Quality Not Quantity?

Yesterday evening I watched the final episode of Apparitions. I'm a little behind, I admit. Over six months behind, but I'll live.

There's something I don't like about British drama. I can handle American shows because, well, I imagine it's something to do with the budget seeing as my issue with British television is poor acting and bad effects. I say bad effect. More like no effects...

Apparitions however, might have actually been made better by the lack of effects in the show. It also, for the most part, had some very good acting. You could almost say I'm a fan.

The thing that drew me to Apparitions in the first place was the content. I have an interest in the spiritual side of the world and I'll watch anything that deals with it. Apparitions deals with the adventures (what an American way of putting it...) of a Catholic Priest who must catalogue and verify miracles whilst increasingly becoming involved in possession and exorcisms.

As I find this sort of thing interesting I obviously enjoyed the program. It was informative and at the same time verging on scary. Martin Shaw's acting really carries the episodes whilst a cast of (generally) decent actors really keep you engrossed. The lack of effects is compensated by the acting and decent directing keeps it pretty frightening in places.

It's just a shame that it didn't seem to get the ratings needed to warrant a second season. I'm not sure a second season was planned by the writers, but the end of the sixth episode really does allow them room to make a second.

That brings me to the strange way English and American series are handled. American seasons can be up to 24 episodes long. Or maybe 12 if it's a short season, but that only seems to be reserved for shows that are being tested. English series on the other hand are always six episodes long. I'm guessing it's a quality of quantity situation and this does seem to work after watching not only Apparitions but Being Human as well, both of which I think would have actually benefited from more, at least where the story concerned.

At least Being Human's been commissioned for a second season. It seems someone out there has taste. Until then I'm going to check out an American show called True Blood. It's about a town in Louisiana where vampires live. Sounds potentially interesting. It could also be terrible...