One thing you'll find out about me is I like cheesy (and not just when I'm talking food!). Cheesy what? Everything. Corny too. Schmalz? Bring it on. In fact name one bad 70's song about death and I've got a recording. Run Joey Run or The Night the Lights went out in Georgia? I know 'em by heart.
None of which means I don't like "good" stuff as well. With me it's more a matter of good and bad not meaning much. My inner sap knows no bounds.
Which brings me to the two soapy shows that have captured my attention. No this is not another tribute to Lost and Desperate Housewives. This post is dedicated to two lesser known shows, one beginning to get critical acclaim and the other, hmm, not so much.
First up is a show I discovered last summer. At first I watched occasionally when I was flipping around the dial on a Saturday night (something I do with all too pathetic a regularity). What did I find the first time? Beautiful people speaking with that Australian twang we accentless Americans love so much. McLeod's Daughters is set in the Australian Outback and follows the adventures of two sisters only recently reunited by the death of their father. Claire is the tough, no-nonsense daughter of a rancher who is determined to keep running the ranch her father left to her. Complications arise when her half-sister Tess shows up and says that she is now half owner of the homestead.
Most of this I had to figure out as I went along, since I missed the beginning. But in the meantime I was completely sucked in the melodrama of these women's lives. The WE channel has just started airing season three and the love lives of our intrepid heroines are as complicated as they ever were. Of course it helps that the ranch next door has two large, hot brothers always willing to help Claire and Tess and their all woman staff. Aah. Can't wait for it to come on at 9 tonight.
Equally complicated but, I'll admit, better written is the new series on HBO, Rome. Like the soapy MD, Rome caught me a few episodes in. The show follows the machinations of the powerful as Caesar (played by the lovely Ciaran Hinds) and Pompeii fight for Rome. It is made accessible by our getting to see these world shaking events through the eyes of two soldiers in Caesar's army, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo
Lucius Vorenus is an officer who believes in the Roman Republic. Though he follows orders as an officer, in his heart he does not believe in what Caesar does when he returns to Rome. Lucius' return to Rome and his wife after an 8 year absence is what drew me into the show. Vorenus is a serious, taciturn man who loves his wife Niobe but is unable to come up with the words to tell her so. The soapy scene where they first see each other again was perfectly done. He returns to find her holding a baby and accuses her of being a whore. She coldly informs him that the baby is his grandchild and walks out, leaving him looking bereft. Fabulous.
Titus Pullo is a common soldier who finds himself in trouble more often then not and frequently needs to call on Lucius for help. But where Lucius is intelligent, Titus is canny and pretty darn protective of those he takes under his wing. Nice.
What makes both of these shows is focus on character. Much as the cool technology of CSI and its numerous offshoots is, lately I've only been satisfied with deep character development. Give me tortured characters who struggle. Give me tough gals who can stand toe-to-toe with the hard guys who have hearts of gold.
May cheese and schmalz always rule.
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