Nothing flowery about Monica’s home truths
Super Garden
RTÉ One, Thursday
Modern Family
Sky One, Friday
Graduate Together
CNN, Sunday
With Fair City out of episodes that were recorded before lockdown, there’s a gap in the pre-news schedule, so it turned out to be an inspired idea that Super Garden, which normally runs to 30 minutes, was extended to an hour. If RTÉ can afford that luxury to Dermot Bannon when he’s doing up a house, it seems only fair the external space gets the same respect.
Of course, a key difference is that in Super
Garden, there is none of the conflict with clients that makes Room To Improve so watchable, and no mention either of budget overruns. This is a pity, because in the first episode of the new series, we were told each garden designer is working with €5,000 worth of Irish-grown plants, and another €5,000 for earthworks, physical landscaping and so on.
Well, I’ve had quotes for my own garden before, and I’m fairly sure you wouldn’t get a lot for 10 grand. Instead, designer Dermot Melia managed to build raised beds, a stone wall, an Astroturf lawn, a fountain, a ‘romantic’ dining area, and a crafting area for children. The big omission, I suppose, was the cost of labour, but it still seemed like a hell of a lot of garden for very little. Like, I was shocked this week at how much it cost to fill three pots for outside the front door.
Anyway, Dermot was an amiable chap, a ninth-generation flower grower, which probably means his seven-times great-grandfather did the battlefield decoration for the War of the Roses. A man clearly fond of hats, he managed to get through quite a few of them over the course of the build, and when his garden was finished, he said confidently that he thought judge Monica Alvarez would love it.
Oh, the folly! As regular viewers know, Monica is a tough nut to crack – you certainly wouldn’t want to go up against her in poker – and I was looking forward to the final confrontation that makes Super
Garden so much fun. Many is the cocksure contestant who thought he or she had the prize in the bag, only to learn they hadn’t even got the bag, but sadly it wasn’t to be.
I had no idea this show runs on such a tight schedule, but apparently filming continued into April, and social distancing meant they couldn’t sit Dermot on a wee chair and rip his vision to shreds. Have they never heard of Zoom? I would kill to have seen his face when Monica found the one loose stone in the wall, out of what must have
After 11 series of laughs, this finale was schmaltzy, sentimental and perfect!
9,745 of them, but that’s her special gift. A hawk would envy her eyesight.
To be fair, they had little to be churlish about. Dermot’s garden was a lovely space, and homeowner Nicola Clancy and her sons, Tristan and Reuben, clearly loved it, and at the end of the day, that truly is all that matters. I’m looking forward to rest of the series because, uniquely, all five in search of glory this year are designing pretty much the same spaces in a social housing development in Rowlestown in north Co. Dublin. It’s a clever idea, because it offers a level playing field – or, at least, one that will be anything but level when the dust finally settles.
I was off last week (lovely holiday on the Costa de Pueblo Corte, or Courtown to you, since it’s in my 5km radius), so I didn’t get the chance to review the last ever episode of Modern Family. It was everything I wanted it to be, schmaltzy and sentimental and neatly tied up with ribbons and bows. As you probably know, the 11 series and 250 episodes have told the story of Jay Pritchett, his firecracker Colombian wife Gloria, her son Manny and their son Joe; Jay’s daughter Claire, goofy husband Phil Dunphy and their children Haley, Alex and Luke; and Jay’s son Mitchell, his husband Cameron and their daughter Lily.
At its best, it was the finest US comedy export, gently dealing with controversial issues wrapped up in zinger one-liners. At its worst, it could be lazy, and there was a definite dip from series five through nine. Perhaps spurred on by the fact that, two years ago, they were given an end to work towards, the writers upped their game, and the final two series were a joy. It’s silly, I know, but since it’s one of the few series I’ve ever watched in full, I got a wee bit emotional as they all group-hugged at the end of the last episode.
All families move on – that’s the nature of them – but it was still a wrench saying that last goodbye at a time when I haven’t seen my own family for three months.
There was more emotion in Graduate Together in the wee small hours of last Sunday morning. Since American high school children couldn’t have their traditional graduation ceremonies, many of the US news networks showed this twohour tribute to them, the obstacles they have faced and overcome, and the challenges that lie ahead in our uncertain world.
American kids are often unfairly dismissed as airheads, but this programme highlighted just how enlightened so many of them are, and it ended with a message of hope from President Obama (uniquely, in the United States, former incumbents are still referred to as ‘President’), who rather appropriately did his best Mean Girls impression to cast spectacular shade on his successor.
The entire programme was inspiring, and it strikes me that it would be great if RTÉ and Virgin Media teamed up to make a similar sendoff here, and give the students missing out on the Leaving Certificate exams the chance to share their hopes, dreams and fears, and be offered reassurance and respect for all they have achieved to date.
Modern Family