NZ’s favourite show is back for season 2, which I wasn’t expecting since the season 1 finale seemed to have wrapped up all the storylines.
10/10 Season Two
The first episode was incredibly gripping, although I must admit I didn’t realise it was on until maybe 15 minutes after it started, but I caught up pretty quickly. So glad to see Super Star Dr. Ashley Bloomfield back, he’s really the main reason for watching after all.
Im looking forward to seeing how season 2 holds up against the fantastic first season and see how this storyline progresses.
2/10 Strong cast, little drama
It was the great Kurt Vonnegut who said “She was a tiny girl-a trinket brunette, very pretty, very pale, and hard as nails” in his book While Mortals Sleep – possibly the inspiration for the female lead in this ‘docudrama’. And while the casting is excellent (a bespectacled Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs fame as the sombre Dr Ashley Bloomfield was a brilliant choice), the plot really goes nowhere.
Every good story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even Groundhog Day eventually resolved, but 1pm Daily Update started feeling very ‘samey’ a few episodes in, and it didn’t improve.
I admit I gave up after a while and invested my screen time in the local Chamber of Commerce-produced series ‘How to use Zoom’, a Big Brother-esque piece of fluff that entertained without much need for serious thinking.
1pm Daily Update was innovative, I admit. It was the TV series that first introduced sign language experts to provide movement on the screen during the main characters’ lengthy wooden monologues. Without this many smart TVs would have turned themselves off to save power.
This series could be a life saver during a particularly cold Winter, but not a programme to snuggle to on a first date. I could be drawn back for second season though, with David Caruso lined up to play the inimitable Hon Chris Hipkins!
5/10 Will Crusher Collins make a bold appearance in Season Two?
Hoping that Series Two will be shorter this time as I really feel the first series dragged on way too long. But curious if Crusher Collins will make a guest appearance as a new villain. Ashley is still as hot as ever. Can the man be any more heroic? Feel its really time for this story to end.
10/10 Worth staying home for
Wherever I am, I always make sure to get home in time to watch this must-see TV in the comfort of my own takeaway boxes and empty bottles. The largely unknown cast have a bright future. Look out Hollywood, the Kiwis are coming!
10/10 Absolutely brilliant!
Season 1 was one hell of an emotional rollercoaster. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for season 2!
10/10 Who needs Black Mirror?
This debut series from little-known studio, Beehive, is an eerie pre-apocalyptic dystopia that depicts a country battling to save itself from a deadly virus ravaging the rest of the planet.
There have been several overseas adaptations which have failed miserably in comparison to New Zealand’s “1pm Daily Update”, most notably the daily-aired “Oval Eyes” from Washington-based production powerhouse White House Fiction, which was abruptly cancelled after the main protagonist was pulled from the show, presumably down to a casting error which still baffles audiences to this day.
Airing every weekday, each episode of “1pm Daily Update” is set in one room, with minimal set-dressing. Fans of classics such as 12 Angry Men and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight will appreciate the how the confines of the scene emphasise the drama that plays out.
The pilot episode aired with little fanfare, but Beehive’s breakout series has had domestic audiences gripped ever since – thanks in part for deploying a risky screenplay technique whereby the cliffhangers occur at the beginning rather than the end of each episode, with each opening scene providing the latest plot turn before the audience learns how the latest twist unfurled.
It’s this kind of subversion of the serial drama genre that has rightly won the show plaudits nationwide, not to mention the two main protagonists’ command of the screen who were rightly recast in a surprise second season.
The fact each episode is filmed in one take is often overlooked, and is a credit to the studio’s faith in its cast and production crew. Furthermore the mysterious host of characters behind the camera – who are only ever heard and not seen – has had audiences scrambling for months to figure out their identities, motives and relationships with the two main protagonists, and has ignited online discussion forums to levels not seen since the ill-fated Game of Thrones finale.
Unlike that show, audiences were happy with the conclusion of the first season of “1pm Daily Update” when it came to a close earlier this year.
Its sudden reintroduction to our screens is sure to have a nation gripped once again, but many have signalled it will be more uncomfortable viewing than the first season.