What is it with TV shows sexing up London all of a sudden? When I was a larval queen, turning on the TV for images of the ‘Seat of the Empire’ you’d be elbow deep in Wombles, Cybermen and Goodies – nothing sexy about them at all (if you are having sexual thoughts about Wombles – please seek help immediately). But now you can’t turn on the Beeb (or its Antipodean Auntie) without being bombarded with Liverpudlian Lotharios, Shropshire Sapphics and Manchester Metros. Hetero, Homo, Kinks, Vanilla, SKINS, SHAMELESS – the British are Coming, all right. Well, now yet another show has decided to fly in the face of the old maxim ‘No Sex Please, We’re British’ – so strap on your Wellies, grab your favourite crumpet and don’t think about why the Blood Pudding is so salty as we slip between the pages – and sheets – of the sex magazine trade and editorialize on SINCHRONICITY (SBS, Mondays, 10pm).
SINCHRONICTY is a quirky six part UK production set around the office of a women’s erotic magazine (think Cosmo with nothing but the sealed section) in which the tired two-guys-friends-caught-when-one-of-them-falls-in-love-with-the-other’s-girlfriend sub-genre is given a most welcome shot in the arm (amongst other areas).
Nathan (Paul Chequer) works as a sex columnist for the magazine, and though kind of weird looking and short, is still oddly attractive to women (aka SEINFELD Syndrome). He also serves as the series’ omnipotent narrator, frequently breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience about his problems. Main problem is that he’s fallen in love with his best mate Jase’s (Daniel Percival) girlfriend, Fi (Jemima Rooper, who should be cast in something as a vampire ASAP), and she’s in love with him. Fairly standard ‘two male friends divided’ plotline so far, but things have a (pink) spanner thrown in the works when, just after Fi overlooks Nathan’s raging case of SEINFELD-Syndrome long enough to give him a (surprisingly explicit) rodgering, Jason confides in his duplicitous buddy that he doesn’t know if he’s ever loved Fi, and that he’s done some cheating of his own – with another guy! We then flashback to the events of the day as told from Jase’s perspective rather than Nathan’s and we meet Mani (Navin Chowdry) – a seriously hot gay doctor, who we find out has some (again, uncommonly explicit) hot man on man action with Jase whilst Nathan is two-timing his friend with Fi as well as being chased by a double-vagina-ed lass, who wants to ‘two-time’ Nathan in a whole other sense.
This is a clever, witty series with some intriguing characters – Nathan alas, isn’t one of them, he’s kind of an annoying little git really, but hunky Jase’s budding sexual awakening is compelling. There’s also a great trans* character working with Nathan (Fay, played by John Sheahan) and Camille Coudori – fresh from stealing every DOCTOR WHO scene not nailed down as Rose’s mom Jackie Tyler – plays Peggy, the magazine editor who, well… steals every scene not nailed down.
Hot guys, Hot Girls, Quirky Writing, and a whole bunch of Sexual Experimentation – Sinchronise your viewing schedules!
