Lip Service Review

• 2nd Oct 2010

Lip Service may have you turned on in those first 5 minutes but if you have an aversion to “gritty”, “modern”, “edgy” drama you may also have the strong urge to turn it off. The intelligent audience will automatically see that this drama starts by trying too damn hard. What was that you said? A cool new drama about the lesbian scene in Glasgow? It’s the new lesbian version of Queer as Folk? Well in that case I must demonstrate I am hip and cool and watch it.

Episode one will throw at you a lot of gratuitous sex scenes, that shaky camera style that is supposed to make you feel like you are a voyeur on other people’s lives, a hipster soundtrack and lots of pretty people. If that is your thing then you will have no problem immediately liking it. Myself, I tend to get irritated quickly by all cool and no interest. Fortunately I had to write a review of this show so stuck it out and despite being ready to write 500 words ripping the shit out of it I was surprised I ended up really quite liking it.

The show kicks off by bringing the rebellious, troubled one of a group of three female gay friends back to Glasgow. From here there is the typical love life plots, varying from promiscuous to cautious, meeting the nice girl to chasing the unavailable ones, drinking too much and casually taking part in drug use. True, very little of the plots are original nor that surprising and you will mostly know what is going to happen next if you are familiar with these types of shows but it still somehow ends up being very enjoyable to watch (and no this is not just because of the attractive women who keep getting naked). As with Queer as Folk once the show has stopped ramming down your throat (no innuendo intended) the fact we are watching sexual acts between women (shocking!) you relax into the show and can get to know the characters; Frankie, Cat and Tess. The actresses have done well making these girls so easy to watch and you are likely to find that whether your sexual preference is a firm six on the Kinsey scale, one that hangs around the three/four mark or a definite zero, you will still identify at least some of the situations they get into and root for them. The token male characters do have a whiff of the cliché but in a six part drama it can be forgiven when they are truly likeable characters to watch.

I’m in the camp that do love a well written drama about people of a similar age being screw ups, sure makes me feel better. Lip Service will provide just that. If you did enjoy, and possibly still repeat view, shows like This Life then give this one a try. The writer Harriet Braun has successfully written a script that throws in just enough cliché to make you believe these are believable conversations and situations (as much as we’d prefer not to admit who hasn’t uttered the phrase “are you calling me fat?”) and while there is going to be the typical media hype around the sexual content, I hope this series gets recognized for being more than just a scintillating watch. However, as this reviewer learnt you will need to get past that pretentious wank first…

Lauren Cracknell