This "Doctor Who" spin-off was pretty decent overall but far from exceptional. None of the episodes stood out as being particularly bad but none of them stood out as being particularly good either. It often felt like it was trying (perhaps a little too hard...) to be "Buffy" but it lacked the razor sharp dialogue, superlative characterisation and strong plots, to put it mildly. When it comes to genre shows which are centred around schools (at least initially), "Buffy" is on another level to "Smallville" but "Smallville" is on another level to "Class", I'm afraid.
Taking itself far less seriously would have probably helped matters. It really overdid the whole "tragic backstory" malarkey. Giving a character a tragic backstory does not automatically make them interesting nor, for that matter, does a character need one to be interesting. April's backstory was the worst of the bunch. It was obviously intended to provoke sympathy but the strongest reaction that it provoked in me was, "Christ, not another sob story!"
Charlie, Miss Quill and Dorothea Ames are quite interesting characters but the only human Coal Hill student that I actually liked was Matteusz. His family problems were certainly the best realised but there wasn't much competition in that regard. Charlie and Matteusz's relationship was very well handled and well acted by Greg Austin and Jordan Renzo. It was the only element of characterisation on the series with which I was entirely satisfied, quite frankly.
The other characters were kind of...flat. Even with all of the stuff with Corakinus and her father, April was pretty much a non-entity. So was Tanya. Fady Elsayed was utterly dreadful as Ram, which is a shame because his PTSD in "The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo" after witnessing Rachel's death in "For Tonight We Might Die" had the potential to be a very interesting story arc. Then he got over it ridiculously quickly when he started his utterly unconvincing (and almost as uninteresting) relationship with April. Oh well.
"Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart" - a title which I love, incidentally - and "Brave-ish Heart" had the most in the way of flashes of brilliance but almost all of them were contained in the B-story. The stuff with April and Ram in the A-story was a real chore to get through as was the stuff with her father. That said, April's relationship with her mum is sweet and at times quite touching. A greater focus on that would have been appreciated. The Shadow Kin were somewhat ineffectual as the series' main alien menace. I found it very hard to get excited about them, really. When it comes to the B-story, the killer petals were a very cool and creepy threat and easily my favourite sci-fi aspect of the series. I could well imagine the killer petals fitting into "Torchwood" extremely well. Charlie's moral dilemma about using the Cabinet of Souls was well done to boot.
As it stands, the series represents a missed opportunity. There are quite a few good ideas but the execution is sorely lacking when it comes to most of them.
Taking itself far less seriously would have probably helped matters. It really overdid the whole "tragic backstory" malarkey. Giving a character a tragic backstory does not automatically make them interesting nor, for that matter, does a character need one to be interesting. April's backstory was the worst of the bunch. It was obviously intended to provoke sympathy but the strongest reaction that it provoked in me was, "Christ, not another sob story!"
Charlie, Miss Quill and Dorothea Ames are quite interesting characters but the only human Coal Hill student that I actually liked was Matteusz. His family problems were certainly the best realised but there wasn't much competition in that regard. Charlie and Matteusz's relationship was very well handled and well acted by Greg Austin and Jordan Renzo. It was the only element of characterisation on the series with which I was entirely satisfied, quite frankly.
The other characters were kind of...flat. Even with all of the stuff with Corakinus and her father, April was pretty much a non-entity. So was Tanya. Fady Elsayed was utterly dreadful as Ram, which is a shame because his PTSD in "The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo" after witnessing Rachel's death in "For Tonight We Might Die" had the potential to be a very interesting story arc. Then he got over it ridiculously quickly when he started his utterly unconvincing (and almost as uninteresting) relationship with April. Oh well.
"Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart" - a title which I love, incidentally - and "Brave-ish Heart" had the most in the way of flashes of brilliance but almost all of them were contained in the B-story. The stuff with April and Ram in the A-story was a real chore to get through as was the stuff with her father. That said, April's relationship with her mum is sweet and at times quite touching. A greater focus on that would have been appreciated. The Shadow Kin were somewhat ineffectual as the series' main alien menace. I found it very hard to get excited about them, really. When it comes to the B-story, the killer petals were a very cool and creepy threat and easily my favourite sci-fi aspect of the series. I could well imagine the killer petals fitting into "Torchwood" extremely well. Charlie's moral dilemma about using the Cabinet of Souls was well done to boot.
As it stands, the series represents a missed opportunity. There are quite a few good ideas but the execution is sorely lacking when it comes to most of them.