Review of Cold Feet: The Complete Third Series

Introduction

It`s time for series 3 of ITV`s popular middle-class Mancunian comedy drama, and seeing as this has become extremely popular, Granada have added two more episodes taking it up to eight. Will this dilute the series into mere averageness? I thought six good shows in each of the previous two series was good enough, so how will series three fare?

Quick recap: Karen became pregnant, Adam and Rachel are back together, Pete and Jenny are now separated. Got it?

Episode Summary:

• Episode 1: Karen gives birth to twins, Pete (Dave Thomson) and Jenny (Fay Ripley) are separated and with Pete staying at Adam and Rachel`s and he`s starting to grate on their nerves. Now that David (Robert Bathurst) and Karen (Hermione Norris)have newly born girls, their eldest son Joshua is getting a bit jealous and tries to do something...So Adam (James Nesbitt) and Rachel (Helen Baxendale) reluctantly let Joshua stay with them for a couple of days and it doesn`t prove easy. Karen`s mother comes to stay, Jenny starts to find work, and Pete is trying hard to get back together with his wife.

• Episode 2: Jenny meets an entrepreneur, Robert, at David`s dinner party and is pursued by the hot beau. Adam kicks Pete out of his house and he`s forced to find himself a flat. David and Karen have a problem in the community and David steps up to bat for the Residents` Association. Rachel and Adam decide they want a family while things heat up between Jenny and her new boyfriend Robert thus infuriating Pete.

• Episode 3: David is approaching his 40th birthday and decides to have a funky party to celebrate `being a man`, Pete chats up David`s nanny, Ramona (Jacey Salles), and Karen isn`t getting along with her mother who has revealed that she`s left her husband and just wants to have some fun. David`s birthday party is a success though Pete with his new girlfriend drives estranged wife Jenny a little bit barmy when they take the dance floor and salsa with style. David is increasingly attracted to Jessica, one of the women spearheading the residents` association campaign against land redevelopment, and finds himself increasingly distracted.

• Episode 4: Pete is asked by his gay landlord if he could stand in as goalie in his 5-aside since the goalie`s out of action. Pete and Ramona are going out and guess what she wants to do? Watch him play goalie...David continues to fantasise about the lovely Jessica while Jenny and Robert get more serious and things aren`t going well with Adam and Rachel`s family making plans which causes problems.

• Episode 5: Adam and Rachel have an announcement to make, Pete gets into online chats and David has a barney about the vet bill for the rabbits that are overrunning his home. Someone from Karen`s past enters the scene, Rachel and Adam discuss their sudden willingness to get married and Pete meets a woman in an online chatroom and arranges a meeting. David, the dark horse has a liaison with the sensual Jessica and Jenny can`t keep down a job.

• Episode 6: Time for the pre-marital stag/hen celebrations. The boys get together and go to Ireland getting a tour of Adam`s hotspots, while the girls go to a health farm and end up playing `truth or dare`... Adam meets once more with the first love of his life while the girls at the health farm aren`t getting on. A truth about the past has come out and it shatters the mood putting the wedding in jeopardy.

• Episode 7: Time for wedding preparations and it`s not easy going in the slightest. Pete has started dating a teacher, Emma, and is completely smitten with her. David can`t seem to get Jessica out of his system, despite Pete finding out about her and confronting him. Karen gets arrested and confesses to David about her boredom, Jenny is single again and breaks down when Pete visits, and Adam and Rachel`s on off wedding plans are on again.

• Episode 8: Adam and Rachel`s big day finally arrives. To put a downer on events, Robert (Jenny`s ex-boyfriend) comes by to get his stuff and imparts that her friends are hyposcrites by letting it be known that David is having an affair with Jessica. Jenny tells Rachel and Rachel confronts David about it. Pete`s best-man speech is something to remember at the wedding reception and this is against the backdrop of David and his increasing guilt over what happened with Jessica.

Video

Presented with a 1.78:1 anamorphic video transfer, Cold Feet finally goes widescreen and it`s good. Colours, contrast and balance are solid and the image remains clean and detailed without any digital artefacts cropping up. It`s a testament to the lighting crew and cinematographer and is quite an improvement on the previous fullscreen transfers.

Audio

Just plain old Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded Dolby Surround. Cold Feet is pretty much dialogue driven, so the dialogue can be heard clearly from the front and sounds quite clear. Subtle if little use of the surrounds though.

Features

Granada have yet again pushed the boat out when it comes to providing average extras.

Disc one:
• Behind the Scenes (15 mins) - A short featurette on Cold Feet backstage. This is good, but too short at just 15 minutes. Double it at least next time, please!

Disc two:
• Photo Album - 10 colour stills of the cast. Poor.

Another series, and yet another DVD without subtitles. I don`t understand the mentality that puts subtitles on television, yet skimps on a useful feature for DVD. I`m sure there are some out there that would appreciate it. I was expecting extras that would be at least on par with series two but unfortunately there`s less here. It`s plainly average.

Conclusion

I`m now three quarters through my Cold Feet marathon session, catching up on all four series in less than a week, and I have to say it`s been entertaining. New haircuts, new cars, and new storylines too. You`d think that the producers might sneak in and recycle stuff from previous episodes, but there`s none of that here. It`s still fresh, and now in anamorphic widescreen it looks fresh too.

The children are older, and I certainly get the sense that I`ve aged with the cast, especially with all the events that take place. The concern I had with the writing has been quashed since there`s no letting up on the quality assurance. There`s another writer now in addition to Mike Bullen, David Nicholls, and even though they`re not writing episodes together, Cold Feet still proves to be consistently funny and poignant.

Added to the fact that the video transfer has improved by going anamorphic, Cold Feet has shown once again why it remains one of ITV`s flagship dramas. People still ask, after my ramblings, if it`s like Friends. All I can say is that I used to like Friends when it was funny. Cold Feet on the other hand makes me laugh, and it takes a lot to do that in the first place. It`s the stories that most will identify with and being grounded in realism has proven to be a key point.

The whole dysfunctional theme is very apparent. Couples splitting then getting back together, extra-marital `liaisons`, domestic bliss (or not) and a whole range of issues from deciding to get married, to trying to elevate yourself out of routine and get something interesting to happen, to dealing with the vet. This third series is noticeable for having a bit more colour in the storylines adding, dare I say, maturity. We`ve already established patterns that are quite common in the previous series, now the characters are getting older and the addition of another screen writer has made a difference.

Bad Points? To be honest, I can`t really fault the series itself. Each episode is only about 50 minutes long so it`s neither too short nor too long. Characters are well developed and there`s an almost seamless continuation from series to series. Almost. There are some minor gaps in the storyline from the last series that you have to take for granted. For example, Pete and Jenny no longer living together at the start of series three, when it was touch and go at the end of series two and we don`t get to see the breakdown. Or the news of Karen`s pregnancy at the end of the last series, and just having twins here. These are just minor niggles and don`t impact on the way things happen. On the other hand, perhaps we really don`t need all that exposition anyway.

All in all, series three is a must have for those that enjoy the series, and for those that aren`t sure, check out my reviews of series one and two and see if it makes you change your mind. Recommended.