feeling listless

TV Remember the Steven Soderbergh film 'Traffic' which looked at the drugs trade from multiple points of view using unusual camera work for contrast? Well someone has replicated it, thrown in a bit of Doug Liman style time shifting and turned it into a cop drama. 'Boomtown' began on Channel Five on Tuesday night, and although it tried its best to seem fresh it did feel a bit like it was placing it's footsteps in a well worn mud track. It was enjoyable, but it felt a bit forced and threadbare in places. The actual crime incident at the centre, a drive-by shooting was undoubtedly shocking, the audience's attention was kept through the small character vignettes around the event. The trouble was in order to introduce so many of these new characters, just when something was getting interesting, we were forced to meet someone else. It felt bitty, it didn't flow in places, and it suffered from 'Law & Order' syndrome -- are these characters lives always going to be connected by the same incidents. It's a big city, are they always going to br rubbing shoulders so often? Surely there are more people in the police department/paramedic services/in newspapers. Anyway, it's definately worth simply for attempting something new on TV, but in some ways I would have preferred a straight down the line cop drama with Danny Wahlerg and Mykelti Williamson -- the 'Sleep with a hooker' moment was classic.