*headdesk*

[jadesfire]

Dear ITV,

Lewis is not a patch on Morse, I'm afraid, although it's a harmless way to spend a couple of hours. The other half and I greatly enjoyed location spotting and were impressed with how the characters could walk into one building and suddenly appear somewhere completely different. We also loved loved loved seeing our college on the screen looking all pretty (the one with the pelican sundial and all the scaffolding).

However. Why on earth were the students wearing gowns to their classes? I can forgive you for giving Oxford a college of art (although what was wrong with the Ruskin school? the building's much prettier than the shiny glass building you filmed in). I can forgive you for the Bodleian lady's horrible badge (they have nice little blue ones that bear a closer resemblance to John Lewis staff lapel pins than huge plastic badges like you see conference goers wearing).

But as far as I know, no Oxford student has to wear a gown to their class, and certainly not over street clothes. That's just plain wrong. Oxford may be more or less stuck in the Middle Ages for some things but this is not one of them. Please try to do better next time.

Otherwise, Oxford looked very pretty, so thank you for that. Location spotting is my new official hobby.

Thanks
Me.


My real problem with this episode was the character Philip. I'm not an expert, and my problem wasn't with the acting, since I have no idea how good or bad that was. I didn't even have a problem with Lewis not quite understanding Philip, and I thought the way Hathaway handled it was really good. My problem was that Lewis talks to his friend about his concerns - "is Philip autistic? what does that mean?" - and his friend admits she's not an expert. So...Lewis just keeps going with his investigation regardless. Now, as I said, I'm not an expert, but shouldn't Lewis have gone to one? Everyone just kept talking about how Philip was 'special' or 'weird' or not quite connecting to the real world.

Fine, okay, and you handled it more sensitively than most TV shows manage, but I found it beyond belief that there wasn't a psychologist or someone to give a more considered professional opinion. More to the point, I found it unbelievable that Lewis wouldn't have gone in search of one, especially in relation to his key witness. The word 'autistic' was just kind of left hanging in the air, as though that explained everything about him, which for a reasonably intelligent programme was disappointing. It could have been put in the script without harming the plot or the character, but they seem to have chosen to just duck the issue. Which I found...irritating.

*climbs off soapbox*

Comments

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

But as far as I know, no Oxford student has to wear a gown to their class, and certainly not over street clothes. That's just plain wrong. Oxford may be more or less stuck in the Middle Ages for some things but this is not one of them. Please try to do better next time.

Certainly not these days... I was up from 1977 to 1980, and only Hugh Trevor-Roper demanded the wearing of gowns back then...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think technically our lecturers at the Exam Schools were supposed to wear them, although only a few did. At Corpus, we didn't even have to wear them for Formal Hall (although I think they do at ChCh). It just makes me cross, that they get such a silly detail wrong.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Location-spotting is hours of fun, particularly when the characters develop matter-transference abilities :)

I hate it when TV shows mention an issue in passing, but then don't properly deal with it. The autism thing sounds like it could have been dealt with in a sentence - 'oh, I spoke to Dr So-and-so, and she says blah' would have done, surely?

I haven't watched Lewis, but I may give it a whirl. ITV dramas usually leave me feeling a bit like I need a wash, which is why I've avoided it, but I did used to love Morse...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

The matter-transference is highly entertaining, particularly when they walk through a doorway in Oxford and end up in Cambridge!

The autism mention was annoying because it was such a simple fix, as you say. There was no need to try and get the complexities across, but it left the watcher with the vague impression that anyone who was a bit weird could be described as autistic, or that autism was just about being a bit weird. It was...irritating.

As I say, Lewis wasn't a patch on Morse, and I really shouldn't have bothered staying up for 2 hours to watch it, but I got into the location spotting and couldn't stop...

[(Anonymous)]

In response to the comments about the show's handling of the autistic character (who's acting I thought was superb - incredibly well judged), I thought you might like to read this that I've copied and pasted from a website about Child Therapy and Mental Health. It is designed for counsellors of children and young people. The article is called "Three Cheers For Hathaway" and I thought it was really interesting.

"I was really moved last night watching the ITV drama Lewis. Not because I could follow the ins and outs of the crime story any better than usual, but because the portrayal of one of the university students who was “different” was the first in recent months where I have seen the writer depict what we’d like to be happening rather than what is happening. Let me explain.

The student was not responding to emotional cues in perhaps the way most people might. The author Alan Plater scripted words for Sgt Hathaway (played by Laurence Fox) and DI Lewis (Kevin Whately) that resulted in them musing with their colleagues about autism. I think most therapists would agree with the sane advice they received from their pathologist: that labels aren’t always useful – they make it easier in some ways but often lead to potentially useful information being lost. That was a good start and I pricked up my ears.

The very best bit came in the second half, with the gentle sensitivity and respect shown to the student by Sgt Hathaway – heart-tugging in the extreme. It contrasted with the more crude comments from the student’s housemates, and made me wish that such decent treatment of the more unusual people in our world was the norm rather than the exception. Sometimes, that is the most valuable thing we can offer our clients.

TV, in its aim to be relevant, normally shows life in its ugly rawness on street corners and playgrounds (stigma, isolation, rejection, cruelty). In Lewis, people in authority modelled how to treat someone who is perceived to be different (on the autistic spectrum, possibly with Asperger syndrome) as an acceptable human being, recognising unique skills and abilities, yet without pretending there are no vulnerablities. That’s why I say three cheers for Hathaway and ITV. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It gives me hope. I nearly forgot they were acting."

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* I thought the acting was superb, and the way Hathaway and Philip interacted was excellent. It's good to hear from people who know about these things that it was an accurate and sensitive portrayal.

I still would have liked more explanation though. When confronted wtih someone who he's not sure how to relate to, I would have liked to have seen Lewis go to an expert, rather than someone who says she doesn't know much about it. It wouldn't have needed much, but it felt like a plot hole to me.

Still, it's good to know that there was something good on TV for once!