Some people are destined to be the star, some the second banana. True, some second bananas become stars, but, I think, this does not happen very often. Take, for example, the Inspector Morse series on PBS. John Thaw was clearly the star, Kevin Whately the number two man.
Trying to capitalize on the series despite Thaw's death, NPR has launched a series based on the Whately character, Lewis. They've run two shows thus far, the second was worse than the first which, itself , was pretty bad. The only right thing about the shows seems to be the current second banana, whose name I have yet to figure out. I don't think the fault is mainly Whately's. The scripts have been rather unbelievable, the dialogue sketchy and the film shots nonsensical. I think most of the blame should be placed with the director, although, with the exception of the second banana, the acting is also not first rate.
I doubt that I'll waste my time on episode 3.
1 comment:
Like so many good series, the partnership between Morse and Lewis was unique. My own opinion was that putting Lewis in the driving seat, after years of him displaying considerably less discernment than Morse, was never going to work. However, the series began running in January 2006 in Britain, and as far as I know is still on-screen, so maybe it gets better? Incidentally, in case you're not aware, the 'second banana' is played by Laurence Fox, son of actor, James Fox.
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