Day Two Hundred and Sixty-eight - Land Girls, Episode 1, "Classism, racism, upstairs, downstairs, blimey... what a mess."

It appears, due to the fact that I have watched and enjoyed Call the Midwife, that I'm to be suggested every period BBC series in existence. There's Foyle's War, Bomb Girls, and now... Land Girls.

It's not so bad, really, the suggestions or the show, but the former can get tiresome when you're looking for variety and the latter? Well, let's just say that Land Girls doesn't exactly start with a quality flourish. About the only thing that seems to sit well are the music and the costumes.

For one thing, there's the forced conflict over the racism angle as one of the leads almost instantly befriends some African-American soldiers only to constantly get them in trouble with the racist sergeant who dutifully enforces the segregation codes... even though they're in rural England and it's horribly wrong, no matter how historically accurate. It just feels like it's played for cheap points.

Then there's the same girl who manages to get sweet-talked into dropping her knickers to the very GI who ratted out her black friends to the MPs... and only comes to realize his duplicity when she sees him snogging another pretty young thing.

Moving onto another annoying character, there's the sophisticated priss who not only complains about every single aspect of farm life in the Women's Land Army, but manages to begin tempting the Lord of the Manor into possible wickedness, much to the dismay of the prim and proper Lady Hoxley.

Oiy ve... save me from forced melodrama.

I think what bothers me the most is the sheer obvious ploy that the lusty GI throws in the path of young Bea and the sweet nothings he whispers to have his way with her... and how she's instantly preggers because of it.

On the whole, Land Girls is nowhere near the quality of Call the Midwife... be it in story, dialogue, character, or structure. I mean, seriously, they end on a cliffhanger that isn't even resolved on the next episode (I watched the first five minutes), but don't mind the showrunners as they charge right into another cheap crisis.

I think I'll give it one more episode to shape up, but I can't rightly say that I'm happy with the series so far... aside from the wonderful soundtrack that has me wishing I was playing Fallout 3 or New Vegas instead of watching four vulnerable stereotypes be taken advantage of by the Gentry, the Americans, and each other.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~