"Lip Service" (UK TV Series)

[pkristen]

Summary: Dyke drama in the lives of "twenty-somethings" in Glasgow.

Review: This series was recommended to me on instant viewing in Netflix based on my "viewing history". And I have absolutely no interest in what I strongly suspected to be a cheesy soap opera (which is why I have absolutely no interest in ever watching "The L Word".)

However, given that UK series are much, much sorter than US ones, I figure the time investment was tolerable if I could let it play in the background while I worked on other things.

So I watched the first two minutes a month ago and immediately turned it off with a roll of eyes.

But after suffering through the anime "Majikoi!", I was in a desperate "anything that isn't meant for straight men" phase so I watched the UK version of "Queer As Folk" (finally) and then eventually decided to give "Lip Service" a second chance.

I don't consider dysfunctional characters making really bad decisions as a form entertainment. And it didn't help that the whole Frankie/Cat thing annoyed the flipping beep out of me, including the fact that I saw the storyline coming a mile away and knew I'd have to sit through it being played out.

Honestly, the only glimmer of hope in the first series was watching the lesbian cop Sam, but I knew she wasn't the central character, and in soap operas, that usually means she gets shafted. Which she does.

However, I slowly started to become more interested (and entertained) in the second series with the intro of Doc Lexy and the departure of less desirable characters. But I could see that many creative decisions for the second series led to its ratings demise, and they weren't obvious ones in my mind. For example, all of the episodes in series one had pretty graphic sex scenes, whereas series 2 was pretty devoid of it in the first two eps. And then spending the last part of series 2's storyline for Tess wrapped up in a psycho-man who can't handle his wife dumping him made me think "and why I should I find this entertaining as a lesbian? Couldn't they have made him a woman?"

But I finally really enjoyed the show by the sixth (and final episode), especially with my favs hooking up at last.

And then they announced yesterday that the series was cancelled and there won't be a series three. Sigh.

However, as much as I would have been looking forward to a continuation, as far as my interests are concerned, the ending of series two left me satisfied.

On a side note, in web surfing after watching the entire series (since I don't like spoilers), I was somewhat surprised that the series was bashed so much for bad portrayals and stereotypes. But then, I already had low expectations by the mere fact that I knew it was a soap opera. And characters like Sam and Lexy are definitely worthwhile representations that I felt balanced out emotional fuck-ups like Frankie and Sadie.