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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 344631" data-attributes="member: 23">Series One A Voice From The Past / The Swedish TigerThe return of Sarah is something I had a feeling was coming and looked forward to since she’d been such a key part of the opening three episodes. Having seen it, I’m on the fence as to whether or not her return is a good thing. And perhaps this is how I’m supposed to feel.A Voice From The Past got things off to a nice start with Elizabeth roping James into reluctantly helping out at a soup kitchen into which stumbles Sarah, visibly unwell and coughing over everyone and yet trying to salvage some dignity by telling them she’s only there to meet an actress friend of hers.The dynamic is a promisingly soapy one, with James having played a key role in driving Sarah away in the first place, and Elizabeth - having been away during Sarah’s tenure and being told only that Sarah is a former member of the household staff - feeling the only thing to do is take her back home, where Sarah’s presence further upsets things.While less than four months’ “real"-time has elapsed according to the transmission dates, UpDown’s regular time jumps mean that it’s been over four years since Sarah walked out in search of a better life.There are some nice touches, like Elizabeth deducing that the tension between Sarah and James is because they had a fling. In particular, this story also serves as a kind of closure for the story of Emily’s suicide which still looms over the household. Sarah’s previously-established interest in the paranormal is taken to another level with her now claiming to have assisted a powerful psychic who unlocked Sarah’s potential as a medium.The speed with which most of the characters embrace the idea of a seance is slightly difficult to swallow. Mrs Bridges, of course, is in a vulnerable position and her grief makes her acquiescent to the idea in her search for hope and forgiveness, so perhaps this informs the responses of the others whose service roles are mostly subservient to that of Mrs Bridges.As before, it’s the relationship between Sarah and Rose that is the driving force. While we’ve seen Sarah and Rose share intimacy before, this episode has almost overt suggestions of a lesbian relationship between them. There’s even a triangle, with Rose now sharing a bed with Sarah’s replacement Alice, dabbing some potion all over her top half to reduce her freckles. While Rose is initially frosty and dismissive, Sarah’s all come hither looks and sprawling on the bed and remembering good times. She even has a line saying that she bets Alice isn’t as good to cuddle up with because she’s a “frigid cold fish”, and Rose doesn’t disagree.There’s a lot about the story that’s a bit too neat. Alice running out of the attic room forever right on cue for Sarah to hop into her bed and her role as the episode nears its end is awfully convenient. And, even when it’s apparent to at least some that she’d faked the seance, there’s no comment about the cruelty of Sarah’s imitation of Emily. Sarah herself seems to have crossed the line from mischievous to malicious. She mostly comes across as self-serving, calculating and unlikeable. It might be realistic that her time on the streets has hardened her, but it doesn’t make for a more watchable character.There are those who are still to learn about Sarah’s return, what with Marjorie and Richard in Perthshire and some of the other characters joining them at different times. Roberts has been absent for some four episodes, and the latest episode seems to have written her out of the series entirely with Elizabeth commenting that there’s talk of her staying on in Perthshire permanently.The “rotating” cast seems unusual to me. In a half hour soap opera like Corrie or Crossroads (to name two that would have been running contemporaneously with UpDown), it’s expected that this kind of rotation would happen. In any given episode, only perhaps half or two-thirds of the main cast will appear, while the others are “rested”. When a series runs several times a week for each week of the year, it’s the only way to give the cast their time off. In hour long series that run for thirteen episodes each year, however, I’m accustomed to a main cast member’s absence being the exception rather than the rule. In general, you can be guaranteed seeing each main cast member in each episode.As I said, UpDown not doing this feels quite unusual. That’s not to say it doesn’t work, but I’m a little more aware of the absent faces. And never more so than in The Swedish Tiger, in which the vast majority of the main cast are absent.Of the main ensemble, only four characters appear: Elizabeth, James, Sarah and Edward. The absence of older, more authoritative characters means that the series is missing a certain weight. But this is just the beginning of the many problems I had with this episode. Let me count the ways…There are all these characters with strange accents who appear from nowhere, having apparently been established during the time jump. The story is extremely muddy and vague. Even after watching, I’m still not quite sure what happened, other than some kind of larceny plot involving jade figurines. It feels very much like a story intended for some anthology series that was shoehorned in here because of a writer’s strike or something.Then there's the dialogue, which is appallingly stiff and pretentious, as though it’s intended to be Cowardesque, but with a complete lack of the requisite wit and finesse. Once again, the younger actors lack the presence and gravitas to overcome this.I can say without question this is the worst episode of the series yet. Had it been one of the earliest I’d have joined [USER=8]@Thrillie Trolleson[/USER] and abandoned ship.It’s still relatively early days, and I haven’t yet watched 20% of the series, so here’s hoping it recovers what I’ve so enjoyed up until the last episode or so.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?