I was once told that the opening paragraph of an article will tell you all you need to know about what you are about to read. And I would think the same could be said about watching a television program? The first five or ten minutes sets the feel and tone for a show, hooks the unsure viewer in. If that is the case then the first five minutes of BBC Three's Lip Service certainly made clear what the show was about...lesbians.
The first episode starts with two girls ripping each other's clothes off in a New York apartment (one being main character, bad girl photographer Frankie). From the opening scene it is clear that there will be no caution in covering what is still strangely some-what of a taboo subject on British TV.
But as the hour-long outing continued I realised that there was nothing else beyond the fact that it was a show about twenty-something lesbians living in Glasgow. The characters and their stories seem to be dominated too much by their sexuality, the conversation stuttered in between the sex scenes.
One scene in particular where Frankie (Ruta Gedmintas) and a funeral director secretary have sex in a morgue in front on a dead body seemed to be suddenly thrust upon the viewers at home and Frankie's ex Cat (Laura Fraser) who walked in on them.
Maybe after all the creator of Lip Service was too conscious that they were making a risque, bold and in-some-ways groundbreaking drama?
But this was only episode one of this six-part drama. Opening episodes are often used to set the tone, introduce the characters and what they are about.
After last night's episode no one can have any doubts about what Lip Service is about but hopefully the characters and their relationships can be explored further in the next five showings.
Picture from The Guardian
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