Every once in a while the children's arm of the BBC comes up with a show that really should stretch across from being on its children's channels and up it to a family drama.
Rocket's Island is the story of a family who work and live in a fairly rural area that's officially described as an island. Over the course of the series they take in various foster kids, each with their own quirks, tendencies and issues. It is suggested in the story-line that they've fostered more kids than you reading this have had hot dinners, for each foster kid gets a memento to their name in the family's Wish Cave.
Screen wise, the idea of fostering is pretty much without doubt a plot device used to hire and fire the foster characters based on the quirks, tendencies and issues they've been given by the writers, and how they deal with them. Sometimes the kids are replaced, or just get shipped off in the back of the social worker's car.
So we have a normal character staple set - a set of parents who conveniently, only pay attention to anything their kids and foster kids get up to when the activity comes back to bite them on the arse, and the main character Rocket, a young boy who can't be any older than about 12 who pretty much believes anything mystical. There's also Rocket's best friend, who he falls out with in pretty much every episode before making up with him later and also the weird granddad who claims to be 997 years old and has all these kids eating out of the palm of his hand with his stories.
For a show that is driven the way it is, the child characters are not annoying, not one of them, and even when they are it's down to a character trait or immaturity on their part. Most of the acting is pretty good, but even then there's plenty to look at past that, lots of shots of open green areas, rocks in the sea, the under cave areas, the exteriors you can see through windows - this is all a visual treat.
The writing of the show is methodical and only slightly formulaic; there are themes and thoughts that run through each series but the various methodical beliefs tend to be self contained. One episode focused on mermaids; they were never seen or mentioned again for the rest of the show. That aside, it's straight down to earth writing, stays on track and where it does drift is purely for story reasons. You believe in the characters; their back-stories, their wants, their notions; their decisions. All from the writing. I believe a key writer on this production used to write for Brookside in its dying years; you'd never have guessed.
This is a very good drama that's now entered (and subsequently finished) its third series. Very well recommended. Ignore the fact its aimed at children; it's quite watchable by anybody.
Rocket's Island is the story of a family who work and live in a fairly rural area that's officially described as an island. Over the course of the series they take in various foster kids, each with their own quirks, tendencies and issues. It is suggested in the story-line that they've fostered more kids than you reading this have had hot dinners, for each foster kid gets a memento to their name in the family's Wish Cave.
Screen wise, the idea of fostering is pretty much without doubt a plot device used to hire and fire the foster characters based on the quirks, tendencies and issues they've been given by the writers, and how they deal with them. Sometimes the kids are replaced, or just get shipped off in the back of the social worker's car.
So we have a normal character staple set - a set of parents who conveniently, only pay attention to anything their kids and foster kids get up to when the activity comes back to bite them on the arse, and the main character Rocket, a young boy who can't be any older than about 12 who pretty much believes anything mystical. There's also Rocket's best friend, who he falls out with in pretty much every episode before making up with him later and also the weird granddad who claims to be 997 years old and has all these kids eating out of the palm of his hand with his stories.
For a show that is driven the way it is, the child characters are not annoying, not one of them, and even when they are it's down to a character trait or immaturity on their part. Most of the acting is pretty good, but even then there's plenty to look at past that, lots of shots of open green areas, rocks in the sea, the under cave areas, the exteriors you can see through windows - this is all a visual treat.
The writing of the show is methodical and only slightly formulaic; there are themes and thoughts that run through each series but the various methodical beliefs tend to be self contained. One episode focused on mermaids; they were never seen or mentioned again for the rest of the show. That aside, it's straight down to earth writing, stays on track and where it does drift is purely for story reasons. You believe in the characters; their back-stories, their wants, their notions; their decisions. All from the writing. I believe a key writer on this production used to write for Brookside in its dying years; you'd never have guessed.
This is a very good drama that's now entered (and subsequently finished) its third series. Very well recommended. Ignore the fact its aimed at children; it's quite watchable by anybody.
