hypedupben Reviews

Misfits (2009–2013)

Unique British Drama!

[7/10 · 14 September 2016]

Misfits is a show with a pretty genius concept that is pulled off very well here, young offenders with superpowers.

These powers are pretty cleverly implemented with each character gaining a power depending on their personality, like Simon being shy and feeling invisible to other people, he gets the power of invisibility.

Unfortunately the series does not hold up from start to finish, as the show gets progressively worse with each series, not helping is that, similar to skins, the cast gets completely changed halfway through, due to a overarching story-line finishing at the end of Series 3.

The show used to be very funny for being a dark drama in its first two series, this was down to solid writing and the character Nathan (Played by Robert Sheehan) who did an excellent job to make Nathan a lovable dickhead who could make us laugh but also have some very serious moments.

Nathan left at the end of Series 2 and the show lost a lot of its humour because of this, they brought in a new character Rudy, who was alright but didn't fill the void of the comedic character the show kind of needed.

Series 3 is worth a watch still because it wraps up the original casts stories, it also still has some great moments here and there.

I cannot say the same for Series 4-5 though, there seems to be no overarching story-line that keeps you invested like 1-3, the magic of the show to me was clearly gone at this point, the new characters aren't necessarily bad, its just the concept of the show had ran its course, and without a good story to back these characters up, every episode felt 10 times longer than it actually was and just felt like a slog.

Overall Misfits is definitely worth watching, Series 1-3 anyway, I honestly would say leave 4-5 out, because it leaves you with a negative taste in your mouth after viewing what really is a funny, unique take on the superhero drama genre.

Waterloo Road (2006– )

Great show Thats Past Its Best

[8/10 · 2 October 2014]

Waterloo Road is a show I've been watching since the beginning in 2006. It was about a troubled school where students were beating the living crud out of each other and the teachers struggling to cope with the students, and their own personal matters.

Now In my opinion the Series 1-4 were the shows best years, it showed the school progress from a school in special measures with a beat up everyday, to a school that went out of its way for its pupils to have a better life at school, and in general.

Series 5 was decent, but then on-wards the show seemed to take a very different turn. At first it was a pretty dark drama that I would really only suggest to parents and teenagers but it went from that to a lighthearted family show, at least that what it feels like to me.

For example, in the first few series, there were more fights, more deaths, more arguments and most importantly, more drama, now conflicts get resolved in the space of an episode and the pacing just seems really off. The show went from 8 episodes in Series 1 to 12 in Series 2 to the standard 20 Series 3 on-wards, and these series felt very well paced with a overarching story line coming to a big climax at the end of the series, you just don't get that with Series 5 on-wards, in fact I had to look up when a series had finished because the finale's after Series 5 just felt like normal episodes.

The pacing and different direction also might be in part to all the different writers, as the original writers and creators of the show stopped writing halfway through Series 3 I believe. Its still good TV, and with the series ending next year after its 10th series, its a good time to go back and re-watch the earlier series and see how the show has changed,its just a shame to see something once to relate-able become so different.