Opinion: Waterloo Road 6.11

A Yob and a Dog.

 Waterloo Road, like its respectable colleagues Casualty and Holby City, is more of an American soap-like drama than any of its dramatic comrades, which by their nature makes formal review near-impossible. I only tend to watch these programs for the rare occasion that they do something good, and the rest of the time to snark at everything out of place.
     "Out of place" is a key term to describe the events of Wednesday's episode of the serialised drama, set in the titular School. The second half of Series Six, or the "second term", begins with something fully intended to shock the hearts and minds of good-natured, civilised people everywhere - seperate-gender education! "scare chord". As a subject and supporter of single-sex education, the episode at the start bemused me with its mad gender stereotyping, which soon turned ugly when the episode concluded on the notion that any group of boys left in a room together will cause the utmost pandemonium in minutes.
     That was the backdrop, but the main conflict came from two sides, appopriately gender opposed. The masculine threat was from stereotypical nothern dumbass Kyle Slack, whose complete lack of social skills leads him to bring his angry dog into the school. The character is, however, given a smigeon of sympathy, with his fondness for his canine friend and his overbearing, brutish mother. Such sympathy is not offered to our feminine conflict, Bex Fisher (a very out of place Tina O'Brien, who amazingly still stretches into a uniform), daughter of elderly headmistress Karen. Bex ran away two years ago and has just recently returned, worried about a stalker (hilariously named Hodge) and acting mysterious in an attempt to make us watch next week. She called the Rape card that led to Mr. Slack's rampage.

Because even Tina O'Brian has to pay the bills.

      Elsewhere, and the myriad of subplots boggle the mind. Troublemakers Finn (who seems to have had his character toned down a shade since he attempted to enter into a suicide pact in Series Five) and teacher's son Josh (implied to be gay, but not specifically since the BBC are a bit scared of that sort of thing) tried to get a dog to fight Mr. Slack's aforementioned rottweiler, while the latter was worried by the arrival of he who can only be known as Scary Pervert Guy, who seems fairly interested. Another strand, incredibly predictable and disturbing, is another Teacher/Student relationship, between enterprising Spanish teacher Francesca (Anglo-Indian actress Karen David) and equality-loving Jonah. Teacher/Student relationships are very common in this program, it seems - the climax of Term One of Series Six was the final revelation to Karen that Vice-Head Mr. Mead had bonked another one of her daughters, Jess.
     The episode went quickly from bemusing to offensive, with its subplots that demonise not only the poor and underprivelaged, but also managed to piss off the entire male gender. I know it's probably intended as satire (although I've given the show too much in that direction of thought in the past) but it still stinks of the reverse-sexism that the masses are soaking up at the moment. And yet. This show is addictive, not only because it presents a only-slightly-larger-than-life view of the school system, but is written best as a comedy.

Thanks.