Season 34 - Pollyanna (2004-2005)
Pollyanna isn't really used as a noun anymore. In fact when my dad recently used it I had totally forgotten that it used to be an insult against the eternally and blindly optimistic. Language fascinates me how words are always falling in and out of favor or use. When I hear a word used a certain way that I haven't in a while it can actually transport me in time and place to when I last heard it. Ironically I knew the definition of the word before I ever learned where it came from. The first time I actually took interest in the book was when NBC made a highly touted adaptation, Polly, starring two of the actors from The Cosby Show, Keshia Knight Pulliam and Phylicia Rashad, directed by Debbie Allen. I would have been eleven when it aired and never missed The Cosby Show and they targeted the hell out of that audience to turn into the musical, yes, it was apparently a musical, extravaganza. See, the fact that I didn't remember it was a musical shows how much I have blocked of this adaptation. All I actually remember is her falling out of the tree and losing the use of her legs. I wish I could forget watching this adaptation just as easily. Only time will tell. This transplants the story from New England to England and is just as winsome as you'd expect. In other words I wanted to see Pollyanna drown in the pond near the house. I'm a cynic, I can't take optimism like this. But then again it's better than what is to come... But that's jumping ahead of my tale. I watched this series for one reason and one reason only, Tom Ellis. I was severely missing my Luci and this was early enough in his career that I hadn't seen it and wanted to watch him in something pre-Miranda. It was also nice that Kate Ashfield was in it. The fact that the two of them hookup was just an added bonus. If this show had been about them I would have liked it far more. Even if I will reluctantly agree that Pollyanna is a pretty good matchmaker. Anyway, so Pollyanna, the character and the story, is basically all about finding the silver lining. Your life isn't as bad as it could be so suck it up. Hence the eternal and blind optimism. She's a darling and a ray of sunshine, until she's not. She's hit by a car and paralyzed. Which, yes, bit of a setback, but she was able to justify and accept the deaths of her parents and all other manner of horrible things, she'll once again look on the bright side of life. But oh no she doesn't. This takes a dark turn wherein she turns into the whiniest little bitch I have ever seen. She's just horrible. She treats everyone like shit. People who she brought out of the darkest deepest despair she's now telling them that what she is going through is so much worse than anything they have ever experienced that they will never be able to relate and they should just let her wallow. And really, they should have. She's a hypocrite. Pollyanna and her double standards shouldn't have just been hit by a car but backed over. I just couldn't with this kid. And honestly, I don't think her family could either. They ship her off for some radical therapy that does get her mobile but they carry on with their lives and are shocked when she shows up for her Aunt's wedding. I mean, if you really wanted her there you'd have invited her right? She was unwanted to start with and after her downward spiral, I definitely don't want her anywhere near me. Perky freakin' hypocrite.
Danger UXB is about a bomb disposal unit during World War II created by the late great John Hawkesworth. The show goes into the danger and minutiae of dismantling a bomb and making it safe. The unit are constantly having to figure out the insidious new ways the Nazis have invented to create the most damage and to make bombs almost impossible to defuse. This even includes the introduction of the dreaded Butterfly Bomb. Now, I'm not saying that I could 100% disarm a bomb after watching this series, but I think I'm definitely in with a chance. Which is actually rather useful because they are still finding UXBs to this day. Not that I'd want to. Watching this show was stressful enough without having real world implications. The show starts with Anthony Andrews as Brian Ash, a man with no experience put in charge of bomb disposal. Which means that we the viewer get to follow him into this world that basically meant your life expectancy was measured in days. The problem with Brian Ash and therefore Anthony Andrews is he's too boring. He's your general romantic hero lead. The blue-eyed blonde haired boy who the women swoon over. In fact he's soon having a romance Susan Mount, the married daughter of boffin Doctor Gillespie who is a specialist in bomb fuses. Their romance is the definition of milquetoast. You don't care because you actually feel that deep down they probably don't care. It's too contrived and trope heavy. Which means, of course, she has a husband who's a codebreaker, who suffers mental breaks and whom she has to see to. Eventually he dies and that means they can be together and in the only moment of their relationship I approve of, she realizes he loves his men and the thrill of defusing a bomb more than he'll ever love her and that's where the series ends. Suck it Susan. Suck it! Because it's the men who make this show. 347 Section, 97 Company is made up of the best of the best in British character actors but Robert Pugh, George Innes, and Kenneth Cranham all deserve a special shout-out. Especially Kenneth Cranham. When I watched this show it happened to coincide with Kenneth Cranham being in everything I was watching. I don't know how he was so ubiquitous, but there he was on the stupidly renamed C.B. Strike, then popping up on the final season of Doc Martin, then on Inspector Morse and Pollyanna, even the nearly unwatchable Reilly: Ace of Spies. I was viewing shows spanning fifty years of British television in no particular order and there he was. There he always was. And he was always fabulous. His character of Lance Corporal Jack Salt was more interesting in one minute of screen time than Brian Ash was for the entire series. He had a wife up north but was conflicted and worried about the safety of this woman whom he'd met. Everything keeps compounding on him, even where he's home on leave and his house, with his wife inside, explodes before his very eyes. He's eventually taken out by a Butterfly Bomb in what I view as suicide by cop. He had so much trauma and that gave us viewers someone to root for. We wanted him to suceed. But, when you're not sure if you'll live another minute every minute is precious. If there's anything this series imparted to us, it was this. Oh, and that Nazis are evil. All Nazis are evil. There are no exceptions. They take delight in creating killing machines. If you're on the side of the Nazis YOU are a baddie.
