ianlouisiana Review of In the Club

In the Club (2014–2016)

Passes rapidly from cliché to parody. "It's grim oop north"

[4/10 · 12 August 2014]

20 years of strong,brave,loyal and smart women in our soaps and TV dramas combined with frankly cardboard male characters who are either weak,vain,thick,violent or criminal(and sometimes all five things in one)has rather taken the edge off what at one time might have been considered a "challenging" concept,i.e. the intertwining stories of five women(and the obligatory teenage girl who doesn't know she's pregnant)and their relationships with each other and their partners of whatever persuasion. I can hear the pitch now.."These women transcend the racial,sexual and social barriers and quickly bond against their stupid insensitive,feckless men whose brains nestle somewhere in their pants" You can see the TV executives salivating,can't you? Yes,I know only women bleed,and I know only women give birth but there is quite often a male involved somewhere along the line,however briefly. "Very briefly",I hear echoing from a thousand female stand - ups. Miss K.Mellor has taken us there before and clearly has no intention of letting us forget her opinion of the whole matter. For me,the tragedy of "In the club" is that it completely wastes four of our best actors - Miss J Halfpenny,Miss K.Parkinson,Miss T.Fitzgerald and Miss H.Norris all of whom perform far better than the material deserves,but making their characters believable is beyond even their considerable talents. I must mention Mr W.Mellor,not,i must admit,a favourite of mine,but who does a great job of making Rick,Miss Halfpenny's husband, a sympathetic character right up until the time he robs a bank because he can't afford to pay for his daughters' pizzas(well,I never said he was clever). Because of the fore-mentioned cast,"In the club" is just about watchable,but,sadly,it is nowhere near believable.