Review of Cold Feet: The Complete Second Series

Introduction

Here we are with another series of Cold Feet, series two, complete with a few new hair cuts.

Quick recap: On the last episode of series one: Adam (James Nesbitt) makes the biggest committment of his life once he finds out Rachel (Helen Baxendale) is pregnant. Things aren`t what they seem however and Rachel`s uncertainty leads to a confession to Adam involving her ex-husband. Adam and Rachel are apart and distraught by events which leads to Rachel leaving Manchester to get her head together. On to series two.

Episode Summary:

• Episode 1: Six months after series one closed and Adam is going ever so slightly mad by fantasising about his future child and what she does for a living when she grows up. There`s no news about Rachel and the baby at the moment though. Meanwhile Pete (John Thomson) sets Adam up with a single woman he knows, Amy, from work. Jenny (Fay Ripley) is becoming more distracted and has her own fantasisies while high flyer David (Robert Bathurst) has to come to terms with his redundancy. Rachel sports a new hair do and comes back to Manchester. Tensions are starting to run high and Jenny drops a bombshell on her husband Pete.

• Episode 2: The cracks are starting to show in Pete and Jenny`s marriage and things are getting strained. Jenny is increasingly attracted to Pete`s best friend, Adam... David meanwhile has more time on his hands since being made redundant and decides to spend more time with his family. Pete snoops on Jenny`s diary to find out what`s going on and gets hit by the truth about his wife and his best friend. Adam tries to dump Amy, but it doesn`t sink in to her skull and she`s persistent about him which gets him into further bother with the ladies.

• Episode 3: Rachel starts back at her old job, Pete and Jenny are no longer talking to one another and sleep in separate rooms and Adam has a go at placing a personal ad. Amy seems to be off Adam now and finds solace in talking to Pete, and the feeling`s mutual. David is headhunted by his old boss, Rachel, now in her new job starts dating Danny who works for her and Pete and Jenny start talking again. Pete goes off on an outward bounds course for the weekend with work and Amy goes too.

• Episode 4: Ever been to a school reunion, when you`re thirtysomething? Pete and Adam are invited to, "catch up with old friends", and dread the prospect. Pete and Amy are up to "something" together and he makes excuses to Jenny about working late at the office. Jenny is fed up hanging out with conceited people she thought were her friends, and she decides to change. Adam and Rachel decide to be just good friends, and Jenny and Pete come to blows over his infidelity.

• Episode 5: David`s younger brother Nick comes to stay, Pete and Jenny are living apart and Adam has a sports injury in the nether regions which leads to something more serious. David doesn`t get on with his brother and when Nick asks for a loan, David is loathe to help out. Rachel and Adam are working well together as friends, so well in fact that you can just `feel` that something else might happen between them.

• Episode 6: The last episode of the series, and what better way to spend it than seeing in the Millennium with your closest friends, and the nanny, in a rented castle? I mean, what out of the extraordinary things could possibly happen?

Video

Presented with a 4:3 fullframe, the video transfer is quite good. Colours, contrast and balance are good and the image remains clean and detailed without any digital artefacts cropping up. I have the feeling this was shot in widescreen though because the Dolby Surround logo disappears off the screen at the start. It`a a good transfer though.

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

Simple to navigate static menus where you can select an individual episode, or play all. There are three episodes per disc. Marginally better than average extras here, better than series one anyway.

Disc one:
• Photo Album - 20 colour stills of the cast. Average.

Disc two:
• On Location (31 mins) - At last, a decent little featurette type affair for Cold Feet. 31 minutes of behind the scenes, with the cast and crew including writer Mike Bullen. It`s interesting without the PR nonsense so usually associated with this type of little extra.

It should be noted that there are no subtitles whatsoever on the discs. Another strike against Granada .

Conclusion

Those of you that read my review for series one will know that I never watched this the fist time it went out, and I`ve only been a recent convert starting with the series one DVD. The cliffhanger from the last series certainly had me transfixed and I have to admit that I`ve enjoyed series two no less than the first. Just reading the episode summary gives you a pretty good idea of the ups and downs of all the characters, and there are no less things to screw people up.

Is the quality of the writing good? It gets better. I thought it was good in the first series which had me in stitches, and the second series just carries on. It`s well observed and easily accessible. I like Mike Bullen`s consistent writing style using the right balance of drama and comedy and further developing the characters. By this stage we`re more familiar and comfortable with the cast and setting, so it`s interesting to see where the storylines go.

Other comparable shows that feature late twentysomethings or thirtysomethings are too short, the longer episodes here in Cold Feet have more scope and definitely need it. In some ways Cold Feet reminds me of This Life. Oh dear, I think I`m turning into a bit of a Cold Feet junkie at the moment as I have series three and four just sitting on my desk…

Series two has been very entertaining and if you haven`t seen any Cold Feet, then what are you waiting for? Keep up and go get the first series. Like me, stop living in denial (not just a river in Egypt...), and accept that thirtysomething life is actually happening. Life and art, or something like that. Recommended.