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Nov. 6th, 2010 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astralisSometimes in life you discover a TV show, and it is so incredibly awesome you watch it through multiple times, and when you reach the final episode you have to go back to the beginning and start watching it all again - generally on the same day you watched the final.
And then every now and then, while watching said show, you get hit by a certain realisation.
It's not actually all that good.
That show for me is Sea Patrol.
The lead character - Lieutenant-Commander Mike Flynn - is an insufferable, smug, self-assured git who is,for whatever reason because he's pretty, beloved by the fandom at large.
The dialogue is clunky and cheesy half the time.
The acting is patchy at best; some of that can be attributed to poor writing. Saskia Burmeister, who I adore, has one incredible scene in season two's "Birds" but in other episodes cannot make her character's sucky dialogue remotely believable. Case in point, "Hidden Agendas": her character, Nikki, (aka Nav) is comforting the Swain, who's having a crisis of confidence about his marriage and parenting due to being at sea all the time. Nikki's words of wisdom? "My Dad was on destroyers. He was away a lot. But when he was home, he was home all the time." Ouch. Seriously?
"Continuity" is unknown to these people. A character who speaks Spanish in season one - where it's significant within that episode and to that character - cannot speak it in season two. Nikki "has the ship" in one season two episode, meaning she should be on the bridge, but minutes later she's running round the ship. Some things can be excused by the shooting schedule - when your main set is an actual Australian Navy warship and you only have it a limited amount of time, you don't shoot episode by episode, you shoot everything requiring the ship when you've got it and untangle it later - but those examples? Lazy or bad writing.
They also reuse stock footage; it's one thing when it's merely the ship sailing, it's something else when it involves a distinctive rock formation that is "North Queensland Coast" in season two and "Penfold Island" in season three (they are helpful enough to indicate location on screen).
But. But.
With the notable exception of one Mike Flynn, I love these characters. My beloved Nikki begins season one as an eager young officer, competent and talented but a little immature; by season two she's a little wiser, a little more aware of who she is as an officer; and in season three she gets hit by a whirlwind, loses herself a little, and comes out the other side wounded, beaten, but stronger and more mature than ever before and ready to put her life back together. (I constantly mourn the fact that Saskia Burmeister left the show at the end of season three but in some ways I'm a little relieved: the writers, I do not trust them.) I love the senior sailors, Buffer and Charge and Swain; I love RO's prickliness and eccentricities and Bomber's spirit and the fact that sometimes David Lyons takes his shirt off.
Sometimes the dialogue is awesome: "Yes, I agree, slavery is not great."
"Ship's safe! Buffer's here!"
"Is that attitude, Bomber?" "No ma'am, it's chicken."
Okay. Dialogue is often not awesome out of context, but still.
This show has a ship. I cannot underestimate the importance of "there is a ship!"
Not in the romantic sense, although there's plenty of that going on, barely skirting the frat regs for shipmates, but a ship-ship. If all else fails, the ship makes me happy.
I was going to talk about one of my favourite things on this show, which is the relationship between characters Nikki and Kate, but that might require pictures. And also an essay. So, maybe later.
And then every now and then, while watching said show, you get hit by a certain realisation.
It's not actually all that good.
That show for me is Sea Patrol.
The lead character - Lieutenant-Commander Mike Flynn - is an insufferable, smug, self-assured git who is,
The dialogue is clunky and cheesy half the time.
The acting is patchy at best; some of that can be attributed to poor writing. Saskia Burmeister, who I adore, has one incredible scene in season two's "Birds" but in other episodes cannot make her character's sucky dialogue remotely believable. Case in point, "Hidden Agendas": her character, Nikki, (aka Nav) is comforting the Swain, who's having a crisis of confidence about his marriage and parenting due to being at sea all the time. Nikki's words of wisdom? "My Dad was on destroyers. He was away a lot. But when he was home, he was home all the time." Ouch. Seriously?
"Continuity" is unknown to these people. A character who speaks Spanish in season one - where it's significant within that episode and to that character - cannot speak it in season two. Nikki "has the ship" in one season two episode, meaning she should be on the bridge, but minutes later she's running round the ship. Some things can be excused by the shooting schedule - when your main set is an actual Australian Navy warship and you only have it a limited amount of time, you don't shoot episode by episode, you shoot everything requiring the ship when you've got it and untangle it later - but those examples? Lazy or bad writing.
They also reuse stock footage; it's one thing when it's merely the ship sailing, it's something else when it involves a distinctive rock formation that is "North Queensland Coast" in season two and "Penfold Island" in season three (they are helpful enough to indicate location on screen).
But. But.
With the notable exception of one Mike Flynn, I love these characters. My beloved Nikki begins season one as an eager young officer, competent and talented but a little immature; by season two she's a little wiser, a little more aware of who she is as an officer; and in season three she gets hit by a whirlwind, loses herself a little, and comes out the other side wounded, beaten, but stronger and more mature than ever before and ready to put her life back together. (I constantly mourn the fact that Saskia Burmeister left the show at the end of season three but in some ways I'm a little relieved: the writers, I do not trust them.) I love the senior sailors, Buffer and Charge and Swain; I love RO's prickliness and eccentricities and Bomber's spirit and the fact that sometimes David Lyons takes his shirt off.
Sometimes the dialogue is awesome: "Yes, I agree, slavery is not great."
"Ship's safe! Buffer's here!"
"Is that attitude, Bomber?" "No ma'am, it's chicken."
Okay. Dialogue is often not awesome out of context, but still.
This show has a ship. I cannot underestimate the importance of "there is a ship!"
Not in the romantic sense, although there's plenty of that going on, barely skirting the frat regs for shipmates, but a ship-ship. If all else fails, the ship makes me happy.
I was going to talk about one of my favourite things on this show, which is the relationship between characters Nikki and Kate, but that might require pictures. And also an essay. So, maybe later.
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Date: 2011-02-10 05:01 am (UTC)Just wanted to say I mostly agree with you on this post. Mike is such an idiot most of the time and yes sometimes the dialogue is terrible and the continuity sucks (but yes their shooting schedule would be a nightmare so I forgive them for that).
But overall I think this show is just so awesome. It's about the characters, and those characters are great (well except Mike, but I love Ian Stenlake so I can deal) and their relationships with each other are o realistic.
And you know the whole Navy boat thing is awesome. Nothing better than action adventure and mystery!
Although season 4 for me wasn't as good as the previous 3. I dunno if that's cos Nav and Buffer were missing or if it was the lack of story arc or a tighter shooting schedule thanks to the 16 episodes instead of 13 - but I still love it and I have hope that season 5 will be awesome.
Anyway - now that I've ranted about SP on your LJ, mind if I friend you?
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Date: 2011-02-11 05:02 am (UTC)I thought I was the only Sea Patrol fan who didn't like Mike, it's reassuring to know I'm not. I'll admit to not being impressed with Buffer at the moment either.
I thought the same about season four; I love, love, love Nav and really missed her, and I thought they really screwed up with Bomber, and there was just something missing. I'm waiting for the DVDs to be released here (New Zealand) so I can watch it again and reassess. I have high hopes for season five too, but we shall see.
Yes - characters and their relationships (this is disjointed, sorry!) but I think that's what I love most. (Except for the fact that there's a ship.) I couldn't put my finger on it for ages but then I realised: these characters touch each other all the time. I can't think of another show where there's that much non-sexual physical contact.
Also, hi!
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Date: 2011-02-11 05:13 am (UTC)I don't care all that much for Dutchy though - I loved it when him and Kate had their hating each other thing but now that they're friends I find it kinda boring and sort of just falling back into the Buffer and Kate thing and it just doesn't work as well for me.
I was never a big fan of Bomber, but season 4 really made me dislike her. I love RO so when she started being a total bitch to him I was not impressed.
Yes! Other than the ship there is so much physical contact. Like real people? They're very realistic. From what I can tell you watched Stargate as well - and what goes on between friends on Sea Patrol would be considered MAJOR ship on that show (don't get me started on Stargate and ship thought cos it drives me INSANE).
Hi back at ya! I've friended you now so I can sporadically come to your LJ and rant about Sea Patrol.
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Date: 2011-02-11 08:01 am (UTC)I also think there's some bullying that goes on aboard Hammersley, and it's hard to tell what's Navy culture and what's not, and what should be Navy culture and what's not, but the more I watch O Danny Boy (and I love, love, love that episode) the more I think Buffer was trying to bully Spider into getting tattooed. Spider says multiple times that he doesn't want a tatt and Buffer won't take no for an answer. He then tries to shame Spider when he finds out he didn't go through with it. Also, yes Spider was an idiot in that ep about Buffer's tatt (and why isn't Buffer upset that someone he considers a friend accepted a bribe from a drunk sailor to change the design?) but he was only in the tattoo parlour in the first place because Buffer pushed him into it!
The other episode that bothers me is Fortune Favours. Buffer turns up in the passageway after the egg throwing incident in time to hear Spider and company announce that they've basically conspired to push Bomber to her limits. Instead of doing anything about the three guys (two of whom outrank Bomber and should know better) Buffer puts all of them into a situation (the boarding training) where things have the potential to get out of hand very, very quickly, puts Spider (who is the least likely to act like a grownup) and Bomber on opposite sides and merely tells them not to get violent. Yes, Bomber should have better self control but she was new to the ship and being deliberately teased by three sailors. Okay, Buffer does ask what Spider said to make Bomber push him and she refuses to tell him (because it's the weirdest bit of character development ever) but he punishes Bomber and lets the other three get off scot free.
I dunno. They sound minor but I've been thinking about it a lot lately so it's bugging me. :)
I found Dutchy quite boring for the most part, and it probably didn't help that for the first few episodes every time I looked at him I saw Roman from Home and Away.
Yeah, Stargate fan here - SG-1 and Atlantis, anyway. My SG-1 ship preferences can be summed up as everyone/everyone else, with a lean towards Jack/Sam/Daniel, and my Atlantis preference as Lorne/anyone, so I stay far, far away from a large part of shipping discussions (particularly those produced by the Sam-hating section of fandom!).