The fluctuation in quality between the apocalyptic and the adolescent in the opening instalment of The Fades was not, it seems, merely just the throes of a troubled birth.
In tonight’s second instalment, the supernatural strands remain as engrossing as ever while the more conventional teenager scenes continue to oscillate between authentic awkwardness and Hollyoaks Later-styled sex ‘n’ swearing ‘n’ substance abuse. Like the cocktail of booze a miserable Mac overindulges in at Anna’s party, it’s a decidedly uneasy mix.
After a surprisingly effective recap delivered to camera by Mac like an omnipresent narrator – he mentions names and events that he has no knowledge of – the episode opens with another of Paul’s disturbing dreams – his mum, Anna and Jay all lie, bloodied and dead or dying, in his house, while (in the real world) at his dilapidated old shack, Neil disposes of the bodies of Helen and Sarah by torching the building. ‘I always loved this place,’ he mutters as he walks away from the blaze, more determined than ever to recruit Paul to the dwindling ranks of the Angelics.
Unfortunately, although more of the Fades are now so narked off with being dead but still hanging around this mortal coil that they’ve become solid and developed a taste for human flesh, Paul is more interested in Jay and having whatever passes for an ordinary life.
A trip through a series of horror film staples – disused mental hospital: check; water on floor: check; doors slamming spookily: check – to meet Eric, the oldest surviving Angelic, only makes him more convinced than ever that he doesn’t want to get involved in a battle for the future of the human race.
This is a big disappointment, because it means seeing more of the barely likeable and even less believable characters of the show. Paul’s sister Anna remains a pouting, potty-mouthed princess, bitching about the cancellation of the school ball when two younger schoolboys are brutally murdered. The deaths of the boys and their subsequent hanging and cannibalisation by the Fades is gruesome but gripping – the scene where one goes to fetch a lost football and all that returns is the ball, deflated and bloodied, is a wonderfully eerie moment – yet some of the sting is drawn by the subsequent teenage tantrums and the realisation that, with the exception of Paul himself, none of the other teens are particularly well-drawn, either.
Mac’s endless referencing of sci-fi films and sexual statistics has quickly become grating and Jay, despite the potential to still be interesting, has become a dull stereotype of a girl conflicted between her need for popularity and her attraction to the shy, self-conscious would-be saviour of the world. Her dismal self-explanation, ‘There are two versions of me: one that hangs around with Anna and enjoys being popular, and one that… likes you,’ is so Glee-ish it ought to lead into a song.
And yet, there’s still hope for them, if not for the human race at the hands of the Fades. Mac finally displays a sensitive, more reflective side when he is manhandled by his angry father and Paul uses his developing Angelic powers to heal him. Later, after seeing Paul and Jay kissing, he shuffles off, drunk and depressed. It’s as refreshing a change to see a more vulnerable side to his personality as it is to hear Jay quip to Paul, pre-snog: ‘I don’t know who Alan Moore is; you don’t know what “going somewhere private” means. I guess that makes us evens.’
Then Neil gets led away by Natalie, the Fade who’d be foxy if she just cleaned a bit of the grime off and got some new contact lenses, and is attacked by the rest of the shiny-eyed, unascended horrors – just as Paul decides he can balance saving the world with snogging Jay, after all. If Neil is dead, what will our ill-at-ease knight in purple trousers and cardigan do without his mentor? Will Mac ever get the sex he so desperately craves?
Perhaps his shag-the-pain-away teacher Mark can assist in this department: despite grieving the disappearance of Sarah, he still hooks up with the girl he tried to crack on with last week and seals the deal – while his dead, Angelic wife watches sadly from the corner of the room. It’s an unexpectedly melancholy scene that’s worth ten of every time Anna spits ‘Wanker!’ or ‘Retard!’
More of the former and less of the latter will provide a much more suitable counterpoint to the paranormal parts of The Fades and ease the pangs of its painful yet promising birth.
Aired at 9pm on Wednesday 28th September 2011 on BBC Three.
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