The Narocroc Weblog

Raw, Image (c) rte.ie

So episode 3 of Raw was on last night. I thought it was the best yet. The writing was/is very sharp. Some cracking one-liners and put downs. The tension and drama are coming along nicely, narrative arcs are well on the way with new twists and turns to complement them.

The setting for last night’s episode, the customer-less empty restaurant with the rain and wind lashing outside, gave the scenarios a real claustrophobic feel, they were almost trapped within the restaurant. And this worked a treat.

The performances have been generally quite good. Keith McErlean as Shane is excellent. Understated and subtle. Charlene McKenna as JoJo is always close to the edge but never over the top, a fine actress. And the rest of the characters are well cast, well directed and well played. A well chosen, on form ensemble.

Something I questioned earlier was the chemistry between Bobby and Rebecca but even that is developing nicely. And even Geoff has become less of a one dimensional, stock character. He has more depth now which is no harm. One downsight was Mal’s post-cocaine high. It was way over the top in forcing home the point. A bit of easy plotting from the writer’s, as a character device it was a little stereotypical and could’ve been handled in a more subtle way.

Raw still proves to be quite divisive with audiences, particularly over at LouderVoice. Some love it, some can’t stand it.

I was wrong about the look of Raw. It looks really good. Nicely shot, smooth grading work, peaking not an issue as I previously thought. So hats off to those involved.

One last thing on Raw, I wonder do they give away a little too much with their “on next week’s show” teaser?

The Apprentice, Image (c) tv3.ie

The Apprentice on TV3 was much slicker than I expected in truth. Very nicely shot and lit. Lovely aerial shots and tightly cut for the hero and villain approach. The contestants are very aware of themselves and how they are portrayed. And businessy type people can be highly irritating, full of buzz words and morkeshing speak. They all know the format and how it works. But the real drama is watching them squirm and blame each other for failing to close the big deal. The deal in question, selling a few bananas.

And sometimes it’s hard to take Dr Bill seriously; Tom Dunne’s fault really.

But all in all The Apprentice is somewhat engaging. And again, like Raw it’s always more engrossing when the accents are familiar and local. I reckon it’ll do very well ratings wise and about time TV3 produced something home-grown to such a high standard. Their website is quite nice too, fairly comprehensive.

Last night I also watched Massive on BBC 3. It’s an alleged comedy starring Ralf Little and Johnny Vegas but it’s neither original nor funny. In fact I’ve seen it before, every scenario, every character, the bigger picture. It’s not big and it’s not clever as Bryan Boyd might say.