Beat the Chasers misses a beat
There are two reasons why Beat The Chasers (TV One, Sundays) has come to our screen. The first is popularity. We can’t get enough of Bradley Walsh. The second is fairness. Far too often the Chasers win the challenge of the cranium and contestants leave without even their bus fare home.
Now the five chasers, who are drip fed by Wikipedia every night, take on a single contestant. It doesn’t sound just and decent, let alone fair and reasonable. Imagine five pairs of frosty knickers. But the complex countdown gives a greater opportunity for the Chasers to lose. They have less time to answer questions.
As a result, one of five contestants, Alex Wilson, a paramedic student, tied a tourniquet around their brains and won. Beat The Chasers was confusing at first, but gradually the countdown system worked. However, the explanation took too long. Too many words, not enough contestants.
The highlight of the night camewhen Father George Donohue didn’t know that St Isidore was the patron saint of the internet. His morning newspaper was the Gutenberg Bible. Father George did comment that the ‘‘boss is going to kill me’’. Fortunately, Godwas elsewhere at the time.
Rather than another quiz show, just improve the odds for contestants on The Chase or give them £1000 and the bus fare home.
Perry Mason (Soho, Mondays) returned to our screens after 30-plus years, recreating the turbulent decade of the 1930s. Instead of the slick, suave attorney, this Perry Mason is a seedy, down-at-heel investigator working for lawyer, EB Jonathan.
The vibe, mood and period were impressive, pity about the story.
EB Jonathan has problems with his ex, moonshine liquor and is haunted by wartime experiences in the trenches. He couldn’t bemore different from our memory of Raymond Burr on our blackand-white televisions. The personas and performances are great, the plot deserves burying at Terrace End Cemetery.
Evangelical preacher Sister Alice, imitating the real-life Sister Aimee Mcpherson, holds flamboyant services that attract thousands, including Matthew Dodson, accused of kidnapping his son, Charlie.
Mason has doubts and follows Matthew’s wife, Emily, who’s writing steamy love notes to George Gannon. By the timemason finds him, the notes are there, the steam has dissolved and Gannon is a grotesque corpse.
If the story is slight, the characters aren’t. The episode is full of colourful celebrities, such as EB Jonathan (John Lithgow), Herman Baggerly (Robert Patrick) and Sister Alice (Tatiana Maslany). But Perry Mason is as dodgy as his designer beard, which needs its colours done. He’s close to turning boredom into an art form.
If his writerswant to imbue himwith features, then he needs some saving graces. It would help if he saved Grace or Emily or Alice. Perry Mason deserves a further look, but with less frippery and more fiction.
The Jonah Lomu mini-series last year snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with some abysmal story telling. Fortunately, Headhigh (TV3, Wednesdays) snatches victory from the jaws of defeat. It’s a huge challenge to tell a convincing series about a high-school rugby team, but Head High achieves it and converts the try.
Vince O’kane coaches the team from a low-decile school. Neighbouring school, St Isaac’s, poses a serious problem for Vince and his players. They have prestige, tradition and the ability to buy talentwith money. They dangle awad in front of Vince and, when he declines, they poach his captain, Christian Deering.
The O’kanes are a close-knit family. Two stepsons play in Vince’s team, partner Renee, is a police constable and daughter, Aria, a promising diver who Christian visits through her bedroom window. It’s a turn-up for the blankets as well as the books.
There’s drama on the field when the two teams meet. Following a late tackle, Christian suffers from complications after a concussion and dies and the O’kanes are distraught.
Everything about Head High is good. The acting, especially from Craighall as O’kane, is fine, the action shots are effective and the multi-layered story about family, commitment, loyalty and striving to win is great. It showswhat New Zealand drama is capable of, at times.