I had the library pull the first season of Ballykissangel and send it 'round to the branch I use. I started watching them the other day. It started with a fun bit of business but it's pretty much a drama and I'm not that much interested in that genre for the most part. It's a British show about an English priest who comes to the small Irish mountain town called Ballykissangel. There was a connection to The Vicar Of Dibley when the priest from Ballykissangel came to Dibley on a swap with the Vicar. So I thought I would check out the show. The local Irish townsfolk aren't too happy with an English priest and the priest isn't ready for his large well spread out parish. He doesn't even drive and there's a lot of distance to cover. I guess the Catholic church doesn't believe in helping out a father. There are the usual local characters, etc and not many of them were likable. There wasn't much comedy and the drama pretty standard fare. After the first two shows I turned it off. I read ahead on the Wikipedia about it and it's all one sad story after another. Not something I would need to continue with.
I picked up the first season of Waking The Dead at the library today and have just finished the pilot. It's another British drama about a newly formed group of cops and technicians who are trying to solve cold cases with modern forensic methods and yelling. Everyone is angry and yells all the time. At each other and their suspects alike. I was hoping for a more Bones like show and it's not quite that. Bones has more likeable characters and that counts much for me. I never watch more than 2 or 3 episodes of the US CSI type crime shows because they were all darkly serious and people were so angry. This Brit show is more like those shows. The pilot episode has the squad working on the case of a dead girl who was kidnapped and murdered 5 years ago. The newly formed squad and the case get some press and the guy who did the crime comes out of the shadows. He kidnaps a young girl and plays with the police for nearly 2 hours. It's a very tense show and I'm not sure I want to get wrapped up in it that much.
I kept watching and got through the first two shows of the first season. They did make the characters a bit less yelly but there's still a lot of tension. I do like of like seeing all the shots of London and the police procedure part of the show reminds me that the British police have a different set of rules than our lot. The stories are the same sort, some piece of shit kills someone and they get caught. I'd still rather watch Bones.
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