The first in a series of reviews today following the BBC drama 'The Fades'. Enjoy!
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First off, let's look at the plot.
The Fades is a supernatural fantasy horror in which a seventeen year old boy, Paul, who has the ability to see the souls of the dead. The story begins in a disused shopping mall, where Paul and his smart-alec friend Mac are looking for props for a horror film. When he wanders away from Mac, Paul is told to run by a man with a gun. Ignoring the gunman, Paul follows him, and sees him fighting with a creature of some description.
Turns out that the gunman is one of a select group of 'ghostbusters' who can see the souls of the dead. The gunman, whose name is Neil, guesses that Paul is in fact one of the few who can see what he and the rest of the team call 'The Fades'. He follows Paul, and begins to pull him into his world.
As this is going on, a group of Fades are beginning to do some very strange things. Unable to interact with the physical world normally, this lot can actually touch things, and more importantly, move them. One in particular seems prone to killing people, which isn't very nice.
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This drama is a very strange thing. It lives up to being a fantasy horror, despite not being terribly scary. The idea is a fairly good one: After death, souls can either ascend or stay put. Those that can't ascend and stay put are stuck forever, and they turn into fairly grumpy ghosts, with good reason. The writer obviously has a suitably bleak outlook on the afterlife. I find myself being grateful that this TV programme is only fiction. I hope.
Despite being a horror, it has a fair amount of comedy in it. Paul's friend Mac is quite the mouthy one, always quoting films and characters from games. There are several scenes in the episode which have comedy value, such as when Mac is trying to annoy Paul with the old 'She loves you, she loves you not' trick with a packet of crisps. Paul gets annoyed (understandably so), and duly gets rid of the remaining crisps. Mac rolls his eyes, waits until Paul's out of sight, then pulls out another packet of crisps.
Aside from this, there are other comical moments, some of them not intended to be comical at all. Like when crows keep dying and falling out the sky when Paul walks past. I still don't know what that's all about.
The only particularly scary thing about this show are The Fades themselves. One in particular, whom I shall refer to as Mr Psycho Zombie Fade, or Zombie for short. Zombie likes to go around killing people for no apparent reason, or running jerkily through the woods at night while making strange gurgling sounds and making spasmodic arm movements. (A lot like Matt, to be honest.) Along with this, Mr Psycho really needs to get some cosmetic treatment. And buy himself some new clothes. And brush his teeth and get some sleep. He really doesn't look too pretty. Still, he's a good evil creature for now. He shall suffice.
The things that I have against this programme comes to a list. Firstly, there's so much swearing that you might as well be in Glasgow, secondly, there's too much innuendo and all that. I'm not even going to elaborate on that, and don't send me emails using the address on the 'About the Kettle' page asking about it or I'll send The Human Beetroot out to gobble you up, or shout at you. He'll probably call you peasants. But I digress.
The programme is, all in all, fairly good. I'm not going to go out and buy it when it comes out on DVD, but I'll see it through to the end. I'll give it a five and a half out of ten on my super-ness meter.
Watch it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0151prg/The_Fades_Episode_1/
It won't last long, so watch it while you can.
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