Posted: 10/18/2011

The Street: Complete Collection

by Amber Burnham

Now available from BFS Entertainment and Multimedia Limited

The Street: Complete Collection is an award winning drama series from the television screenwriter Jimmy McGovern (Cracker, Accused). The Street takes place along a townhouse lined street in Manchester, located in northern England. It is inhabited by normal working class families. Each episode examines the lives of these families behind their closed doors. There are tales of crime, poverty, addiction, unemployment, sexuality, along with family and friendships. The episodes will not fail to demand a lot from you as the viewer, even in some of the lighter ones.

The Street offers the complete package as a drama series. The performances, writing, and directing are all great. The stories and characters are written in challenging yet at times, brutally realistic manner. As the audience, you may not always agree with the direction in which a character or storyline is headed, you will not be able to step away from the show. This is not a drama for someone who is just looking for an easy viewing experience. The show will challenge your feelings on many problems that plague the homes of the so-called “normal working class”.

Within each episode, you will become acquainted with a family along the street and look at a part of their life. Some of the people you may have met before in other episodes, grasping a small amount of their lives, the episodes which feature them will encompass so much. In a short hour, you will learn so much about the family and the characters. You will take sides, argue with yourself about how you feel about their individual decisions, and find yourself greatly relieved at the end when things are able to work out. Although, admittedly, they may not always end the way you want. The overall timeline of the stories is told in two ways; either narration from one of the characters or overlapping scenes from the various episodes that will give you an idea without the characters having to spell it out. By creating the timeline in this manner, the show feels as if it knows the audience is intelligent enough to piece it together and follow how all of the story lines intermingle as they would on a real street.

The Street is a wonderful, hard-hitting, challenging drama series. The eighteen hours over the three seasons will be worth the time. You will find yourself reminiscing about the episodes long after you are finished watching them, compelling you to watch it again and again. It will become obvious why The Street won five awards, two for best actor (Jim Broadbent and Bob Hoskins) and three for best drama series, from the International Emmy Awards, BAFTA TV Awards, and the Royal Television Society Awards.

Amber Burnham has a BA in Early Childhood Education from Kendall College. She is also a regular panelist on Kichicast, the all-girl, Chicago-based podcast devoted to anime, manga, and Japanese culture. You can listen to Kichicast at kichigi.com.

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