Who would ever have thought that one of the most interesting
and original series could take place in a registrar’s office? And yet that’s
exactly what you’ll find in this series. The sad news is finding out that no
season two if forthcoming. Compound that with cliffhangers here and perhaps a
campaign to see it start again is in order.
The story revolves around Kate (Ashley Jensen), one of the
main registrars in the Leeds Register Office. Kate has an incredibly busy life
to lead not only due to work but her home life as well. Her son complains and
wants, her daughter is having issues with self-esteem and her stepson is going
through a breakup so has moved in with her and her companion Rob (Adrian
Bower), a police detective. Yes even though her job is to marry folks she’s not
married herself as the show opens. She and Rob juggle responsibilities with the
kids as best as they can.
Off to work she goes only to find as much turmoil there as
at home. James (Mark Stanley) is a co-worker who is about to change from male
to female. Rick (Kenny Doughty) is a co-worker Kate had drunken sex with at the
Christmas office party. And Judy (Rebecca Front) is the office wet blanket, an
enforcer of rules and creator of same. Various other office mates are found but
these are the ones with storylines this time around.
For James his story is the entire transgender situation.
He’s comes out to the rest of the group and advises them that he’ll be dressing
as a woman forthwith. He tells Kate he’s going to tell his wife and the end
result of that doesn’t go well. She kicks him out not wanting their two teen
boys to see him like this. With no place to go he ends up adding to the crowd
at Kate’s home sleeping on the couch. His struggle takes various turns through
this first season.
The other two have differing issues all due to the recent
retirement of the head of the registry office. Everyone immediately assumes
that temporary head Judy, the perennial butt kissing rule obeying and oft hated
co-worker, will get the job. All are pleasantly surprised when supervisor
Matthew (Matthew Marsh) lets them know that Kate has agreed to take the
position full time. Everyone except Judy.
It seems that Judy has found the footage on the office CCTV
of Kate and Rick having their fling in the storage room. She uses it to
blackmail Kate, promising that if she decides to stay on the job she’ll make
Matthew aware of the footage as well as Rob. With so much going on in the
office she gives her time to make her move.
Rick continues to pine for Kate. He’s fallen in love with
her and admits it’s always been that way. What was a onetime thing for Kate is
something Rick wants to make more permanent, willing to abandon his girlfriend
to spend his life with her. Kate is flattered but rebuffs his advances.
But she’s not quite sure about her own emotions. Is she
still attracted to Rick? And what about Rob? Is there a reason that they two of
them never married? To complicate that the two discuss getting married now only
to discover that Rob never divorced his first wife officially.
As all of this drama behind the scenes is taking place there
is plenty more out at the desks. One involves a young man who wants to marry
his dying girlfriend. She put off treatment for her illness because she was
pregnant. With the child here and dying they want to marry now. That changes
into a story involving registering her death later.
Another involves a group of marriage scam artists and human
trafficking. Girls forced into the country illegally gain citizenship status
and then are forced to marry so the men can stay once their visas expire. With
a little bit of intuition and a lot of research Kate pulls Rob into their
investigation. This will either result in utter failure or capturing a group of
criminals. When one of the girls ends up dead the stakes are raised.
Not enough stories yet? Well there is also the use of a
plotline involving same sex marriage just made legal about the time of the
series starting. Several same sex marriages with various issues involved are
brought into play but mainly as a way of showing the prejudice Judy has towards
this now legal procedure. Her maneuvering to not have to marry same sex couples
comes into play with the back and forth issue of who will run this office.
The series is incredibly interesting no matter what your
views are on different topics at hand. And while you may not support a
character who has a one night stand you feel for her with the predicaments that
follow. Her decisions aren’t always the best ones to be made. She’s human and
makes mistakes just like the rest of us. Add in the touch of police drama in
trying to catch the human traffickers and it gets more interesting.
Perhaps the biggest weakness of the show is the full blown
open mindedness of Kate. She accepts nearly everything that people decide to
do, not only accepting but encouraging everything. With James she counsels him
to carry on with who he wants to be ignoring the issues it might cause for his
family. With same sex marriages you get the feeling she’s happier for those
couples than the others whose weddings she officiates. Her own personal views
on marriage seem at odds to her own situation most of the time. But it is these
weaknesses that make the character more human than most offered on series these
days. They provide a depth to her.
But the show has a bigger weakness. That’s the fact that
there is no second season. By the time I finished watching this I wanted to
know what happened after that last episode. And yet apparently not enough
interest was garnered for it to go. How that can be after only 6 episodes is
confounding. So for now we’re presented with those episodes on disc to enjoy
more than once. And my guess is that given the chance you will find the show as
interesting and enjoyable as I did.
Click here to order.
Click here to order.
No comments:
Post a Comment