Cracked

I don't need to be Miami Viced with flashy cars and stubbly studs, nor do I need to be blown away with mind boggling scientific 3D visualizations, nor do I need to be cajoled into mirth by quirky hipster references. And this show is none of that.

Appreciating acting is subjective for the most part, although 'bad acting' is obvious and painful to watch. I've seen complaints that the acting is bad, but I personally found myself rapt and engaged by these people, who I might add, I haven't been overexposed to and so I'm not distracted by previous characters they've played. This helps I suppose.

It doesn't even feel particularly Canadian to me, which is a testament since I can usually spot it instantly. Looks like they are finally braving some new attitudes in camera/lighting techniques up here.

Overall, I am looking forward to some more thorough fleshing of the main characters (and I don't mean gratuitous sex, save that for season two)

Perhaps they will dare to broach the mental health issues rampant in the Business/Corporate world (ie: sociopaths et al). I'd like to see that.

Well being especially mental health is a difficult subject to build a TV show on - it relies on the main characters being liked enough by the viewer to be entertained. In this regard Cracked has done very well. The main character has to be cracked but competent and the characters around him have to be empathetic or there is no reason to keep main character. Also even though some of the subjects each week are not flattering we must empathise with their problems. Thus Cracked has done very well - this can only be accomplished by good acting and good storytelling. Overall the series has accomplished a lot but now the interplay between the characters has to drive the story and hopefully see the problems that materialize.

I have just started watching the show today, and I have to say, it's a new thing. The show has the suspense and also the drama. I was literally holding on to my pillow as I watched this show, trying not to miss even the tinniest details. This show doesn't contain a lot of action, although enough action for a Wednesday night. The choice of the actors and actresses is amazing, and the cast does a great job following the role of each character. Although,I was just frustrated by the commercials, because I just couldn't wait to continue watching! Really, a must watch. This new series defiantly has me hooked. CBC @9:00 pm every Wednesday!

Detective Aidan Black (David Sutcliffe) suffers from PTSD after a clean fatal shooting of a child. He's assigned in the new Psych Crimes and Crisis Unit. He is forced to be partnered with psychiatrist Dr. Ridley (Stefanie von Pfetten) to investigate crime involving the mentally disturbed. It's a partnership without trust as Ridley is also asked if Aidan is cracked.

It's an intriguing new take on an old police procedural. I can certainly see an American show taking elements from this show. David Sutcliffe is a pretty good lead actor. Stefanie von Pfetten gives the show balance but sadly she doesn't return for the second season. The producers probably hoped to be picked up in America but that didn't take off. It was going downhill in the second season anyways.

The First season of CRACKED had the promise of being something TRULY GREAT and the first of its kind on Canadian TV. The Second Season... not so much...

What I originally loved about the first season the most was how it dealt (almost) unflinchingly with issues of mental illness in an even-handed or even gentle way. Unlike "Law and Order" where the mentally ill are "hooped up" or "generically crazy" or in shows like "Criminal Minds" where mental illness is directly associated with being a super-villain, each of the guest characters is a fully-developed person off the street with a name, life, and profession who is then performed by a great guest-actor giving a frighteningly real depiction of what real mental illness looks like.

Its rare that ANY television show has made me care so much for ALL of its characters. Even the weekly antagonist. I use "antagonist" consciously because originally there were no "villains" in the show at all, just people with the sorts of medical problems that are sadly often found at or near the scene of a violent crime. And at the end of every episode as the dust settles the audience is left just hoping that EVERY character is going to be "okay" at the start of next week's episode. Especially the ones who wake up in hospital about to be told what they'd done...

As someone living with bipolar disorder myself, I can vouch for the accuracy of the portrayals what living with the condition is like in episodes 2 and 7 of the first season. I have been frighteningly near places at like that many times myself and I can hardly imagine being a lawyer or a famous musician on tour on top of it. My own experience with hospitalization, diagnosis, medications and the never-ending battle to realize when and how my thinking is being distorted from within...

...what you see on the screen is all true. That's the most frightening part. The show may be scripted but the diseases and disorders are portrayed true-to-life with honestly NO exaggeration for dramatic purposes I can detect. There are people with mental illness that extreme, and probably even worse.

There are people living with disorders and living through events like what you see in this show, and police and mental health professionals dealing with these exact situations EVERY DAY in cities around the world. With 1 in 6 people suffering from mental illness in Canada, this show represents a conversation we need to have in this country, and around the world, about mental illness.

...And then there was Season 2.

I had sincerely hoped that as the show wore on there would be increased mention of the shortage of beds, three-month wait times for intake appointments to outpatient programs, psychiatrists with literally hundreds of patients and more than a few relapses and returns of characters we'd seen before as the overburdened system revolving-doors patients who don't seek help on their own.

No such luck.

At least in part due to the departure of series co-creator Tracy Forbes and an inter-season power grab by series lead David Sutcliffe, the show watered down the groundbreaking aspects of the series in favour of a more "traditional" police procedural format that focused on the cops, and reduced the "ill" back into the "generically crazy" ghetto. The guest characters became rote and forgettable, the writing and acting (generally) became weaker and more clichéd over time. Essentially everything I happened to love about the show has fallen through the Cracks as of the end of Season 2.

That said, check out the show for yourself and see what you think. This series started out as something too good to miss. I hope it can be so again.