I’ve just finished watching the first episode of the new BBC drama ‘Single Father’. Initially, I have to admit, I was only watching it because David Tennant is in it but the episode was actually really good. It’s by no means anything like Doctor Who and it isn’t for anyone who isn’t prepared to cry (unless you have no tear ducts or heart.)
The series is basically about a father (played by David Tennant) who loses his wife and is subsequently about how he copes after this great loss. The first episode is mainly about his wife’s death and the time just after so it is obviously very heart wrenching. I have to admit, I shed more than just a single tear and half the time I just wanted to give David Tennant’s character a hug. Not just because it was David Tennant but because he portrayed the pain of losing a loved one so vividly that I couldn’t help but want to comfort him.
The thing is the writer of this program spoilt an almost perfect show in the last two minutes. (I honestly checked who the writer was to make sure it wasn’t Stephen Moffatt because I didn’t want a reason other than River Song to hate his writing.) Mick Ford decided to take the terrible route of making the widower and the wife’s best friend kiss. Sorry, spoilers, but so many dramas are spoilt by going down this route. I may even have been able to let it go if it had been left as a silly mistake in a time of intense sorrow where they only had each other for comfort (or so it would have seemed to them at the time.) The thing is the ‘next time’ clips suggests that this is going to be a major plot line and this makes me sad.
In my opinion, so many shows or films are spoilt these days by inappropriate kisses. Some may argue that they add to the plot but I totally disagree. They suggest that we humans have no self control. Sure, we easily confuse our emotions but that doesn’t mean we don’t have brains. Any person with brains knows that it’s not right to kiss someone who’s married and I’m pretty sure zombies generally don’t ever have the opportunity to kiss married people. It just saddens me that such great programs have to be spoilt in this way and that the focus can’t be kept on the genuine problems: The problem of why his stepdaughter is skipping school, him trying to get over his great loss, him trying to bring up a family alone. I don’t see why a potentially great series has to be tainted by the smallest lapse of self control that isn’t just left as an emotion filled mistake. Why does it have to be extended?
You might be saying ‘why are you being so narrow minded, Hannah?’ but all I say is, can’t I have a program that I can enjoy without being frustrated that it’s showing us as people to be terrible. Sure, it’s only a program but how would you like to be the husband? Just because it’s a program doesn’t mean it is suddenly different. I know some people make mistakes too and we can’t just skirt around the issue, and the characters may ultimately come to the right decision, but it’s still a problem that I think is portrayed too much in TV. Let’s just hope the rest of the series doesn’t always make me feel like this at the end.
“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
Current book I’m reading: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Last TV show watched: Single Father (obviously)
Current programs/web pages open: Blogger - Edit posts, Hotmail, YouTube, msn, word,
Number of people I’m talking to on msn/Facebook: 1
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