Looking over this blog my opinions have been very loud and obvious and completely rambling. But my suddenly developed strong sense of sharing my opinions and my brash rambling dwindled as I gradually realised that having opinions is great but being able to construct an argument, sound clever, wise and learned, well that takes some actual intelligence. I have mused on this a lot, hoping at some point I will be able to somehow write something intelligent and most importantly astute as well as witty. Anyways, without the explosive and annoying housemates around I've spent a lot more time in my own company with my own thoughts over the past few months. I'm a lot more quiet now but my opinions are still strong so here we go.
History Graduate Nicola, with her 2.1 tucked firmly under her arm is going to write a review!
I don't review things but I reckon this show needs someone to say something about it. Thing is I have opinions on lots of things but mostly everyone has said it before, with a more extensive vocabularly and a journalistic ethic attached. So I have always resigned my critical opinions about the entertainment industry to my own noggin' with the intent of keeping them locked there without any mocking or criticism.
Sirens is a show on Channel 4 (I'm an Old Blighty dweller) and is produced by old Skins chum, Chris Clough. I see some of Skins in here, it's young vibrant and character driven but this has more of a strong arch here. We are following three chaps who work in an ambulance and we get to look into their psyches and trials every week. Much better for creating well balanced characters than Skins.
The soundtrack, an essential part to Skins, is also something which screams, youthful, as well as the editing. It's sharp and mostly interspersed with music which was popular on the radio about 6 months ago, or has been on the production teams iPods for a couple of years. It's all cool kids with their almost hip music, the soundtrack is somewhat reminiscent of The Inbetweeners (a show that is equal parts hilarious and essential to life). A lot of the music falls flat but it does give the show an energetic image. The pilot episode had the added factor of music being presented in the world we were viewing, aka on the radio, a busker singing a tune, and we are hearing what the characters hear mostly. It's not a unique idea but it was deftly done, unfortunately this clever concept was scrapped in the preceding episodes. The show is clever with it's music and youthful, pretty much trying to aim for the younger audience.
With the music dealt with I can move onto the characters. The main three guys are all late 20s guys in a stressful job dealing with their own loves and tribulations and having a bit of fun in the mean time. Not a bad premise really. Lads will laugh along with their behaviour and girls will, in theory, swoon at the dudes (Mainly the delectable Richard Madden) and also appreciate the inclusion of a no nonsense strong female copper who features as a main character too. Oh yes, they are casting the net wide.
We have Stuart who is a grade A knob end, clever and ballsy with a loud mouth and an excess of all knowing bullshit to spout, but somewhere deep down he's a bit fragile with issues of being abandoned by his daddy. This is a character you should love to hate and love to laugh at, in theory. His almost omnipotent power to drive the episodes with his no nonsense life statements mean we are somewhat connected to him the most out of all the characters. This is a man who believes that life is just one long train ride to the grave, nothing exciting, nothing too thrilling, it's boring, and excitement and confusing feelings are all just distractions from getting through a monotonous day to day existence. To some extent I agree with his distinct lack of whimsy but this soulless and cold belief that we are all just animals living unimpressive undistinctive lives would disconnect him from the section of society who aren't so strongly subscribed to misanthropy. Of course over the series we get a gradually onion peeing of his character as underneath is a fragile and lonely man who has some abandonment issues from Daddy dearest and has never managed to convince a woman to engage in a long term relationship with him. In fact the only woman he has ever made a strong connection with would be Maxine, female copper lady, and we all have to accept from day one they are meant to be together.
But life is messy and the show doesn't allow this whimsical happy ending to occur. They went to University together, undoubtably to do a psychology course, and have been fast friends since, they both genuinely care for each other but guide each other through the pitfalls of life with their well versed psycho-babble. Two misanthropic, rough hewn, but sensitive peas in a pod who only truly understand each other. Unfortunately she finds someone, he realises that he cares about her but it's too late and she rejects him choosing to stay with idiotic but charismatic fireman.
Stuart's overall emotional arc is a human one. Because deep down in the six episode run the show is trying to convince us he is a human being, but it trundles along at a slow and delicate pace. Many will say nothing happened but to the character of Stuart, it seems some monumental changes took place.
Our other two main characters consist of Robb from Game of Thrones and Phonejacker. They are of course important parts to the show and the yings to Stuart's misanthropic yang.
Ashley (Richard Madden from Game of Thrones) is Stuart's partner in crime and all around best bud. Ash comes off as the stoic and calming force in the ambulance, he cracks jokes and is as much of dick as Stuart on some ocassions but all around his much more attractive features, allow him a bit of leeway, plus he is genuinely nice. Over the six episodes we learn he is relatively insecure and his relationships are based purely around sex and roleplay but he does genuinely want to be loved I think somehow. They missed a trick fully exploring his psyche because I think the direction they revealed his inner workings didn't quite fit with the mysterious alluring openly gay and relaxed behaviour he exuded in the previous episodes. So what? He only likes being submissive? It's a different aspect of gay relationships which I haven't seen explored on television but doesn't make for gripping viewing and his personality is fully explored from this point. But I shan't complain, what you get a cool tempered side-kick to support his otherwise frantics companions.
Rachid (Phonejacker) is the trainee who is being shown the ropes by our two confident young men. He is in himself very happy with himself and enjoys having plenty sex and being an all around bloke. As a noob, we learn from him the ropes of the task at hand, being an EMT, such as that awkward moment when you find your first decomposing cadaver and ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts and the oh-so arduous inclusion of an in-house counseller checking on you after traumatic calls. Not that the noob is for bullying and mentoring, Rachid exerts his independence and tests his boundaries by pushing against his low level status by making out to his associates and himself he's better and smarter than he appears, so a bit insecure, aren't we all?
So there you go all the chaps, I've written a fair bit about them but this is a character driven show. Overall I'd say it's a character study with events thrown in to move the arcs along and give us a suitably wide variety of emotions from all three chaps, and our female conncetion. Apart from the set piece events we are mainly left with a smattering of conversation and reflection from our characters as they go about their daily lives, but of course the conversation is witty enough to be engaging. Unfortunately this isn't ER and it doesn't make for a wildly exhilarating hour long programme.
Don't get me wrong, I loved this kind of thing, but I watched it with my boyfriend who got bored after the first twenty minutes and said nothing was happening. Boyfriend continued to fidget and roll about restlessly so I had to turn it off and watch it on my own later. Moral of the story, if you want something with action go watch ... well anything that has an explosive title sequence and babes with tight t-shirts. This is a witty heart-warming show with a sardonic edge, it doesn't take itself too seriously but it doesn't blow you mind.
It's like meeting an old mate up for drinks, it's awkward at first and the musics a bit naff in the bar you're at but you let it slide and you just enjoy their company, then you walk off and don't think any more of it until your next meeting. Or is that just me?
