Class - Series 1 Recap

Class was nothing short of a surprise.  I honestly felt indifferent to the idea when this was first announced.  The idea of a whole show at Coal Hill just didn't appeal to me.  I liked the scenes there in the parent series during Series 8...but what I enjoyed was Clara and Danny. The students weren't that great. But what saved this show was aging up the characters at the newly updated Coal Hill, which is now an Academy instead of just a school, and making the show not so much about some school kids fighting monsters...about how the monsters are used to bring out the personal issues these teens are facing.  Because being a teenager sucks...I remember that I didn't enjoy my time as one too often...and you are growing up and learning who you will become, and learning to deal with problems not as a kid anymore but as an adult.  And this show manages to capture that very realistically in a very unreal kind of world.

I think the cast was pretty great, for such a young cast they managed to prove what tremendous actors they all are.  I have made no secret about how Quill was the weakest link of the bunch.  If she played mentor or authority figure in some way, he character might've worked. But she spends far too much of the series sneering and making snarky comments and generally just avoiding the rest of the cast, showing only annoyance for them when they are around. Every now and then she fought something. When she finally got a whole episode to herself, the writing pretty much squandered it by not really giving her much more depth than what we already knew. She is a warrior and a fighter. Just too one-dimensional.  Maybe if she becomes a little more entwined with the rest of the cast in any possible future series, and if she softens up a bit or her pregnancy somehow adds some depth to her character? She could be saved...so far she is just the weakest point.

But enough about Quill...the rest of the young cast was great, they did good work and played a great deal of emotions in every episode, showcasing a great cast of talent.  I am all for watching more adventures with this group.

I could see myself rewatching this show, much as I rewatched Torchwood.  I can't say I gave any revisits to Sarah Jane Adventures (and I enjoyed that show, it just didn't excite me enough to watch an episode a second time), and that is the biggest factor in this show's favor.  I could stick with it.

There were some nice threads left lingering and teasing us for another round, it would be a shame if it didn't come to fruition.  I honestly have no idea how well this show has done in terms of viewers...but in terms of creative success?  A surprise winner in my book.  It is too early to call it the best spin-off, but it might be the one that is off to the best start.  SJA had an half-way decent kids show beginning, but the lead of that first season was a weak link in the proceedings, and Torchwood's first season was pretty abysmal.  But As much as I enjoyed this first season of Class? It hasn't quite reached the same enjoyable heights of Torchwood's "Children of Earth" third series, and I am not even sure I had as much fun with this as I had during Torchwood's vastly better (than it's first) second series.  I won't even mention the K-9 series from Austrailia that I couldn't even stomach past a few episodes (I actually wrote reviews for those few episodes and just decided the show wasn't worth continuing with).

So Class is a winner, a good new spin-off from Doctor Who that nicely stands on it's own, but still feels like something of the bizarre universe that Who inhabits.  I am all for more. 

NEXT TIME: A Superhero in Doctor Who?