Mad Conspiracy

Of the new series that started on telly this year so far I only stuck with 2 to the end. I watched a couple of episodes of BBC1’s period police drama, Ripper Street, but it wasn’t for me, and as for comedy, BBC3’s Way to Go and BBC4’s Bob Servant Independent were not amusing enough to watch more than the first programme. Much to my surprise it was 2 Channel 4 dramas that I found entertaining. I say surprise because I don’t watch Channel 4 very often these days as it and its sister channels E4 and More 4 schedules generally seem to be made up of US so-called comedy imports, life-style programmes and slightly exploitive ‘reality’ shows. Anyway for lack of other things to watch I decided to give 2 programmes a go.

My Mad Fat Diary, shown on E4, was the story of Rae Earl, a 16 stone, 16 year old girl, who had just been released from a psychiatric unit after 4 months. Rae had been admitted for self-harming and the 6 part series charted her struggle with not only returning to the ‘real world’ and her therapy but all the usual trials and tribulations of being a teenager.

Rae’s therapist asks her to keep a diary as she leaves the unit and this provides the backdrop and voice over to what happens to Rae over the summer. On the way home she runs into Chloe, a childhood friend, who has acquired a small group of friends that Rae becomes part of. Having friends is great for Rae but there are all the problems that come with it. Like her jealously of the thin and attractive Chloe and wanting to be more than friends with certain boys in the group. However Rae learns that she is not the only one with problems; Archie is closet gay, Chloe has an abortion after getting pregnant by a teacher and even her therapist’s marriage breaks down, while back in the unit her anorexic friend Tix nearly dies because of her illness.

But like everyone in therapy insight into what got you to the place where everything collapsed is hard and frightening. Rae is full of self-doubt and self-loathing and every set back means she struggles not to harm herself again.

It’s been a long time since I was a teenager yet I recognised in Rae all those emotions and self-righteous, know it all traits, that you have at that age, as well as the fear of being ‘different’ and alone. Sharon Rooney, who played Rae, was fantastic at expressing all these complex emotions and often conflicting emotions, from teenaged frustration with adults to pure joy at those moments of happiness that friendship can bring.

With self-harm being an increasing problem among adolescents and horror of how conservative teenagers can be this series although aimed I think, at teenagers would be ideally shown in schools but probably won’t be because of the swears and sexual references. Hey ho.

Utopia, a conspiracy thriller, shown on Channel 4, was a rather different series and definitely ‘adult’. How I did I reach this conclusion? Not so much because of the swearing but the extreme violence. In every of the 6 episodes someone (usually more than one person) died violently and bloodily.

Adult then, but was it ‘grown up’? Well a good conspiracy should make you think, wonder and even get a little paranoid. Not sure Utopia did and I think its weakness was the myriad of characters that were thrown together by the plot, most of whom I didn’t care about at all.

Jessica & Arby in family reunion

But leaving that aside for a moment the plot of Utopia was as follows:

A shadowy and all-powerful organisation called the Network is in pursuit of a graphic novel manuscript written by a mad-man who happened to be one of their former scientists, which holds the secret to their diabolical plans and the identity of their top man Mr Rabbit. This organisation was born out of the Cold War and allies attempts at biological warfare. The end of the Cold War did not end the Network’s ambitions. The Network can act seemingly with impunity, tracking people, killing them or framing them for heinous crimes as well as manipulating and blackmailing government officials. It has its own assassins, including the slightly podgy and perpetually breathless, Arby. Unwittingly falling foul of the Network are 4 comic-book geeks, Ian, Becky, Wilson and Grant, who soon find themselves on the run with Jessica Hyde, who is also being sought but knows what to do to lie low and is the daughter of Utopia’s author. At the same time civil servant at the Ministry of Health, Michael Dugdale, finds himself in serious trouble after getting his Russian sex-worker girlfriend pregnant, and victim of the Network’s blackmail. While the others stumble about trying to find ways to expose what’s going on, Dugdale tries to get his life back.

Like all conspiracies the plot was somewhat far-fetched in places and you didn’t always know what some of the characters motives and there was enough going on to keep my interest up but as I said I didn’t care much for the characters. Other than the children, Grant and Alice, I wasn’t really too concerned what happened to the rest; though I was sad at Arby’s demise after discovering his origins. If there is another series might give it a go…