Fades, Beeb 3 9 tonight

[Starkers]

Last night's was good, although it seemed like after taking a while to get us to this point, the town falling apart seemed to happen far too quickly. Anna was cool in this, especially her ridiculous focus on the fact Jae was a library monitor.

Dear lord Neil's really loony tunes isn't he!

I like that Paul feels he's there, not to destroy the Fades but to help them.

I still think the Fade mythology could have been nailed down further. From ghosts who grew bitter and twisted because of the nature of their existence, they've become monsters, well just because they do, and the lifecycle of fade back to human seems skewed slightly given Steve and the phychiatrist seemed to go bad v quickly (almost like we were dealing with vamps or zombies here).

Always assuming the phychiatrist wasn't a Fade all along...

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think we're supposed to assume there was a bit of time passed with the montage of them kidnapping people. But yeah, seems odd that just being dead for a week or whatever turned them eeevil. Though I suppose John could just be a charismatic leader turning them to his cause.

So next week is the last in the series and no news on if it's been picked up. Personally I'd be glad to see this come back for another series and a chance for them to expand on the mythology of the series.

 

[AJ86]

Oh my giddy aunt. Did not see that death coming. Writers have balls.

 

[Starkers]

Meh. Balls would have been killing Mac.

Sorry, know that death should have been shocking and all but I just felt nothing, and I've finally realised what's bothering me about this? The place looks so deserted, and I mean I know everyone's supposed to have left town, but it doesn't feel like a place that's been abandoned, it just feels like a set, and where are all the Fades? I don't mean the reborn, I mean the actual Fades, we keep seeing people get killed yet we never seem to see their Fades? I mean where was Jay's Fade FFS?

Add into this characters who seemed to have little purpose, I thought Paul's mum and Mac's dad were going to have some part to play, but no, and Mark, it seems he was just there to give Sarah a reason to want to come back--getting an inordinate amount of screentime in the process, and don't even get me started on Paul's stupid pacifism in the face of John kicking his arse at the end. Yes it's laudable that he doesn't want to kill, but relying on John's better nature to not kill him seems ridiculous, especially given if John kills him nobody will be saved!

I did like Mac and Anna in the container, liked that Paul's wings had a point, loved Sarah's arc during this episode alone, loved Neil going right off the deep end, liked that Sarah ascended as a flock of golden birds whilst John was a flock of blackbirds (does this mean he's actually descending?) and the notion that Paul may have just made matters worse.

Still a good show, and I hope it does get another series, I just hope they tighten up the mythology somewhat, and tone down the geekiness. I feel like I've been too hard on it at times, but I also feel like some people aren't being critical enough because it wears its geekiness on it's sleeve, which frankly shouldn't happen (and is the reverse of people taking against shows because they claim they're not sci-fi etc)

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Good finale, decent series over all.As you say it could be tightened up, there could be some aspects cleaned up but really a decent fantasy series. I liked Mac's recaps but the "Where's my ... boxset" thing got a bit wearing.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

It looks like The Fades is officially canned.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a375100/the-fades-axed-by-bbc-three-after-one-series.html

BBC Three has cancelled The Fades after one series.

Johnny Harris confirmed to SFX that the corporation decided against ordering more episodes of the supernatural drama.

Fellow cast member Iain de Caestecker had previously set out his hopes for a second series to be commissioned.

Penned by Skins writer Jack Thorne, the show also starred Daniel Kaluuya, Lily Loveless, Tom Ellis, Johnny Harris, Daniela Nardini, Claire Rushbrook and Natalie Dormer.

As well as positive reviews, The Fades pulled in strong audience figures for the channel last September, and performed well on iPlayer.

Centring around teenager Paul, the show culminated with him saving the world from an apocalypse.

 

[Silent_Bob]

Well that's a shame. I rather enjoyed the series, it was nice to see something actually watchable being shown on BBCThree rather than endless varieties of "documentaries" about teenages or yet another series of 'Two Pints' (how does this show keep getting made?).

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think BBC Three do pretty well actually. Mongrels, Being Human, some of the documentaries are fantastic, Young Voters' Question Time. It's just a shame their Drama budget was cut, because it meant they couldn't produce 3 Drama series any more, and The Fades is the one that got cut. I have a feeling Lip Service will be cut too, since Being Human was renewed.

 

[28VulcansLater]

Very disappointing news!