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Feb. 2nd, 2013 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolFor the last few weeks I have quietly been watching some new TV, and now I've discovered that it's ben renewed for a second series I am going to start an attempt to make you all watch it too. There are no real spoilers for plot points ahead, so you all know.
I want you all to go and start watching Ripper Street. Like, yesterday.
First things first: the basic plot. Police Inspector Reid leads H Division, patrolling Whitechapel in the wake of the Jack the Ripper murders. Assisting him are Sergeant Drake (Jerome Flynn, still rugged) and the Captain Jackson, an American doctor. They try to keep Whitechapel together, despite horrific poverty and ongoing fear after the Ripper murders.
What's really odd is that actually, this program has an awful lot wrong with it. Firstly, the women. Each woman - and they are rare - is a whore or a saint. You have Long Susan, a brothel madam, and then you have Mrs Reid, who flitters about being virtuous a lot. It's also pretty brutal, with blood, gore, a lots of aforesaid whores being murdered in a variety of interesting ways. They also do a lot of plot points that may as well be called CSI: 1889 because, well, I don't think forensics were all that good back then. Also, everyone is fairly white and cockney which just wasn't the case in East End London then (or now). No Irish people, weirdly, although to be fair there are some Jewish characters, some of whom are portrayed to be refugees from Eastern European pograms which is at least accurate but still, odd.
And yet I LOVE IT.
Firstly, the acting is top class. Anyone who's watched Game of Thrones and done the traditional 'BLOODY HELL THAT'S JEROME OFF OF ROBSON AND JEROME' is entirely vindicated. Drake spends a lot of time punching stuff and yet is still a fascinting character. A Guardian review I read suggested that Flynn has spent the last fiteen years headbutting a oak tree, and that might actually be the case. Even taking this apart, the acting is still very good indeed. Reid is a great character - he's still trying to recover from not solving the Ripper cases, but does his best and looks forward to a shiny future with the Tube and cameras and electric telegrams.
For a mystery of the week type program, there's a lot of underlying story there waiting to be exposed. Jackson lives in the brothel run by Long Susan, and we know they are in some way on the run - from what or who, we don't know, but there are hints. Reid may or may not know about this. Each characters has a real backstory waiting to be fleshed out, and we're getting hints and more full explanations as episodes go on.
The rendering of Whitechapel is also pretty awesome. The program is actually filmed in Dublin, but the poverty and the horror is very real. There's a great episode about cholera, for example. No, really. The Jack the Ripper fear is constantly running throughout the program, but refreshingly it's not about him or those murders at all - it's the people around the police who drag the topic back, including a delightfully awful reporter from the Daily Star.
Despite my earlier complaints about the women involved, Long Susan is an interesting characters. Certainly morally complex - runs a brothel, mostly concerned with the money - but takes an interest in the girls, and fights her own corner when she has to.
Finally - the hats. All characters wear a variety of awesome hats. This might not sound important to you as a plot point, but seriously, Long Susan's HATS.
So, yes. Give it a watch. Honest.
I want you all to go and start watching Ripper Street. Like, yesterday.
First things first: the basic plot. Police Inspector Reid leads H Division, patrolling Whitechapel in the wake of the Jack the Ripper murders. Assisting him are Sergeant Drake (Jerome Flynn, still rugged) and the Captain Jackson, an American doctor. They try to keep Whitechapel together, despite horrific poverty and ongoing fear after the Ripper murders.
What's really odd is that actually, this program has an awful lot wrong with it. Firstly, the women. Each woman - and they are rare - is a whore or a saint. You have Long Susan, a brothel madam, and then you have Mrs Reid, who flitters about being virtuous a lot. It's also pretty brutal, with blood, gore, a lots of aforesaid whores being murdered in a variety of interesting ways. They also do a lot of plot points that may as well be called CSI: 1889 because, well, I don't think forensics were all that good back then. Also, everyone is fairly white and cockney which just wasn't the case in East End London then (or now). No Irish people, weirdly, although to be fair there are some Jewish characters, some of whom are portrayed to be refugees from Eastern European pograms which is at least accurate but still, odd.
And yet I LOVE IT.
Firstly, the acting is top class. Anyone who's watched Game of Thrones and done the traditional 'BLOODY HELL THAT'S JEROME OFF OF ROBSON AND JEROME' is entirely vindicated. Drake spends a lot of time punching stuff and yet is still a fascinting character. A Guardian review I read suggested that Flynn has spent the last fiteen years headbutting a oak tree, and that might actually be the case. Even taking this apart, the acting is still very good indeed. Reid is a great character - he's still trying to recover from not solving the Ripper cases, but does his best and looks forward to a shiny future with the Tube and cameras and electric telegrams.
For a mystery of the week type program, there's a lot of underlying story there waiting to be exposed. Jackson lives in the brothel run by Long Susan, and we know they are in some way on the run - from what or who, we don't know, but there are hints. Reid may or may not know about this. Each characters has a real backstory waiting to be fleshed out, and we're getting hints and more full explanations as episodes go on.
The rendering of Whitechapel is also pretty awesome. The program is actually filmed in Dublin, but the poverty and the horror is very real. There's a great episode about cholera, for example. No, really. The Jack the Ripper fear is constantly running throughout the program, but refreshingly it's not about him or those murders at all - it's the people around the police who drag the topic back, including a delightfully awful reporter from the Daily Star.
Despite my earlier complaints about the women involved, Long Susan is an interesting characters. Certainly morally complex - runs a brothel, mostly concerned with the money - but takes an interest in the girls, and fights her own corner when she has to.
Finally - the hats. All characters wear a variety of awesome hats. This might not sound important to you as a plot point, but seriously, Long Susan's HATS.
So, yes. Give it a watch. Honest.
