Paul Casserly: Hard drugs and 'alf a pint

Actor Clive Owen stars in The Knick.

Paul Casserly takes a look at what's on the telly this week.

Murder, food preparation, sport, serial killers, home renovation, Harvey Norman ads, and drugs. I think that pretty much sums up what's on TV these days, although drugs are way down that list.

TV reflects our interests and our fears, and drugs get a tick in both those boxes. The depiction of drug taking has always challenged TV writers. Most opt simply for the shorthand of drug taking ending rather badly, the social scourge, the thing you don't want your kids to do.

One minute the character is snorting something, nek minute, dead. Positive stories, as comedian Bill Hicks has so aptly illustrated, are fewer and furtherer between.

A positive leaning highlight of recent times was provided when Madmen's Roger Sterling took some LSD. The old dog even had some rather insightful moments thanks to the drug. Despite it's 'A' classification, LSD, or acid, is seen in an almost positive light by TV makers. It's nostalgic. Marijuana is currently in the transition from drug to something closer to Sauvignon Blanc, even if our Police backed reality shows still like to portray it as societal kryptonite.

I got thinking about this recently while watching The Knick, the excellent series from Steven Soderbergh in which Clive Owen plays a doctor who makes House look like Dr Chris Warner. In the opening scenes we meet the hero in an opium den, and then moments later he is in the back of horse drawn cab shooting liquid cocaine into his foot. I won't spoil the end of the series, but there's a cute punch line to the drug theme that ties in nicely with one of the major themes of the show, namely the evolution of medical understanding.

Dr Thackery's dalliance with cocaine is a driving force for much of the action but the ill effects of his addiction are clearly and graphically illustrated. But opium, and the opium den, they get a different treatment. These dens are often portrayed in a positive light. Perhaps this because there are 'good' drugs and 'bad' drugs, in the same way we coddle some animals and elevate them to deities, (yes puss puss I'm talking about you) while we get all Gestapo on other beasts that we don't like the look of.

The Department of Conservation vs the opossum, is a case in point.

Opium, if The Knick (and most other shows) is to be believed, is a rather lovely smoky delight consumed in moody lighting. It seems like the sort of thing that Annabel Langbein could serve up in a cosy velvet cushioned nook in Wanaka. I'm sure the opium dens that used to line Grey's Ave in Auckland, or Haining Street in Wellington, were functional, but I doubt the clientele were tended to by topless oriental supermodels, as is the case in The Knick.

Jeffrey Tambor stars in Transparent.

Transparent, the compelling comedy from shopping website Amazon, which is screening on Lightbox, has a more modern view of drug taking. I recently wrote that I didn't intend to pay for the online service but was happy to sign on for the first month, which was free. But damn it, I missed the email from Lightbox telling me that I had to sign off before they pinged me $15 for another month. How I fumed, but before consulting legal council or composing a searing tweet, I logged on and decided to get my money's worth, and Transparent is worth every cent of that $15.

Its central appeal is that it possesses a naturalness that is a feature of all the best TV. It rings true, and it's funny as all get out. Jeffrey Tambor is magnificent as Mort, a pensioner who's wanted to live as a woman for most for his life, and is finally getting around to it. The family score high points on the dysfunctional scale, taking self-absorption to new heights. It's also home to one of the best drug addled scenes of recent times.

Gaby Hoffman, who made such a strong impression as Adam's crazy sister on Girls, plays Ali, Mort's wayward daughter, although everyone is pretty wayward in this show. In the scene in question she takes a pile of MDMA with her boyfriend and his male flatmate, in the hope of instigating a three-way sexual encounter, or "spit roast" as she explains to her shocked best friend. It's a scene that is as awkward and yet believable as anything you'll ever see, and which eventually sees her engaging in a conversation with a taxi driver that will have many wincing in shameful recognition.

Naturally, the drug which kills the most people, and causes the most damage, is generally treated as a bloody good time on TV. Yes there are those unfortunates who get addicted to the stuff and lose their shit, but booze flows on telly like a river about to burst its banks. Just as in the real world having a drink does not always end badly. Drug taking, on the other hand, is usually a sign, like a cough, that has an inevitable and grisly end.

I would suggest a drinking game that makes you down one every time someone has a pint, or a V&T, or a wine, on Coronation Street, but it wouldn't be responsible. On the upside, I doubt you'll last long enough to hear the guy from Harvey Norman shouting at you from the third ad break.

Stuff to watch this week:

• Fair Go Ad Awards, Monday 8pm, TV1. A bit like watching your drunk dad dancing at a wedding perhaps, but I like that sort of thing.

• The Fall, Monday, Soho, 8.30pm, series 2 of the utterly superb thriller with Gillian Anderson as an English detective on the trail of a right nasty piece of work played by Jamie Dornan.

• Neighbours At War, Tuesday, 10pm TV2. Trouble in Putaruru. Say no more.

• Intrepid NZ, Wednesday TV1, season finale of this rather impressive adventure/history mash up. This one retraces a 1954 river adventure in Karamea.

• Have I Got News For You, Sunday, 6.30pm UKTV, the original news based game-show that inspired 7 Days.

- nzherald.co.nz