In 2008 Gareth McLean in The Guardian asked if there was ‘a TV equivalent of difficult second album syndrome’?  He went on to confirm that indeed there was and cited a few examples to support his theory.  He was referring here of course to when a successful first series of a television programme, is then followed up by a lacklustre second effort.  In The Club has just had a bad case of ‘second series syndrome’ in my view.  Interesting characters and narrative in the first series were replaced mostly with blandness.  On the whole, I found this second helping of In The Club a pretty uninspiring effort I’m afraid!

The main problem I had with episode six(the series finale) was that I failed to find the main dramatic storyline, that dramatic or moving like I was meant too.  This episode centred around the tricky pregnancy of Jasmin(Taj Atwal) who finally went into labour.  Earlier in the series we had learned how one of her twins was smaller than the other and so there was chance it might not survive.  There was the ‘dramatic moment’ when upon examining Jasmin, midwife Vicky could not initially find the heartbeat of smaller baby number two.  Seconds later the tension was defused when it’s heartbeat was found. Rather than being moved by this though I thought it was all a bit overacted and a touch corny.

Still with this storyline of Jasmin and Dev, the next big momentous decision for her was when she decided that she would try and have both her twins via natural vaginal births(thank the Lord I’d recently given up ketchup as I ate a late tea ).  Again though, I thought the scene where Jasmin decided this with Dr Stone was very overdramatized.  Overdramatized and overacted to the extent that I failed to lose my suspension of disbelief, i.e it drew my attention to the fact that they were actresses ‘acting’.

Geraldine(midwife) : “C’mon Jasmin darling, nearly there.  That’s it KEEP PUSHING, KEEP PUSHING. Pretend you’re having a BIG POO”!

We then had the dramatic scene of where Jasmin gave birth to smaller twin baby number two.  My problem with this scene though and with such dialogue in the quote above that I have listed, is that I have now become fully desensitized from any sort of emotion when seeing babies born in TV dramas.   This is primarily because I have seen so many and particularly in this show.  The shock value has gone that much that I found this scene boring and unoriginal rather than being dramatic.  It reminded me of when I used to love that ITV drama about the London Fire Brigade called London’s Burning. Initially, them putting dangerous fires out was really dramatic stuff to watch.  Nevertheless, as time wore on the novelty wore off and it became dull as well as monotonous to watch. This is how I felt about watching babies being born by the end of the second series of In The Club.

I also had issues with the dialogue of Dev(Sacha Dhawan) in this episode.  I get that he is meant to be one of the funnier characters in the show however I found him mostly irritating here.  All this business about him nearly fainting in the delivery room, again it just smacked of unoriginality to me to do this same joke again(it was funnyish the first time but not the second).  I accept I did smirk at his inappropriate timing when he asked Jasmin did she want a snack just as she was about to deliver the baby.  This though was then followed by a corny comment by him as he stated it killed him once going for a poo.  Corny is definitely the best way that I would describe most of his dialogue in this episode.

The rest of episode six featured Kim stressing about leaving her baby at a nursery for the first time, Roanna stressing that she may have crippled Jonathan and also her stressing that her newly ex boyfriend Luke had just got her seventeen year old daughter pregnant.  There was also the revelation that Rosie had developed a social anxiety phobia about going outside.  I did wonder during this series if Kay Mellor had developed an anxiety disorder about having this character in the show anymore because compared to the first series, I found it somewhat puzzling that she hardly seemed to be in this second one at all.

I did not hate this second series because I watched all of it but like I said at the top, it just lacked the spark and originality of the first one for me.  Episode five was the strongest episode by a country mile.  This was the one where midwife Vicky was found not guilty of any negligence at work.  This happiness was juxtaposed by the dramatic ending as Roanna mistakenly knocked over Jonathan in her car   It was dramatic tense stuff which reminded me why I enjoyed the first series so much.  I therefore looked forward to seeing the series finale the week after, but rather than enjoyment I found it to be a bit of a letdown.

The best two characters and actors in this show were not in this second series enough.  My favourite female actress in it is Katherine Parkinson who plays blogger/teaching assistant Kim Hall.  She was in the first episode a lot but then hardly seemed to be in it much again until episode six.  Rick Manning played by Will Mellor is the best male character in it however yet again like Kim/Katherine I thought he was underused.  Rick had gone from doing a dramatic attempted robbery in the first series, to then just delivering pizzas in the second(I rest my case, your honour).

At the end of the first series of In The Club I was hoping it would be recommissioned and it duly was.  After now seeing this second series then my verdict is one of indifference with regards to wanting anymore of it to be made.  Since it finished I have read that writer Kay Mellor intends to leave it awhile should a third series be given the go ahead. She stated how the story could next be picked up when the characters children have just started at school.  I think this is the correct decision by her because at the moment BIRTHS AND BABIES on the TV equals BOREDOM for me! 3/5.