Preview 2000
They're just an ordinary family whose business happens to be crime. FRANCES GRANT previews The Sopranos and the year's other big telly shows.
Thought they couldn't possibly wring any more drama out of Mafia families? Think again. The hit mob drama, The Sopranos, promises to be one of the biggest things on the box this year.
The show blew away audiences in the States last year, garnered 16 Emmy nominations and won four gongs, including best writing and best actress for Edie Falco.
The show takes an unconventional approach to old territory, delving into the lives and business of the family from the perspective of the shrink's couch. Melancholy family head Tony (James Gandolfini) is a new-age kind of mobster: seeking therapy to help him sort out his problems. Analyse this, huh?
TV2 cannot give a date but says The Sopranos will be on air here "very soon." Other big numbers to watch out for on television 2000 are:
TV ONE Of the new crop of British dramas, Gormenghast is the most weird and wonderful. The cast of this adaptation of Mervyn Peake's gothic novels seems to include everybody from Ian Richardson to Martin Clunes. The nightmare castle set, complete with dripping dungeons, also stars.
House 1900 is a costume drama with a twist - call it a period reality show - as a modern family try life as it was lived in late Victorian times. More traditional costume dramas include a lavish production of Dickens' David Copperfield.
The channel cites Bad Girls, a hard-hitting drama set in a women's prison, as its Brit-grit drama of the year.
Of the documentary series, the computer-animated natural history show, Walking With The Dinosaurs (starting next month) looks a crowd-pleaser. Many of the backdrops were filmed in New Zealand.
TV One also has the year's big local doco series, Our People, Our Century, a survey of Kiwi life back in the 1900s (also starting next month).
TV2
The grown-ups get The Sopranos, the teens get Roswell. It's Dawson's Creek with aliens. The younger set are also treated to a drama of the maladjusted, Freaks and Geeks, set way, way back in the 80s. Wonder Years, not.
TV2 has local drama, too. Street Legal is a series set in an Auckland law firm and starring Jay Laga'aia, and two telefeatures continue last year's Lawless.
The new local reality-entertainment show Can You Hackett? sounds adventurous - Kiwi families tackle tasks set by extreme adventure guru A.J. Hackett.
In comedy land, Elle MacPherson turns up to hang out with the Friends and for those in need of satire, there's Movie Stars, a spoof on Hollywood.
TV3
The Second World War was in black and white, wasn't it? No. TV3's block-buster doco series, The Colour of War, unearths previously unseen colour film footage of the conflict. The series is narrated by John Thaw (Inspector Morse) and was a ratings hit in Australia and Britain. It starts next month.
TV3's top new drama series are all spin-off shows. It has Angel (born of Buffy the Vampire Slayer); S.V.U - Special Victims Unit (Law & Order) and Time Of Your Life (starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Party of Five).
Then there's the second series of the best drama on the box, SeaChange, starting next month. Diver Dan bows out but this didn't hurt in Australia: the second series became the country's top-rating show.
TV4
The sister channel has a new Brit drama with top controversy-cred. Queer Folk follows the lives of three gay Manchester men and its graphic nudity and language caused a stir. The show is too dangerous for the Aussies (it hasn't been picked up there) but Hollywood is looking at making its own version.
It also has The Cops, a new drama from the writers of the excellent This Life.
PRIME
The four-part BBC adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations should live up to its name. It stars Ioan Gruffudd (Hornblower) as Pip and Charlotte Rampling delivers an inspired interpretation of literature's most famous jilted bride, Miss Havisham.
The regional network's documentary highlights include a series based on Robert Hughes' Australian history, Beyond The Fatal Shore, and Tales Of the Black Museum, a history of Britain's most notorious crimes.
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