The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo stars Greg Austin as Charlie, Fady Elsayed as Ram,
Sophie Hopkins as April, Vivian Oparah as Tanya, and Katherine Kelly as Mrs.
Quill. It was written by Patrick Ness
and directed by Ed Bazalgette with Patrick Ness, Steven Moffat, and Brian
Minchin as Executive Producer. It was
originally broadcast on 22 October 2016 on BBC Three.
Now that the first
episode of “Class” presents itself as an alright pilot, the second episode can
actually develop some of the characters of the story. The series seems like it is going to devote
at least one episode to each of the main cast which might help improve the
finale as the audience may learn to care about these characters. The second episode, The Coach with the Dragon Tatoo (stupid title by the way), focuses
on the character of Ram as he deals with his prosthetic leg, the death of his
girlfriend, the new world he has been thrown into, and his poor performance in
Coal Hill’s football league. The
episode’s plot is the stereotypical team coach up to nefarious activities, this
time through a convoluted series of events, the coach is controlling this alien
dragon whose mate has fused to his skin in the form of a tattoo. The coach being responsible is supposed to be
a twist which doesn’t work in the episode.
The mystery is figuring out what’s responsible for killing various Coal
Hill staff which would work better if the episode changed the title to
something more appropriate and kept the coach in the background. There could have been this great reveal with
the dragon tattoo, but Ness writes it so we know it’s the coach. Any tension is lost on the audience as we
know the big reveal will be that the coach is doing these awful things.
The character arc with
Ram is well done in the fact that it does not only deal with Ram, but it allows
Tanya to be fleshed out. The two
characters do have pretty good chemistry with each other and it has improved
since For Tonight We Might Die. Ram’s father also seems like he could be an
interesting character if it weren’t for the fact again he is there to fill up
another diversity quota. Take him out
and give his lines to Tanya and nothing really would be changed about the
story. The characters in general have
improved over the course of the first and second episode. While they are mostly still a bit bland, the
chemistry between the actors seems much more believable even with the rather
weak script that Patrick Ness provides to the cast. Again the death is nice even if the excessive
gore doesn’t need to be there. Miss
Quill doesn’t have as much to do as she gets her own little subplot with an
inspector which gets a few laughs here and there, but nothing more than that. The conclusion of the episode is what I have
a problem with. To defeat the dragon Ram
convinces the lover to kill the coach so our main characters are responsible
for mass murder. Does Ness do anything
with this? No, they don’t even address it in any sort of way. It’s an awful ending to the episode that
really lets any progress the episode made down.
The direction of this
episode is much better as while the tattoo is a rip off from the Boneless from Flatline which is all I could really
think about, Bazalgette did a great job of shooting it and the dragon. The effect is convincing even if it is mostly
computer generated. There really isn’t
much else to say so I’m putting in a tirade about the music. This was one of the problems with the first
episode as well, but the music isn’t very good.
The title sequence is cheap and much of the music is provided by pop
groups which really makes this series feel disconnected from Doctor Who which
has its own music. At least the
incidental music by Big Finish composer Blair Mowat is bearable if a little bit
too forgettable (or possibly just underutilized) but the pop music just feels generic.
To summarize, The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo isn’t a
good episode for the simple reason of having a really bad third act. The character development, while still very
shaky in general, is something that is at least doing something with the
talented group of actors the production team have pulled together for this
show. 40/100
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