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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 238229" data-attributes="member: 8">Footballer's Wives is such an unabashedly guilty pleasure, maybe because it's mostly cynical and satirical, and they want all the characters to look as bad and stupid and horny as possible.Yes, dear children, that was still quite a thing to behold in 2002, before the reality soaps & games took over and before random Z-listers managed to cultivate the "proud to be a stupid whore" imago - thus diminishing the "guilty" in our fictional guilty pleasures.There's little room for hope or redemption in FW, and any moment of doubt or inner conflict is immediately overshadowed by yet another plot twist or a shag on the kitchen sink.I think that's the main thing that sets it apart from the classic soap opera, but can we call it a soap opera when there's only 8 episodes per season? Is that very different from 13 episodes per season?But anyway, the fabulous Hazel Bailey (who looks like Cruella De Ville sans le fur) has arrived on the scene and she's been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.She's Jason Turner's new agent/watchdog because the conceited, past-his-glory-days loose cannon needs to be protected from himself.And of course it takes all kinds of trickery to keep him in the game.In a better written drama, Jason would have been a fascinating character but like I said, FW only scratches the surface and focuses on his outrageous behaviour.But still there's something very desirable about him - a man I'd hate to love, as it were - and that makes Tanya's position a bit more believable.Not that Tanya is all about love. She has invested in her footballer's wife career and expects something in return. She loves being the captain's wife and all the wealth and luxury that comes with it, and certain inconsistencies can be snorted away in the privacy of a toilet stall (but it doesn't become an addiction storyline).Ian Walmsley is the opposite of Jason: very ambitious and disciplined and he's still thinking about the game when he's having sex with his wife Donna.Again, the focus is on the mockery rather than the drama.That said, the actors play them with energy and enthusiasm (some better than others) and that gives it just enough gravitas.Julie Legrand is very good in her role of the compromised nurse Jeanette Dunkley.There's a super-fun twist when the wrong Mrs. Pascoe is being informed of her pregnancy which allows the writers to cook up a secret and dysfunctional solution.We don't get to see much of Kyle Pascoe or what this character is all about, he usually reacts to what his wife or mother says.But at the end of season 1 it's clear that he's teetering on the brink of something.The Walmsley kid has been kidnapped and something goes terribly wrong, and Frank Laslett finally remembers what happened on that fateful night.Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for the fabulous Turners. Roll on series 2.p.s. I noticed that the shower scene posted above was reused in another episode. The locker room butt shots are all exclusive because it happens in different scenes, but only the extras, not the actors. I'll keep my eyes peeled for any fakery or inconsistency.</blockquote>

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