Danny K
Monday 19th May 2008 5:12am
238 posts
Quote: David Chapman @ May 18 2008, 1:01 AM BST
Well - looks like I'm in the minority (again).
I loved the series and there were some very good bits tonight but I thought the ending was a bit of a cop out.
No, I don't think you're in the minority David. (Well according to BARB officially you are). I thought the series was brilliant and refreshing and brave to have 'no ending', daring to rob the viewer of a satisfying resolution to the arc of the main character. The first series ran a couple of years ago, and I've only caught up with story-lines when repeats were shown. So by the time I caught the series finale episode I had forgotten references to past characters and had to re-watch on the BBC's iplayer to clear my confusion. Surely they meant Douglas had a heart attack and died? After watching iplayer - nope! He clearly said Gill.
So, that must have been the bloke she kept missing by a whisker like 'ships passing in the night'? In fact I've been 'saddened' that there's been so little comment in the traditional media sections, that in trawling the Internet to find more insight into the series, it threw up this site. And at last, loads of pages to read on one of my favourite comedy-dramas, (you can't really refer to it as a sit-com can you?)
I smiled when I read some views that they didn't like it because, 'it was about nothing', (shades of Seinfeld then) - but that's the beauty of David Renwick's work! It was a credible reflection of the minutiae of most peoples lives - nothing much happens of world shattering importance to most people. Now and then completely absurd thing do though, just like they do to Alice.
CUT TO:
(I was on my motorbike travelling behind a car as we both motored down a country road. All of a sudden, for no apparent reason the car veered sharply to the right. Involuntarily I gasped in shock as the car 'deliberately' thumped into a sturdy tree on the opposite side of the road. The car reared up at the back, bounced down on it's two nearside wheels, spun round to face the opposite direction then noisily smashed back down for the last time. The car was silent and there was no movement visible from within the car. I parked up and ran over. I opened the driver's door. There was one person only, a middle-aged driver with grey hair, possibly a pensioner. I said, (inadequately): Are you alright mate? But he remained silent and 'ignored' me. I noticed he 'sort of' had no pupils, instead scarily, his eyes looked completely grey, (you know like a zombie - if you've ever met any).
For some reason, I became uneasy and 'afraid'. Within seconds another car hove into view, pulled over and the driver came over to help. Would you believe it? He said he was a doctor, and my 'fear' instantly vanished. Phew! He looked at the driver, messed about a bit and said: 'He's dead. Think he's suffered a heart attack at the wheel'. Oh god! I was talking to a dead man. The horror! I left my name and address with the doctor who said I could go on my way. Which I did. I carried on as normally as possible. I was the only solitary witness to what I thought was an absurd event. Dying just like that. Weird. But later upon reflection, not absurd but entirely 'normal'.
AND CUT BACK TO:
That incident affected me that day but had no meaning to MY life thereafter. However, you couldn't include it for no reason whatsoever to a character in a drama. It would have to foreshadow something to come. In real life it does no such thing. Well, there was a lot of that in Love Soup, and the absurd incidents foreshadowed nothing of importance. But in Renwick's hands it was entirely credible when it happened to Alice.
We've been so indoctrinated with Beginning Middle and End, (and for good reason to - it works), that when rescued from the feed-pipes of The Matrix incubation chambers we scream to be reconnected to Beginning Middle and End. Real life doesn't follow those rules. We construct Beginning Middle and End because it's the only way to make sense of things. And when we look back into our memories, we conveniently move actual dates and conversations to 'make' our story more interesting when relaying some incident to others. That's why they call memories, 'not 100% reliable'.
It takes an artist, yea an artist, like David Renwick to show another way is possible.
Love Soup was riveting - there's no other word for it. It's in a class of it's own. I loved it! Now it's over we can all stop screaming blue murder and go back to boring formula feed.
P.S. If there's to be a series 3 then I bet Douglas had his mobile phone confiscated by the mad megalomaniac Mackenzie Crook character and forced to concentrate solely on the script. And when he finds Douglas and his wife in a compromising position he locks Douglas in his room 24/7 - hence no phone calls possible to Alice at all for the entire 'twelve days'. And Douglas's ardour for the flirty wife then quickly cools in the face of real danger. He wouldn't pull it off successfully anyway - he's one of life's losers. When the script's finished he's back with his tail between his legs whining at Alice's door - then she can spend an episode or so deciding to dump him all over again.
