[DORAMA] Gokusen III leading in the ratings
May 23, 2008 by KNDY · Leave a Comment
In the latest Televiews column by Wm. Penn for the Daily Yomiuri, Penn wrote, “This week: the winners, the losers and the question marks on the horizon. TV viewers have voted with their remotes and chosen four winners from the spring season private network drama lineup. Meanwhile, the vast majority of spring offerings battle the single-digit ratings demons with scripts that are not really up to the challenge.”
“At present, the big winner is Gokusen III (Saturdays, 9 p.m., NTV) holding firm with Video Research Co. ratings of 25.1 percent, which is about as high as one can realistically hope to get anymore. Viewers have seen it all before–twice–but still can’t resist watching ratings queen Yukie Nakama vanquish her foes and turn her motley crew of students into happy high school grads.”
“The only challenge to Nakama’s supremacy comes from Takuya Kimura’s Change, which debuted with 23.8 percent ratings last week. That seems a little low for a Kimura extravaganza, but those figures should increase. Eri Fukatsu and Hiroshi Abe gave excellent performances and did most of the heavy lifting in Episode 1 as the script called for Kimura’s character to do little more than look disillusioned and disinterested.”
“But by Week 2, the Kimura sparkle returned as Asakura, dubbed the “kokkai oji” (the new young prince of the Diet), settles into his new job. He asks his savvy political secretary (Fukatsu) to explain everything to him in terms a fifth-year primary school student (and the rest of us) can understand, making the fast-moving script informative, clever and easy to follow.”
“By next week, Asakura should be taking over the prime ministership. The party elders, realizing his potential as a political panda who can enthrall the media, have decided the country can run on auto-pilot for three months. They’ll install Asakura, reestablish the party’s popularity with the electorate and then retake the position and power themselves in 90 days. But will Asakura really be such a pliable, political puppet?”
“The current public mood and political atmosphere are being skillfully conveyed in Change. With a fantastic supporting cast giving it their all, Episode 2 was a joy to watch and the first four-star effort I’ve seen in a long time.”
