New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 339367" data-attributes="member: 23">I've hit that point of watching a series where it goes from being an enjoyable way to kill an hour or so each evening to that part of the day I look forward to hitting. Already the series is feeling like one which could possibly leave a sense of absence when it ends. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. There are still seventy six episodes ahead of me and anything could happen between now and then. The episodes set in the South of France were fun. With every member of the cast wangling a trip to Michael's wedding in Cannes, my expectations were leaning towards a few stock exteriors followed by some studio-bound hotel and wedding venue interiors. Sure enough, there was a lengthy series of glamorous French Riviera shots followed by a decent-looking hotel interior. It was only as the episode progressed and we saw the cast driving and then sailing round the sunny locales surrounded by azure blue water that I realised this was a two-parter in which Central/ITV had invested some money. Perhaps this jolly was the cast's reward for such a successful first series. With a series of this kind it seems almost frivolous. Not that I'm complaining about it. I'm just hugely impressed that this is one series that actually delivered on its claim to visit an overseas location. It seems the Who's The Boss? episodes were set in California which, I'm guessing, is where the series was shot anyway. I'm not sure if there were perhaps more exteriors in this WTB two-parter, but shots of California in an American series just seem like coals to Newcastle. Incidentally, I just took a peek at some clips from the equivalent Who's The Boss? episodes. The three I found on YouTube are mostly the interior-based hotel scenes, but even that looks suspiciously like the living room set redressed. The Upper Hand did at least feature (to my eyes) different-looking sets that gave a convincing "away from home" feeling, even if in the studio-bound scenes. Another couple of strikes in favour of The Upper Hand's version: The Wedding Bells title is certainly a cliche one and I'm sure has been used in countless sitcoms over the years. Given the premise of this series, though, the tease is a welcome one (not that I seriously thought Charlie and Caroline would be married for real at this stage of the series).  More importantly, it allowed Michael's revelation at the end of the first part to be more surprising. As we neared the end of the first episode, I really thought Michael was building up to say that he still loved Caroline and didn't want to go ahead with his wedding. The news that he wanted shared custody of Tom felt like a genuine twist for me. The Who's The Boss? two-parter was titled Custody, which stomped all over the impact and, in turn, the dramatic potential of the cliffhanger. This is a Tom/Jonathan-heavy episode, which is no problem at all in The Upper Hand. Over in Who's The Boss?, the child actor playing Jonathan is so cloying and saccharine even the three short clips I watched were an endurance test. Each line is delivered in an infantile sing-song tone that seems to aim for maximum cutesy-wutesy-ness. I'm assuming he's meant to be nine or ten, but he sounds and acts like a pre-schooler. This archetypal American sitcom kid is something that nauseates me*. The kids in the British version might not be perfect, but they do at least act like real kids of their own age. Incidentally, TUH's vomit scene was much funnier due to the "it's going to happen" face he made just before he threw up, and the gloopy sound effect. WTB had the kid making the usual "bleurgh" sound.I'm intrigued by the way The Upper Hand titles its two-parters. The first parts' supers have no on-screen suggestion that it's a two-parter (simply displaying as Welcome Home or Wedding Bells)  but they end with "To be continued...". Meanwhile, the second parts supers simply add the roman numeral "II" to the onscreen title (Welcome Home II or Wedding Bells II), suggesting that the episode is almost a sequel rather than a continuation. It's an interesting way of doing it. I wonder if this done so that an audience tuning in for the second part won't immediately tune out. Welcome Home II even incorporated its "previously on..." recap as an in-canon flashback when Charlie told his story to Betty Marsden's character, which is a nice way of doing it. *This also perhaps explains why SORAS is so noticeable. If kids of almost high school age are acting like tots, the shift to adolescence or young adulthood will seem ridiculous. Either you have sixteen year olds acting like ten year olds to create a flow or you have a jarring jump from kindergarten to teen. </blockquote>

Verification: 6 + 4 =