Among a plethora of great contemporary TV shows Scott and Bailey is one of the best. A brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT cop show about two female detectives and their female boss.

As I mentioned in a previous post, some criticism has been levelled at the show for portraying the male characters as either useless or devious. Although I can see why some viewers might react that way, it seems to me that all the characters are shown to be flawed and that female leads are no exception. We just sped more time getting to know them. Rachel (Suranne Jones) is prickly and defensive and inclined to be self-destructive with booze. Janet (Lesley Sharp) is compassionate and reasonable but bored with her husband who she takes for granted and ultimately cheats on. Jill (Amelia Bullemore) is a tough, unsympathetic, no-nonsense but brilliant detective. The three women experience their highs and lows together and have their true selves exposed in moments of great weakness. What makes them appealing and compelling is the strength of their friendships and their ability to forgive and support each other. In Scott and Bailey, a spade is most definitely called a spade.

The Daily Telegraph describes the show as “a beautifully engineered programme: it’s both pleasingly sudsy and deliciously grisly but manages to transcend both the soap and detective genres.”

I’ve found it so much more realistic, funny, interesting and engaging than many of the shallow, formulaic cop shows being churned out. We’re still waiting for series 3 here in Australia, and I’ve had to join the Scott and Bailey Twitter fans to keep up with the news – @S&BTV

The theme music is the bomb! Check it out below.

Thought is was time for a few upcomings and incomings. Hope to catch you around the traps at some of the following!

Indooroopilly Library Tuesday 13th August | 6:30 – 7:30pm

Meet Marianne Delacourt: Crime fiction in the Sunshine state. Join local author Marianne de Pierres as she discusses the supernatural crime fiction she writes under the pseudonym Marianne Delacourt. Marianne will delve into the pros and cons of setting a supernatural crime fiction novel in the Sunshine state. Bookings essential.

Brisbane Writer’s Festival – I’ll be moderating a panel discussion between Scott Westerfeld and Max Barry on the Saturday of the festival at 11.30 am.

CrimesceneWA – crime convention in Perth on the 12-13 October. You can read the full (awesome) guest list over at their website.

Australian Webstream Awards – inaugural awards ceremony where I’m presenting Best Writing Award.

And some webby love:

An interview with Portuguese mag Nanozine 9. Slide on through to page 18 and hit Google translate!

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!

Friday Night Lights has been on my radar for a while, recommended to me by very good friends. Sometimes it takes a while for the time to be right to embark on immersing yourself into a fictional world, and with FNL I’ve been waiting for that prefect moment.

Trusting your unconscious to signal when that right time be has worked pretty well for me in the past. I believe its the intuitive part of the story-telling hindbrain that pops up and says, time to view.

Anyway, this is a long way around saying that I’m glad I waited. Why? I had a sporting related trip to the US in May this year and met a bunch of basketball coaches, went to a heap of colleges, and experienced first-hand the awe of the 80K football stadiums. Coming to this series after those experiences, makes my viewing of this series much more enriched. I totally get it, in a way I just wouldn’t have before. Australia is reknown for being a sport-obsessed nation, but there is a magnitude of belief and culture around sports in the US that doesn’t compare, even to here.

I’ve only watched the best part of two series but I’ve been impressed on SO many levels; the acting, the script, the story arcs, the delicate balance between heartbreak and joy. I believe some of the power in the story comes from the way it’s delivered. The show’s wiki states that the whole thing was filmed without blocking and rehearsal, so there’s a lot of hand-held follow around filiming and raw ad-libbing. The actors were encouraged to use their initiative. The EP’s quoted as saying, “no rehearsal, no blocking, just three cameras and we shoot.”

Deep into series two now, I’m finding only a few tiny instances of straying into melodrama, but many more of intelligent, soulful story-telling and social commentary. I feel terribly connected to all the characters – even Buddy Garrity! If I had to single a couple out, Taylor Kitsch is pretty much to-die-for in the role of bad boy, Tim Riggins, and Kyle Chandler as Coach Eric Taylor is quite superb. Of the female cast, the characters Lyla Garrity, Tyra Collette, Corinna Williams and Tami Taylor worked best for me ( and LOVE LOVE LOVE Lorraine “Grandma” Saracen).

The anatomy of Eric and Tami’s marriage with the arrival of a new baby and their separation due to work commitments is beautifully portrayed, as is the Jason (6) Street’s journey from athlete to quadraplegic, Smash, Saracen and Riggin’s different struggles into manhood and Tyra’s desperate attempt to break the family mold. So much is going on in this show and its organic feel contributes to creating the illusion that you’re listening and watching and being a part of your own friends and family’s lives.

Not sure if it was my own personal experiences with sport, but the game scenes NEVER failed to give me goose pimples. What makes me sad is that it didn’t reach a wider audience – as it seems viewers were put off by a notion that this was a story about football, when in fact it’s a complex narrative about how our choices define us.

Love it and trying not to watch it too fast!