Well Deserved Praise

not as good as all the hype

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

This showed up on netflix recently, and I watched the first season.The show started out reasonably funny, a decent plot concept, but then, pretty much moved away from the original theme of book group, discussing books and meeting friends to how many different types of sexual behaviour can we put in a TV series? What did it miss other than bestiality?infidelity - everyone's cheating on everyone (dark humor? uh, no)bisexuality - not only is everyone cheating on everyone, but cheating with both sexes, woohoo! so "progressive"group sexswapping partnersgratuitous sexgay football player sex (whatever), but yeah, football players seem to be heavy in the marrying women as a front, and cheating on other men and women. yeah, okay.party timeI watched this show because I also liked the Green Wing actress, and recognized the lead female from the old House series.Sex in place of humor? yea And, it's not even that funny.Can't write a good script? Character development? Just go for gratuitous sex, of all kinds. That will keep them hooked...Dumb show. Too bad. It started out well.

This smart, dark UK comedy series showcased the fabulous Anne Dudek a couple of years before she made her bones playing meanies or crazies on American TV (most notably the hyperintense Dr. Amber Volakis on "House"). Here she's Clare, a prickly American expat and the instigator of the book group; another heavy hitter, Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane, "The Hound," on "Game of Thrones"), is exceptional as Kenny, a sweet-natured giant now confined to a wheelchair by a climbing accident; James Lance is suitably repulsive as Barney, a temperamental grad student, in the first season and again as Lachlan, Clare's overattentive boyfriend, in the second. Inspired by the group's first book, Kerouac's "On the Road," Clare and Kenny start writing novels (or pecking out their romantic fantasies) on their laptops; the fantasy sequences don't always add much, but Anne Dudek looks great when she lets her hair down as a tweedy Dryden scholar. A lot of the stuff aboot the fitba' went right by me, and the sexy soccer mamas are a bit over the top at times, but Michelle Gomez has some nice moments as Janice, a Real Housewife of Glasgow who goes all out for self-improvement, and Derek Riddell is adorable (if not always comprehensible) as Rab, a shifty guy in a tracksuit wha disnae much care for buiks. The first season has real momentum as the characters get involved (mostly in pursuit of unrequited crushes) in each other's lives, the second's a lot less focused, though partly redeemed by the presence of comic Karen Kilgariff as Clare's tough-talking sister. The second season ends on an ambiguous but upbeat note, and Anne D. gets to show her softer, gentler side with a little karaoke number in the series closer. Final grade: eight stars for the first season, six for the second, docked one star for the unsubtitled Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Arabic. Finally, this is a bit off topic but how many would like to read a fanfic about a coed kickball league in Hell featuring rival captains Amber Volakis and Sandor Clegane (he must be dead by now, right?)? No longer available on streaming Netflix, I'm sorry to say.

I don't usually start my contributions like that, honest - but it's entirely merited. I've just watched the whole of the first series on DVD and been perhaps even more impressed coming back to it after a long gap. One of the things I love about the programme is that although the books they're reading aren't that important, the book group setting itself *is* crucial to the programme.There are several laugh-out-loud scenes in the first series, none of them revolving around standard gags or punchlines. One scene gets its laughs from repeated use of the "c" word, which is an extremely hard trick to pull off!The characters are beautifully drawn, starting with the pivotal figure of Claire, who is at once hugely irritating and sympathetic. All the actors are fine, though I particularly liked the louche and laconic Rab. The minor parts are well done too, for example Ben Miller as the writer, the guys who play Fist's and Dirka's husbands, and the vicar, whom we see in one episode.One other thing: it's really exquisitely filmed.I can certainly imagine myself getting more than one viewing out of this DVD (I am intrigued to know what the audio commentary will be like), and will certainly look to get the second series eventually, if nothing else for the interplay between Claire and her sister.

'The Book Group' is one show which certainly didn't seem to offer anything. Channel 4 seem to have sat on it for at least a year (the IMDb entry has a production date from last year) and in pre-publicity it seemed to be trading upon the title of the preceeding series in the slot 'Black Books'. Which is a shame, because it's certainly that show's equal but in different ways.The premise is promisingly simple. American Clare (Anne Dudek) is living in Glasgow and in a bid to make new friends advertises a 'Book Group' in a local book shop. The show is about what happens at each monthly meeting and is told in 'real time' The twist is that that the people who arrive seem totally mis-matched for occasion and are obviously there for something other than the book - footballer's wives, a smart-arse student, a wheel-chair bound fitness instructor and the slightly shady Rob whose job has yet to be revealed. On reflection there are similarities with 'Dear John' - in that show there was similarly motley crew of sitcom characters.Here, there is a definite understanding of humanity. Strangely these people never appear to be cartoon character, a strength of writer/director Annie Griffin. True this feels like theatre at times, but this means there is a rhythm to the writing, for example the breaking up of scenes by one of the wives asking if people want tea or the subject of football coming up now and then. In some ways I'm reminded of the 'Friends' episode all set in Monica's apartment as they all get ready for speech Ross is giving. That had a nervousness about it, as though this team of writers don't know how to break up the action. In Griffin's work, this never happens, there is the surety you would expect from someone who had been writing for years.Clare is not an intensely likeable character, coming across as the sort of control freak who would give Heather of 'The Blair Witch Project' a run for her money. She had an obvious picture of how this thing was going to turn out and these aren't the people she was expecting to meet. She's sarcastic and neurotic (best line - 'Oh soccer? You can make money from that?'). But its to Dudek's credit that we don't completely hate her - that there is a spark of pluckiness we might root for. Of the rest of the actors, James Lance (as the student) does his usual smart-alec patter, but here it seems less forced. Rory McGann (fitness instructor) is also particularly good - we feel for him, but don't feel sorry for him.This is a show that will develop with time. By keeping back all of the important revelations about the characters we have something to return to. And I will.