by
Kristin Battestella
Be
it Edwardian dames duking out the right to vote, post-war Liverpool
ladies looking for love in all the wrong places, or wig wearing
twenty-first century women barristers seeking justice in a man's
world, these gals from across the pond make heaps of girl power in
this trio of short-lived serials.
Lilies– There are some stumbling blocks to start this lone 8 hour
2007 season – one being a reaching title when these three sisters
with a shell shocked brother and deadbeat dad feels more like
Shameless: Liverpool 1920. The attention on each daughter is
uneven and crowded with fast moving Olympic swimming trials,
courtships, and weddings resolved in one episode. Suicide attempts
and talk of their late mother are also dropped or recalled as needed,
and early jazz style music is too lighthearted to play over the
serious scenes, breaking the drama with whimsical moments desperate
to needlessly tie every story to the family pianola. The comical
tunes even play over a sequence where a woman is drugged and stripped
by a photographer! The pace may have been better with both parents
deceased, as there's not enough time for the kitchen dilemmas, saucy
servants romancing the boss, feisty corset selling, and wartime
wounds to be as shocking as they should be. Fortunately, religious
rifts and townsfolk help or hindrance balance the interwoven plots
better by Episode Three, with cowardly white feathers, women at work,
xenophobia, illegitimacy, and convents tugging and pulling the family
in different directions. The typically ill fated homosexual plotline
may be slightly mishandled, but the forbidden romance, stigmas, and
war fallout are dealt with more honestly and refreshingly than the
usual same sex shock values. Modern topics such as postpardum
depression and the priesthood are addressed in drama and scandals
without being melodramatic and scandalous. This is a unique setting,
and the impact of the time and place on the tales is steeped with
charm and atmosphere, holding the audience further alongside the
decent storytelling that at least deserved another season. By the
penultimate hour, love and spiritual conflicts, new relationships,
and paternal growth contrast the colliding violence and family rows
as old ideals and new attitudes clash. The eponymous girls must face
serious quandaries on their own – they don't make do without
difficulty, but we want to see them come through it all. Secondary
love interests leave enough hopeful potential while the finale drops
the musical extras to spend serious time with the core characters in
a pleasing little conclusion.
Silk – Maxine Peake (Shameless) is on form as a not so put together but likable gung ho in the courtroom barrister seeking her titular QC alongside the mixing business with pleasure Rupert Penry-Jones (MI-5), and wheeling and dealing chambers clerk Neil Stuke (Game On). Trading solicitor business over breakfast drinks, shady funds, and backdoor favors make for dirty good drama, and with his stable of directors in two episode blocks, series writer Peter Moffat (North Square) tackles juicy topics such as office dalliances, hierarchy subterfuge, and chambers rivalries amid taboo cases on elder abuse, teacher/student relations, racism, sexism, women's rights, religion, child prostitution, assisted suicide, harassment, and terrorism. Of course, unaware Americans will be very confused at the English legalese thanks to different solicitor roles or lawyer responsibilities and least of all, the robes and wigs. Who knew cruising in the bathroom was really cottaging in the urinal? Though perhaps derivative of other UK courtroom dramas, nothing stateside comparable comes to mind. The pregnancy storyline may be trite, but backroom meetings, corruptions, and conflicts of interest tip the scales on any protocol or formalities. Literal and figurative getting in bed with the right or wrong people make or break careers, and familiar UK TV faces pepper the ensemble with tug and pull gravitas including Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones), Miranda Raison (Spotless), Nina Sosanya (Marcella), Alex Jennings (The Crown), Phil Davis (Whitechapel), Indira Varma (Luther), and Frances Barber (Doctor Who). It's also wonderful to see female directors, casting on par between men and women, and edgy adult conflicts rather than the same young, pretty people focus. Overstepping boundaries schemes and power hungry underhandedness also take a humble as personal issues and heath discomforts change dynamics. While at times heavy handed – every speech every person makes carries a serious, slow zoom with big sighs and deep emotions – casual humor alleviates the drama. Inconsistent threads and dropped characters also come and go in the first two seasons, and Series Three strays with more character tangents, rival clerks, and head of chambers contests. It's all fine drama, just odd to expand while building toward a round about two-part finale. These downfalling characters have been spiraling out of control for some time, leaving an unusual but fitting changing of the guard exit that continues the viewer conversation long after the show ends. The heavy hitting may be lessened on a re-watch, but these eighteen episodes remains short, easy to binge quality over quantity. Now if only “clerking” wasn't pronounced “clarking” I'd be okay.
Up the Women – Who says a period piece has to be drama based
on a book? This thirty minute 2013 suffragette sitcom from
writer/star Jessica Hynes (Spaced) co-starring Rebecca Front
(Inspector Lewis) has all the
button up fashions, big hats, and turn of the century accessories for
the Edwardian decorum – and the self-aware at odds humor and simple
stage setting have fun with the fast talking witty women and
stammering men who can't screw in a newfangled light bulb. The laugh
track isn't necessary, however the subtitles help with the numerous
puns and one should appreciate British humor – complete with teeth
jokes and cheese riffs– to enjoy the cheeky here. From a mother
with fifteen kids and more on the way, the dirty old lady, an ugly
spinster, the rebellious daughter, our progressive wannabe
suffragette, and a snotty woman in charge more concerned with
quorums, motions, and minutes at a sewing circle, each woman uses
modern sensibilities to challenge a female stereotype without being
anachronistic. What do women do when they get together? Complain
about kids, joke on men, gossip, buy store bought and say it was
homemade. What anarchy! The sassy, well written dialogue packs a lot
of illusion and references amid the revolution hyperbole, and the
historical uprising remains a timely comment today. While the period
trappings keep the vagina euphemisms classy, men explain simple
things to women as overly complicated and sight gags like disastrous
oversize picket signs accent the protests at a closed post office,
jam sales sold to each other, and the hunger strike that can't be
done on an empty stomach. Rival movements, women in sports with
equipment laughs, and men with feminine names illume the serious
focus behind this satire written and directed by women – everyone
speaks properly with polite, superfluous words while denying women
the right to vote and they are congratulated for the ability to speak
well enough to fool the listener on what's really being said. Why
does a woman need to be painted and dressed up like a mannequin to
not move or shock everyone by wearing her hair down instead of in a
bun? Serious questions about the gloves on hierarchy, force of
government, and women consenting to farcical leadership pepper the
catty women versus sisterhood humor. These six episodes have enough
room for interwoven stories and social plots but move fast and don't
overstay their welcome. The pip pip cheerio may be over the top at
times with a wordiness or flummoxed for the sake of it, however that
matches the earnest intentions and spiked tea that never turn out
quite right. This isn't laugh out loud commentary, but the chuckling
wit is the perfect size for a weekend marathon and remains worth a
look.
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