr rn unbearable anecdotes anl a st rev. you attitude which rnyari it ill, (llfifllirft. his anger management trl'fr‘illritt. »\-, ever. the devil it; rrr the detail. .'.'rt'tr a script tighter than 8qu Us; leather trousers. while Coogan'1. catalogue : rt fanial ticks says more than a d...'» -'r catchphrasez. ever could
There's not a catchphrase to be had in Drop Dead Gorgeous rBBc‘ir Sun Ir'Jir/r, (Op/rt) t)Ut there‘s more than a rash of stock northern characters, in this drarnedy which has stout. working class parents finding their world turned upsrde down when one of their daughters is plucked from schoovyarrr Obscurity to catwalk infamy. Famrl/ loyalty tackles fashion world immorality. and the end result is a dubious pleasure.
We all know that Lineker and co have welleorled punchlrnes to accompany their half—time ‘analysrs' but COUld any of their write s come up wrth a wrnnrng formula for The Play's the Thing (Channel 4, Mon 72 Jun. 10pm)? This latest take on the channel’s high art talent show (after Operatun/ty and Musrca/rty; has would be playwrights trying to conwnce some angry-looking theatre beds that their story would have the West End box offices whirring. We're cheering on the underdogs.