I have an addiction. Well, I have many addictions—tea, romance novels, the scrumptious cupcakes they sell four blocks from my apartment—but the addiction of which I currently speak is an old and deep-seated one. BBC costume dramas. I can go cold turkey for whole months at a time, but flip past an episode of Sharpe or stick the first segment of that eight hour long Pride and Prejudice into the VCR, and that’s it. I’m a goner. It’s like that old potato commercial warning that once you pop, you can’t stop. One episode is never enough. I want more, more, more. It doesn’t matter if it’s two in the morning, I have to know how it’s going to turn out. We’ll ignore the fact that I know exactly how P&P turns out (and I’m pretty sure everyone else does, too), or that the ending hasn’t changed in all the fifteen times I’ve seen it. I still have to watch the blasted thing through to the end.
This is all a very roundabout way of explaining why this blog almost didn’t get written. You see, the other day, I received a package from Amazon. Always a dangerous thing, rather like those mysterious gifts that appear at the beginning of fairy tales, after which the heroine sets out on some long and desperate journey, aided by the acorn that contains a magic cloak or a feather that turns into the latest model flying carpet or whatever it was that set her off in the first place. My dangerous journey involves my couch and my DVD player. Within that package was twelve hours of self-imposed serfdom: the entire first season of The House of Eliott.
Does anyone else remember this series? It aired on Masterpiece Theatre way back when, before there was such a thing as DVD players. I watched it religiously every Sunday, aching to know whether the two sisters, Beatrice and Evangeline (unexpectedly left penniless by their scapegrace father, as all the best heroines are), would succeed in their dressmaking business in Roaring Twenties London, and whether Beatrice—like me, the older, blonder sister—would wind up with the dashing rogue about town, Jack. I had no idea whether it was as good as I remembered, but I was running out of items with which to bribe myself—and a bribed author is a productive author. Or, at least, that’s the theory. I promised myself an episode a night as reward for filling my writing quota. Um, right. Make that three episodes a night… and, no, I did not write three times my quota. All I can say is that Jack is just as dashing as I remembered and, by gad, he has to wind up with Beatrice or I will be one unhappy author. Not like I’m getting a little too into this or anything.
What is about series that exerts that fatal fascination? After my recent House of Eliott binge, I’ve compiled a little list of the strengths of the series format– just to prove that I was spending my time productively. 1) Long term character development. By episode nine, my two orphaned alter egos had grown and changed in ways that were foreseeable in the earlier episodes, but needed time and care to get them there. 2) Side characters and side plots. When you have an open-ended format, rather than a distinct beginning, middle and end, there’s more time for bit players and subplots. Which, when you think about it, feels rather more like real life, where characters and crises come and go in unexpected ways. 3) The chance to work through what happens after the happily ever after. Okay, I’ll admit it, I peeked at the back of the DVD box, and I know that a certain two characters do wind up together, but have to work through problems with their marriage, oh, around episode twenty or so. To tie back to what Julie wrote yesterday about romance novels versus real life, the single episode format provides less room for exploring the ups and downs that occur after the seemingly neat denouement provided by the exchange of a pair of I do’s.
Or maybe it’s just that when I really love a story, I can’t bear to see it end.
What do you think of series? Do you have any secret series addictions of your own (BBC or otherwise)? Do you enjoy the uncertainty and loose ends of an on-going drama, or do you prefer a more structured single story?
And now, if you’ll excuse me, a fresh pot of tea is brewing and Episode Ten awaits….
-
Actually, I just discovered BBC reruns over the summer and got hooked on Hex, a sci-fi witch drama and Life on Mars, a modern day cop that wakes up in 1970. Once I started watching, had to watch all of them. Very fun.
by cathy
on September 13th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
-
I recently became slightly addicted to a show on BBCAmerica called “Shipwrecked.” I guess it is more of a reality show than a series. It is kind of like Survivor, but better in my opinion. There are no games or competitions and no one gets voted off. There are two islands and the goal is to have the most people on your island at the end of the game. Each week a new contestant comes and the two islands each have 3 days to convince them to join them. I really like this show.
by Jennifer Y.
on September 13th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
-
I don’t watch much TV. Don’t even know what shows are on.
by Estella
on September 13th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
-
I’m a huge BBC fan, mostly their Mystery series. But I just added this to my Netflix queue!
-
*cringing* have not been watching much television lately. Last of any kind of series that I kept up with is Friends.
by Little Lamb Lost
on September 13th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
-
Growing up in Norway, I practically lived and breathed BBC series, and I adored The House of Elliott. Now I have to get my fix of shows like that from Masterpiece Theatre, too. I think the last series I saw of theirs was Bleak House, which was just excellent.
As far as series go, I think I enjoy the single story/mini-series more than an ongoing series, first of all because I just don’t have the time to watch that much TV, and secondly because I prefer stories that quit while they’re ahead–wrap up before they run out of steam.
by Emma G.
on September 14th, 2006 at 2:30 am
-
Oh, House of Elliott!! I loved that show!! With Bea and Jack and Evie and all those wonderful clothes and the evil half brother!!! I know exactly what you mean about P&P!! It is the same with North and South (BBC one with Mr Thornton and Miss Hale!!!) I am forced to watch till the end to make sure everything works out. Also The Weddding Singer film…just in case!!!
by 2paw
on September 14th, 2006 at 8:30 am
-
I’ll have to check out the House of Elliott……! You’ve only watched P & P 15 times? My mom & sisters and I have a P&P nite everytime we get together. Lounging in pj’s and sipping wine, we can recite every good line from that series. And it has Colin Firth, need I say more! Don’t forget that oldie but goodie, The Thornbirds.
by Nina
on September 15th, 2006 at 8:49 am
-
I love those types of mini-series! My mother and my grandmother first introduced me to P&P and now I am just as addicted as they are! When I went to college my freshman year, my grandma bought me the P&P DVD. My poor roomie was never introduced to it and so I felt I had an obligation to show her. We sat and watched the entire movie (needless to say, our homework lay forgotten on our desks)! Our friends kept coming into our room, saw the tv and our glued faces to it, rolled their eyes and walked out. They just didn’t understand…
by Cristina
on September 15th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
-
Oooh, “Thornbirds”! Thanks for reminding me of that, Nina! I haven’t seen that in ages…. Between that and “Shogun”, I had such a crush on Richard Chamberlain when I was a wee thing. I wish someone would dramatize Colleen McCullough’s other books, like the “First Man in Rome” series. Wouldn’t that make a splendid “I, Claudius” type drama, complete with togas and doughty Roman matrons?
As for P& P, I used to do P&P and tea days in college and grad school, kind of like your PJs and wine! We would mark out a whole Saturday, bake scones, brew tea– and stick a little something alcoholic in the fridge to celebrate the eventual happy ending!
by Lauren Willig
on September 15th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
-
Cathy, my best friend recommended “Hex,” too! But I’ve definitely missed something by coming into the series late… I’m hoping they’ll start again from the beginning at some point so I can catch up, and figure out what happened pre the demon baby.
by Lauren Willig
on September 15th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
-
Emma and 2paw, I’m so excited that you’ve seen “House of Eliott”, too! Yay! It’s not just me! And “North and South” is another guilty pleasure. I got my hands on the DVD last year, when I was supposed to be working on my third book (hmm, there’s kind of a pattern here) and just COULDN’T stop watching. It got to the point where I was dressing to go out with friends, applying my mascara in front of the tv (not a technique I would recommend), really hoping someone would call and tell me they were running late, just so that I could fit in just one more episode.
I haven’t seen “Bleak House” yet, so I’ll have to go and check that out….
by Lauren Willig
on September 15th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
-
Ditto on the tea habit! Can’t get up in the morning without it. Has anyone seen BBC’s The Woodlanders (Thomas Hardy)? It has Rufus Sewell, and that in itself is enough to reccomend it!
by Claire
on September 27th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
-
Same here– I can’t function without that first cup of tea in the morning.
Thanks so much for recommending “The Woodlanders”! If it has Rufus Sewell in it, it must be worth watching :grin:
by Lauren Willig
on September 27th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
|
