Review: Hit and Miss 1.3

"What's a transexual?"
"A cross between a man and a robot?"

While Riley got some charactisation, Ryan was just... odd.

You know, when last week's episode repeated a few elements from the premiere, I didn't mind. But there are several thematic and simply cinematic things that keep getting repeated and it feels more xerox than anything else; certain scenes feel almost exactly the same, like they had a routine event and thus used the same footage three times to save on costs. That felt even more the strange, as this week saw several revelations and changes between our characters in fairly interesting ways, as well ironing out a few problems I had with last week.

     After going against her word and threatening to murder John (the Landlord) if he doesn't leave them alone, Mia went out on a date with Jack (Jonas Armstrong, Robin Hood) where she still felt uncomfortable with her own place in the relationship. Ryan and the Farmer's son, having made friends (somehow) went to John's barn, where seeing a cow being beaten and then shot led Ryan to develop a rebellious environmental streak, making him do several crazy things throughout the episode. Desperate for the small emotional support he gives her, Riley was shocked when John heeded Mia's word and left her alone. On a job, Mia is nearly killed by her target, swiftly after which she is knocked down and is forced to escape from hospital semi-conscious. Jack finds her and carries her home, after which she tries to break up with him and she is forced to reveal her transexuality. He storms out. At the same time, Riley is randomly searching Mia's room and finds one of her guns, which Mia claims is security after having been raped. The two bond as Riley tries to tell her about her pregnancy by John but is unable to.
     I didn't really get Ryan's character this week. His little sister Leonie is often seen doing crazy shit (seeing hallucinations, hearing her mother's voice, cutting off a Barbie doll's hair) but that's because she's still facing the grief of losing a mother. Ryan, on the other hand, just randomly starts being a troublemaker, culminating in a scene where, face and hands painted green, he releases his Science classes' frogs and starts jumping around. I could maybe accept his transvestite experimentation last week as an examination of dysmorphia, but this week it felt like, "lets get kids to do weird shit and call it drama". There was a touching scene where Mia assured Ryan that he wasn't to blame for killing his mother (which he believes having prayed for her to be taken to heaven where she would no longer be in pain), but it didn't link in with any of the weird, weird stuff he was doing.

    Like I mentioned, I'm noticing a few repeated once-a-week things. Mia kills someone, Riley goes swimming, Riley has an encounter with John, John threatens to sell the farm and Mia shuts his mouth - it seems a bit repetitive for a series with so much to actually do. There's also this weird attitude that we have to see the prostethic penis every ten minutes or so, like the audience would be unable to appreciate the drama if we weren't constantly reminded of Mia's true nature. After everything that Sevigny has done with the character implicitly, with her stance, and manner of dress, it comes off as a bit crass that every once in a while they say, "Hey, in case you forgot, here's Mia's penis." Despite this, I am glad that the series is treating transexuality with a respect and realism rarely afforded to it by the media.
     What else is there to say? Hit and Miss may have a few repetitive elements, but at the moment it still manages to allow enough plotlines to slither forward to keep me interested. At least 50% of it is Chloe Sevigny's excellent performance, as well as the series' raw and mostly realistic portrayl of transexuality. It didn't have the pure power of the premiere or the thematic significance of last week, but it was still an enjoyable hour of drama.

Thanks.

Review: Hit and Miss 1.2

Mia and Ryan share a similar character arc.

After the intense premier, the second episode of Hit And Miss continued on a good track. This week took a much more raw look at the nature of dysmorphia, while still continuing to work on these interesting and fulfilling characters. Some of the characters aren't developing in the way I thought they would, but the series still feels compelling despite that - mainly due to Chloe Sevigny's astounding performance.
     Understandably pissed off at having been beaten up and humiliated, the Landlord put the kids' cottage up for sale. The older kids blame this on Mia; Levi is broken by the fact that he can't keep his family together after his mother's death, and Riley, having been secretly having it off with the landlord to keep his favour, is shocked by his betrayel. Levi calls Mia a freak, which causes her to go into a period of gender dysmorphia; culminating in a dark scene where Mia stands naked except for a party nose in front of a mirror and begs to be real. At the same time, Mia's son Ryan tried to emulate his father and began to experiment with female clothing. The Landlord refusing to buy the house from Mia, her concerned employer Eddie offers to use his legal existence to buy the house with her money, allowing her to keep control. They hold a party in celebration, where Mia confronts Ryan about his attempts to emulate her, and where she finally feels she can accept her femininity.
     I loved the very clever thematic device regarding gender politics that this episode used, and it worked across all of the characters. Mia's harrowing scenes in front of the mirror, and her refusal to help Leonie dance at her recital, allowed Sevigny to really dig deep into the character's recesses. Her relationship with Ryan became awfully symbolic in this regard. Ryan, named after Mia's male identity, acts as a metaphor here - Ryan experimenting with feminity and Mia telling him to be himself instead of emulating her. Levi felt his masculinity being questioned by his inability to protect the household, but then accepted that he couldn't win all of the battles. Riley lost her motherly instincts as she grew to resent both the Landlord and Mia.

Mia tries to balance her home life with cold-blooded murder.

     I was a bit weirded out by Riley's change of pace as a character, though. After the headstrong and responsible parental figure from the premiere, it felt like a drastically different character the moment she started to act like a grumpy teenager. The character spent the entire episode going off the rails, when she'd been the most mature of the kids last week. I suppose you could put this down to the clash between her twisted loyalty to the Landlord and her new mum Mia, but it was the one thing in the episode that struck me as odd.
     Hit and Miss is well on its way to becoming an absolutely brilliant drama. The way that it handled the concepts surroundng dysphoria were masterful, and Chloe Sevingy is a truly amaing actress for being able to do what she does in this episode. The script is absolutely superb and I'm enjoying this series on so many levels that other shows on British TV just aren't providing.

Thanks.

Review: Hit And Miss 1.1

Mia (Chloe Sevigny) has a double life - in more ways than one.

"I don't know about the dick in your pants, but you've definitely got a dick in your brain - you're fucked in the head."

In anyone else's hands, the premise of this new Sky Atlantic drama would sound rather ridiculous. Big Love's Chloe Sevigny plays Mia, a transsexual hitwoman who discovers that she has a son and an entire family of kids left to her by her late girlfriend Wendy. Written by Shameless' Paul Abbot, the first episode of the series managed to escape any possible connotations of being a freak-show or a gimmick, which a witty script that combined powerful characterisations (especially from Sevigny) with humour and drama. Importantly enough for me, it was filmed in the city where I live, and so I got a lot of enjoyment from musing over the locations used.
     One of the things I loved was how easily it mixed a sort of Wild-West theme with a great deal of realism. At one point we see Mia undress for a shower, and we see some full-frontal nudity using a prothetic penis. Now while this is what every reviewer is going to be talking about, it speaks volumes that Mia's transsexuality is so realistically shown, and it doesn't form the entirety of her character. It helps that Sevigny is somewhat androgynous, and there have been some clever wardrobe decisions that highlight the character's former form. There's also a considerable lack of Northern stereotyping, although this is probably due to Paul Abbot's background. I was glad that it had humour; the premise is so stuffed that the series risked taking itself too seriously, and the Shameless-style humour highlights the characters' humanity.
     Sevigny is perfect for the role, and despite the actresses' controvertial comments about Manchester itself, she does a bloody good job here. I loved her in Big Love and she's even stronger here, as the broken woman who recognises what taking care of the family could do for her life. She insists that she used to love Wendy, and you can tell simply by the way that she acts around her kids and her bedroom. It was a performance that never reminded me of her American heritage, or of the actress' other works. It was a strange, strange casting decision, but it's had a great result.

Leonie, Levi (Reece Noi), Mia, Riley (Karla Crome) and Ryan.

  The children are a good selection of promising actors. Karla Crome (future Misfits star) is great as the abrasive Riley, who wants the kids to remain self-sufficient, as was Reece Noi (Waterloo Road) as troublesome Levi. Especially impressive were Mia's son Ryan and the youngest child, Leonie, both of whom managed to express their grief at their mother's death in several touching scenes - one where Mia teaches Ryan how to fight a local bully, or another where Leonie is left on her own and cuts the hair off of a Barbie doll to resemble her mother. It was a lot more raw and domestic than the advertising suggested, but that's really all for the better.
     Hit And Miss was almost nothing like I expected. It didn't use its unorthodox premise as an excuse but as a driving device and when mixed with the Shameless-style humour it was a fulfilling and empowering experience. As one of my friends commented, the series is, "Shameless, given emotional depth." Hit and Miss is like nothing on British TV at the moment and deserves to be seen as the start of something beautiful for Sky Atlantic's homegrown productions.

Thanks.