Enough Rope & Sex in the City

This article first appeared in the Age on April 12, 2003

'Beautiful, talented, a major star - they're just three of the phrases I use to describe myself when having sex on the Internet.' So began Andrew Denton's first episode of Enough Rope (9.30pm, Mondays, Channel 2). Linking him, in my mind anyway, with his competition, Sex and the City (also 9.30pm, Mondays, Channel 9).

Denton's show is aptly named - on the weeks that Enough Rope doesn't work, he really will hang himself. But thank god there is someone around who is prepared to take that risk. In the first week things came together beautifully. Claudia Karvan, who he interviewed for 20 minutes, was intelligent, modest and gorgeous. Three ICU nurses did a good job of making us understand the highs and lows of their difficult work, and the Iraqi refugee who had lost her husband to Hussein's men then escaped to Australia was articulate and dignified in the face of the horrors that had befallen her. In the audience Show & Tell and I was mightily impressed with the Siamese fighting fish that turned red whenever it's owner waved the remote control near its tank. This was Denton at his best. He has an ability to draw people out and make them relax, to tease them while being respectful, and to switch between humour and a very real sensitivity to his subject.

Enough Rope is billed as a talk show for people who having something to say and the second week highlighted the obvious - that a show like that is only going to be as good as the guests it gets. Denton didn't really know how to cope with the monosyllabic Heath Ledger, and he resorted to bad Ned Kelly jokes to carry the interview along. It was not particularly good television. But then Denton got three truck drivers on, and one of them started talking about a major accident he had many years before. Lo and behold, the truckie is crying, the audience is and so am I. That's the wonderful thing about Denton - just when you think he's going to crash he saves the show in a display of dazzling derring do. Give the guy as much rope as he wants is my opinion.

Sex and the City also seems to have pulled itself out of an inevitable tail spin, and is taking the greatest of risks - cutting back on its character's sex life. This is the show's last series - perhaps this is why the writer's are letting their girl's grow up. The fact is that in real life people can get bored of trailing bars and looking for Mr Right and viewers can get sick of watching them. So, while the current series may not cause high-pitched screams of 'Oh My God', you will get women getting their teeth stuck into what it is that life has to offer them. That means a baby and slightly boring Mr Almost Right for Miranda, the painful truth of love for Samantha, celibacy for Carrie and cynicism for the normally optimistic Charlotte. Unlike the characters from Friends these gals are changing and I like them for it. This is a series that I think will be going out on high, which leaves me with only one dilemma. Will I tape Sex and the City and watch Enough Rope live, or vice versa?

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